Family Portraits Are A Bane...

At the dawn of 2012 I painted these two portraits of my nieces. It was an Xmas request from their mom. Painted 'em in tempera on board. They're big--36"x48" (which brings along its own difficulties). But the main problem is, whenever I do something at the request of a family member, the requesting party never winds up satisfied with my efforts.

I do like the gummy build-up of paint in the flesh (see detail of nose on brunette). My attempt at Lucien Freud. Fun to do in tempera...until you overdo it, and the whole passage dislodges from the board and goes sliding to the floor.

(The top painting I did freehand from a shaky iPhone photo...that took too long, so I comped together two photos for the second painting and had Kinko's print me a 36"x48" b&w print to use as a guide. But I think the result is a little too stiff... I guess I'm not very satisfied with 'em, either!)