I had the good fortune to have my nephew Jon sit for me the other day on a shady porch in Boise last weekend. I wasn’t satisfied with it, so I had him stand in the sun and snapped a quick photo so I could paint him again. Now, I’m happy. Next!

After doing several paintings of strangers, I decided it was time to paint someone I knew. It is always a shock to discover how much more difficult it is to render a face so that it looks like who it is supposed to look like. It was a good day’s work, I hope she likes…

Continuing my survey of faces around this world, I chose the face of a little boy, one of a Chinese minority, showing fear. Children are the hardest faces for me to paint, this was my third try and I am finally pleased with it.

This is Pili-pili, a big game hunter from the Mbuti tribe who became concerned about wildlife and has been a conservation officer and teacher for many years. I really enjoyed painting his face, this time with a “loose” style.

I wanted to paint a pretty young girl, and so I searched the internet for faces. What I found for the most part, were girls or young women attempting to be sexy. I didn’t want to paint that. I wanted to show beauty, not provocation. I finally changed my search to “untouchable” and that’s where…