This is a "practice portrait," I think only my second one. The background looks a little messy because I was experimenting with adding color to gesso while painting over the previous picture. I didn't bother to fix it since I'm planning to paint over this picture, too. I'm posting it so I can look back on it and learn from it. It's a picture I got from a magazine ad, although to be honest, it doesn't really look like the person.

I'm planning to paint portraits of my children someday, starting with my daughter. When she saw this, I think it scared her a little bit.

The skin tones didn't really quite come out like I wanted. I think I used mainly burnt sienna mixed with white. Even though I wasn't planning to outline, I think it was greatly improved with the black outlining I did with a Sharpie.

This is an 8 x 10 in acrylic.