The tight finish vs......

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Dear all,
this is a painting by one of my tutors in school, I bought it to keep it in my studio and give it a look when I need a little reminder of what Marvin just wrote.
Ilaria

[Michele Rushworth]

There are many things for an artist to like about Ilaria's example painting (the feeling of volume, the color, the masses of form, etc).

However, to get back to what Julie asked at the start of this thread, I don't believe that a painting as loosely handled as this one would fly as a commissioned portrait, except with a small number of the most artistically sophisticated of clients.

Yes, we should paint in the style in which we love to paint, but as portrait artists we are also all "commercial artists" and there is still a client to please. Even the more impressionistically painted commissioned works I've seen have fairly tightly rendered faces.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

I do agree with you, in fact this is more of a "painting" then a portrait.
I believe with adults portrait you can be a little more free, but parents want a very precise rendering of the features.
Our perception has been so modified by omnipresent photographic images that it is very hard to convince people that a little less sharpness is also ok!