Portrait painting is probably my favourite type of painting. As with other type, I paint from a reference photograph and like the old Impressionists tend to focus on depicting the qualities and contrast of light in the face and features. I have worked using Instagram selfies as a reference in the past, which can be a nightmare to approach when dealing with facial distortion and flash blow out but can also be an interesting way of revealing clues to someone’s personality.  It almost gives the subject control over how they want to be seen by the world. When I paint from photographs, I never approach my subject from the perspective of achieving photo realism. Whilst I do place an importance on likeness, the main challenge for me is to capture the essence of a person’s character through their expression, the use of colour and interaction with space. I enjoy capturing subtlety of mood and emotion in portraits. Here are some examples of some of my portrait commission work: