You’re quite right of course Mary – I should do more of them if I want to improve at them! I suppose I’ll try to fit some in around everything else! I think in the grand scheme of things, it’s the landscapes, cityscapes and interiors that excite me most, so only natural that I’ll focus more of my time on these. Theoretically, with enough practice, no subject matter should be out of reach! (But I’ve got a long way to go before I reach that level!)

On the contrary. I think you need to do more portraits. Because if you don’t practice you won’t get better. You don’t have to share them. You can practice on the family (even the dog) and keep them private until you’ve developed some skill. And like your landscapes, city scapes and interiors, you attend some workshops and you practice some more until you can develop your own style of portraits as well. If that Alvaro is from a photo, you can then come back to it again and again, improving each time. There are parts of it I like. I think you did well with his hand.

So jealous of your Zbukvic workshop Mary – I’m sure you’re in for a real treat there. I’d dread to think what his critique of my Brunswick Sq blob would be! I agree with your comments and did consider them on the day, but just failed to make any sense of it! Wanted the houses to be in background and not be the focal point (I’m never sure on the most distant element being the focal point). My intention was for the crop of trees and bushes to be the focal point in the middle distance of this view. In my attempt to capture them loosely however, I just made a complete hash of it! Glad you recognised Alvaro from my effort. I won’t be doing many portraits, that’s for sure! :-)

Thanks so much for the kind words about the portrait effort, and for the very astute critique of my Brunswick Square effort too! Oh what a terrible day that was! Hats off to you for ability (skill, dedication, perseverance etc) with portraiture – I find it a most unforgiving pursuit, but maybe I’m just not trying hard enough!

I am too literal and because of it I have extreme difficulty in editing.

There’s just too many plants there.

So you make the buildings the focus and edit down the plants. Or you make the plants more of the focus and fade out those buildings in the background to make them minor background.

Or something.

The perspective of the buildings is a little off too.

I certainly recognize Castagnet from your portrait.

My attempts have been pretty dismal. Except for the dogs and my brother’s cat.

Did I tell you I’m signed up for a three day workshop with Zbucvik in September?