I agree. This is so lifelike and more three demintional.

Thank you guys for your input!!! I will certainly pay a little closer attention to his eyes. In real life he has the most beautiful eyes and I really want to capture that.

The more I work with oil pastels the more I absolutely love them. My mother's day present to myself is a big quality set of oil pastels. This was a set of 12 colors just to get the hang of using them again and I am pleased with their texture and workability. It is a quality set also so that has helped I am sure. I don't find them a challenge to work with at all and I think the end results are very nice. The one challenge I have found is that, because I only have 12 colors to work with, I am having to work a little bit harder to get the right color combinations (which is once again testing me and teaching me).

Chanda, your latest update was even better. This is like a good mini series, you have a crowd, including me, anticipating the grand finale. (No pressure whatsoever).

Well - lol..I am probably going to disappoint. I wanted to work more on it and get really in depth but it was suggested that I give this piece away as a mother's day gift to his grandma (who incidentally came up today) so I did what I could given the time I had (in between house cleaning and everything else) and so I personally think it fell short. HOWEVER - his grandma about cried with joy so to that end - I didn't fail.

I do plan on purchasing a big set of oil pastels and continuing on and hopefully get some more work done and improve my skills. Overall I learned a lot from this piece and considering it's the first one I have done in many, many years - I can only go up from here right?

Wow! You did it! A#1! You have inspired me to do better, that it is possible with intense effort. May I say that you proved DLeeG right in that he thought you could improve. You certainly did that! And there is much more to come, with that little thing called "intensity". The painting shines!

It really is beautiful, Chanda, even if you think it fell short. I can't wait to see your next one!