These are some of the portraits I’ve done recently. Palette wise I have pretty much opened myself to everything now:

Here’s an old Zorn palette one:

A few notes:

• The first three paintings are supposed to be gesture studies. I obviously overworked.
• On the other hand, spending more time designing the background makes the process more interesting and the painting more finished. I like that.
• Managing an open palette did distract me from better value control and cost more subtlety in skin tone.
• I am thinking a two-step approach to improve: first spending more time preparing the palette – premixing most of the colors like I did with the Zorn palette; and then use a timer to push for a more gestural result. Two hours? Three? 🙂