Have you ever struggled to make your human portraits resemble whom they're supposed to? Do your portraits go through numerous renditions on the way to being finished? Perhaps moreso than with any other subject, the human face poses difficulties for the artist because the slightest change in proportion, shadow, highlight, colouration or form causes the portrait to become less-recognisable as the individual under scrutiny. Upon first glance a portrait may seem to resemble the i

How do you create the appearance of human skin in portraits? Is it possible to use an opaque medium such as pastel to create the subtle hues and tones of skin? What colours do you use, and how do you select them? I must confess, this is only the second 'human portrait' I've ever attempted, and the first in pastel. My subject is my beautiful little niece Caitlin - her birthday is coming up, so I'm painting this portrait as a gift. The paper is ivory Mi-Teintes Tex A3, and the