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First things first -

This painting has many really strong points.

The coloration and shading are marvelous.

It is going to be a really striking portrait!

You've done a great job of lining up the features in relationship to each other

You really only have 2 main problems - both of which I do often, and so have learned to watch out for them.

First and foremost is that you have 'straightened' his features. You can see from the photo that his head is actually on a slant - so his eyes, nose, and mouth will be parallel, but not horizontal. Our tendency is to straighten eyes out so that they are level. Sometimes I put my canvas on the easel at an angle, so that they eyes will be level when I paint them, and unlevel when I take it off the easel.

The problem with straightening out his eyes is that it warps his whole face. Fortunately, in this case, it is easy to fix by raising up the 'cheek' on the left side of the painting and lowering the 'brow' on the right side. That will put his eyes at a more correct angle.

These are adjustments I have to make to many of my paintings, sometimes when I think I'm done . .. so don't feel bad about it.

Here you can see the eyes adjusted and the nose lengthened. If you apply all your shading and coloring, it will be really a nice portrait. You do a great job of capturing the highlights and coloration that bring him to life.

One note about the color of his tongue. Try using Alizarin Crimson and a little black and a lot of white to make the colors of his tongue. You might use a purple or blue for the shadows there too.

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