Love Lost.

Finishing touches to Shawn's portrait now pretty much completed.

Always nice to complete a portrait of someone who's not actually family! Something I enjoy doing, just not sure there's any commercial market for it nowadays....it's all about the artist's self gratification. Plus....doing these digitally nowadays is so much cleaner than it used to be!...although surprisingly, you still use many of the same skill sets, even down to the different brushes you need and the pressure of application and strokes.

I remember as a fresh faced 16 year old showing my portfolio at Taunton Art College that the 'professor' (as he claimed to be) told me I was "too influenced" by the Masters. Put a massive dent in my confidence at the time I recall. Caravaggio's 'The Crowning with Thorns" had a profound effect on my work leading up to A levels.

Later I found myself questioning if that was a bad thing? I always preferred to paint what I saw. My abstract art and conceptual imagery nearly always confused me, so how others could expect to understand was something I could never come to terms with. Graphic Design was the result for me, but Fine Art was always my first Love.

They do say "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

Best loved Large.