Tori Amos

So I've been working on a oil painting of Tori Amos for the past few days and it has taught me a lot. It made me feel a lot better about using color and painting skin tones, and honestly I'm not as bad as I thought I would be. Once you get the hang of using the colors in the set of paints, figuring out which ones are weak and which are strong, mixing the colors becomes mindless. Now I did mess up on quite a few things while painting, like how leaving the eyes for last really screwed me over and the fact that I made the background similar colors to her hair was a little inconvenient (that one doesn't bother me too much though). I'm glad I made these mistakes though because I probably wouldn't have learned anything if I didn't. Note to self: don't avoid sections of a piece because you don't feel like doing it, work on everything evenly.
I have noticed that lately I haven't been taking every single portrait I do as seriously as I used to. I leave a lot more room for error and  honestly don't care if something doesn't come out exactly how the picture looks. I figure it's my art, not their photograph. I've actually been trying to stray from going so closely off a picture, but I do understand that a photo is where I need to start to learn anything. I think I'm also starting to learn what kind of art I enjoy doing. After doing the watercolor portrait of Louis Tomlinson, I've had the urge to take portraits and make them colorful instead of accurate. It's a lot more fun and relaxing for me having creative control over how I want the work to look. I enjoyed doing the one of Louis much more than the more conventional one of Tori Amos. I might try a colorful oil painting next, unless Luke has other plans for me.