@esthermaxwellfineart Hey, Esther! I agree with our fellows below, great work on this portrait! The likeness looks indeed pretty good in both paintings, especially considering all you had was a poor-quality photo to work from. The slight underdevelopment of the ear structure doesn’t bother me, I feel as if it’s part of a compositional choice. I love the brushwork and color design overall. To my personal taste, I prefer the values of the first painting. I feel like the global contrast in the second one is not as strong (or at least it seems so, based on this image you posted; If you painted it traditionally and took a photo, maybe it looks fine in the original and it could be just a matter of compensating the levels digitally after photographing). Also, as much as I love the brush textures in the second painting, I really like the simplicity and the cleaner look on the first one - so, yeah, I guess if I had to pick one, I’d personally go with the first. In terms of suggestions for what to adjust, I have a sense that, in both paintings, his left eye (the one to the right of the images) is slightly off compared to what the structure of the head should allow: in the first painting, to me it looks a bit too much downward, and in the second one, a bit too much inward. My thought is that the first one is less of an issue because the expression of his brow could be lowering the lid thus causing the impression of pushing the eye downward. Anyway, plumb lines, cross-contours or a method such as Reilly could definitely help checking this kind of thing in early construction stages. About working with low-quality reference for this kind of art (portraiture, which requires likeness and attention to detail), honestly what I’d say is “avoid” 😅 Of course, ideally, it’s always better to work with higher resolution reference, but I know we don’t always get a choice… Perhaps one idea, in this case, would be to ask your client to provide more photos of the subject you’ll be painting - even if the other photos are in different angles or lighting situations, using them as a side tool can help you get a more solid “big picture” of the particular features of that person you’ll paint. Actually, I think using more than one reference can be helpful even if the main photo has better resolution. Sometimes, the likeness of a person goes beyond what one single photo can show, so, as odd as it sounds, having additional references to change things and design your painting as you feel works best can be the way to go for portraying someone (instead of sticking to one image of them and trying to paint it as closely as possible). Hope this helps! Keep up the good work. Cheers!

Pretty good,I can see you improve from your last painting,your awareness of warm and cool is better. The second painting is better so I assume you paint it at the latter?(I particulary like the use of more soft edge,also like the visible thin brushtroke on the man shirt which create a nice interest,unlike the first which only is very plain)Though I will say even though the 2nd one I feel is better, the first one I has a more dynamic feel to the beard(as in the brushstroke felt more effortless on that part) also the face has a more reddish tone which I enjoy (but thats more subjective) If I have to give critism I would advise you study more of the structure of the ear(as though it is not bad,I feel you can do a lot better.)I advise copying the drawing of John Vanderpoel,as he was great with designing the human feature.I would also advise making the area of the hair touching the face more softer as this would give less attention to it and more on the eye.Alongside this I would also parrot what John Carter said and make the value of the background closer to the black shirt. (Example of painting with softer hair and clothes with closer value to the background ,both by Solomon J solomon) Well I'm sorry if that was too long,hopefully it was atleast useful

Wow, really nice likeness! The value of the shirt pulls my attention maybe a bit too much. Although your tones are very faithful to the reference it’s up to us as artists and designers to change things as we see fit. You may want to rethink your value plan for this portrait to guide the viewer’s eye? Maybe not. It’s your decision to make :-) But altogether this (the 2nd one) is a very nicely done portrait. Would love to see more.