Beginning Portraiture

I've always enjoyed drawing people's faces as long as I can remember. As a teenager, I would draw the portraits of the boys I had crushes on. I remember one portrait of Marlon Jackson (of the Jackson Five) who I absolutely crushed on, as well as one of the Osmond brothers, David Cassidy, and various boys in my classes. As my kids were growing I would draw them, usually fast sketches with little likeness, 'cause they moved around so much. Most recently, I painted my youngest son's portrait and have sketched my daughter's, but haven't started painting as yet.

Last night, we started our class, as usual, with gestures - which is a great warmup to drawing. We then moved on to do a number of conture drawings and after the break we began doing portraits. We had one of my favourite models, Paula. She is very lean and angular. Her face has a "Kennedy" look to it, but I don't think I was able to capture that with her lips. Her face has the look like Maria Schriver's or Caroline Kennedy's. A strong, angular upper lip and high cheekbones. Looking at it now, I realize the lips should be wider than I've drawn them. But, I still think it's a pretty good likeness of her, aside from that.