Apollo. 14x11, oil on linen panel. 2015
This portrait sketch of Apollo was a tough one to paint: I had to use customer supplied photos (non digital), the lighting was harsh and it was hard to pick out the true color. I painted this twice, once with a regular approach, trying to duplicate the original photo (which I didn't really care for in the end) and this second painting where I tried to compensate by darkening everything to focus on just the lit area.
This is actually a simple painting to do when reduced to a pure monochrome (I also tried that), but the additional of color and temperature contrasts brings the whole thing to life.