Dad

My father Richard Cockwell, soft pastels on 30 X 40 orange pastelmat. This is based on a rather poor quality photo of an old photo (it's a good original, just a bit faded and behind glass). Interesting to work from a reference like this, up till now I've used high resolution reference shots, surprising how little you actually need from it when you're painting a subject you know well.

Reference photo:

Finished painting, quite pleased with this.

With the exception of my 'toddler' portrait I have not really done much more than headshots up till now, doesn't look like much but incorporating a hand in the portrait was quite a step for me, I was considering leaving it out but I felt it was essential to the image.