My favorite model

I was excited when I checked out the lesson for yesterday, the 21st, and discovered that the reference photo was of my favorite model, Jenell Del Cid. I was not so excited by the time I had redrawn her not one but three times, going so far as to superimpose my drawing over the top of the reference photo to try to figure out where I was going wrong.

I'm quite pleased with the delicacy of the painting and some of the effects; I liked Lee Grest's soft approach and the way she worked from dark to light and then went back in to strengthen certain areas of the portrait. But what stymied me, weirdly, was the likeness. It was a challenging pose, looking up and over her shoulder as she is, and that's the only way I can account for not being able to get it to look that much like Jenell. The other portraits of her I have done have been face on, or nearly so, and came out very like her, in my opinion, but I'm not sure one of her friends or followers would see this and say "Oh, look, it's Jenell!" It's a portrait of a pretty woman, but the likeness isn't exact.

"Sy2123_Jenell", pencil and watercolor on Strathmore 140-lb. coldpress, 9x12 inches.

Here are some of the others I have painted of Jenell, just for comparison: