Happy birthday Kinga

I wanted to do something nice for Kinga's birthday, because when I last saw her she was stressing out about all manner of things. I'm not the best portrait artist in the world, so what better gift to give than a portrait? :P

For Kinga Bee :)

(graphite on paper, A4)

My first attempt at drawing her was in charcoal and looked like a different person. This one looks more like her so I settled for this one. She said I made her look prettier than in real life... uhm, no that's not possible ;)

I didn't need her permission to post this but I did get her approval. Besides, I'd prefer that she was happy with it and plant a big kiss on my lips than be angry and slap me.

And just so there's no sense of embarrassment, here's a self-portrait that I did in college when I was around 16-17, in acrylic, when I was just starting out in acrylics and even worse at portraits.

Why do I look angry? I dunno, maybe because this was frustrating to paint, especially with cheap student-grade acrylics that were like painting with water. Or it's most likely the angle of the paper distorting my face. The best thing about this self-portrait is the jacket, heh.

Visit Kinga's art blog here.