Most of my portrait work lately has come in under an hour, not because I'm trying to "speed paint," a term I pretty much loathe, but because that's all the time I have for them. Demonstrating stuff at work is a perk, I think and because of that, I try not to abuse it. If someone comes along and wants to ask about what I'm doing, or how I'm doing it, I want to and should stop to talk to them. That's part of the gig. That being said, I've liked the other portraits just fine though in some cases I can see where some more work would have made them a good deal better.

Today, I took some time before work, no pressure and worked off a photo I took right after taking off the orc costume from a day's worth of wandering about at the faire. I like how them makeup smears and, if I'm being candid, I actually like the way I look with my eyes blacked out. So I pulled out my tablet monitor, fired up PS and used some of those brushes I buy and rarely use. I kept it in black and white, except for the background as I saw a parallel between me and the 'warboys' from the most recent Mad Max movie. There's a small amount of tracing in this one, just for placement. The pencil sketch was completed just from observation and the paint was all done without the photo layer at all. I'm pretty happy with it; I think it's stark and not too complimentary. Mostly just meant as a bit of fun and to keep working.