Father Jan Schmidt
 

Well hopefully this one is soup, thus the question.

This is Father Jan Schmidt, who is the pastor of one of our larger Catholic parishes. They just completed building a new church.

This is an oil on linen, 24" x 18".

Comments and suggestions are still welcome, I have not released it yet.

Here is a close-up of his face.

Here is the close-up of his hands.

As always I apologize for the images not looking their greatest.

Wow, Beth. You just raised the bar again. When did you learn to paint hands like that? You had been struggling with them before.

His facial features look a little exaggerated, but not having seen a photo, I'll assume they're correct.

Very nice work!

I'd have to say "wow" too, especially of that hand and fabric closeup. You have really rocketed forward in your work this year, Beth!

I do see some problems with the face, however. Can you post the reference? (Since this is the unveilings section and not critiques, I don't know if you want suggestions or not, though.)

Great job Beth! I too appreciate the hands.

Beth,

Small tweaks aside, this is a very fine portrait. The composition, color harmony and execution are top notch in my opinion.

Congratulations.

I bet you guys hate it when I get around to shooting things.

I had Chris move this here (thank you) so you could rip away... this one really needs to be close to perfection.

Just posting it I could see a number of problems myself (plus with the help Marvin has given me because I am so high maintenance)in his head area. I will work on some changes today and post them plus the reference and we can take it from there.

Note
 

Beth, it is clear that you are doing the one most important thing artists should do...you paint a great deal. You have posted many new works of late. This is the key to fast growth.

It is the key that requires labor and time. This is not the answer many painters want to hear.

Good for you! Tim

Beth
 

I'm going to leave the critiquing to the real pros, but I will give you my first impression.

I think it is a wonderful portrait, but my eyes were more drawn to his hands than his face. (Excellent job on the hands!)