I've been wanting to experiment with portraits for awhile. An idea that came to mind was to keep the background and even figure as abstract as possible while doing a much more detailed version of the face. So I prepared by doing a gridded version of the face and then free handing the rest. It was actually pretty fun and while I don't think the exact likeness is there, it captures the young man I photographed on the subway pretty well. And this is how we look at things, isn't it? With the important things in sharper detail, the rest a sort of blur of colored shapes. Next one I do, I'll try and keep the background even looser. Still, I'm pretty pleased. Here's a video of me painting it: