That's not finished? Wow, there's already so much detail and character there, I can't imagine what it'd be like when its finished. Amazing job!

It looks finished to me. A few highlights and details to the hair, and I'd call it done. An artist usually does have difficulty realizing it's finished, and it's actually a common problem, and happens to us all. Great stuff!!

Great work! Very detailed.

To me the most important part of any painting are the eyes,get them right & the face comes alive,you've done an excellent job of bringing your subject to life,this face is filled with emotion & soul..I love the texturing,the detail on the lips is superb..knowing when to stop is always tough,in my opinion the hair needs a touch more detail as do the deep wrinkles on his forehead and under his right eye...really excellent work,one of the strongest images in your gallery..well done:)

Great ! Perfect expression ! Magnificent !

stunning work! so much character in his face!

I agree with TwistedMentat. The eyes are very important. Give them a little bit of a specular highlight to make them look more reflective. They will add a lot to the image. The top of the hair could use a little more work, but Im assuming you already intend on putting more detail into that area.

A fine piece of work.Deeply expressive and full of character.

Looks fantastic, just amazing :) I would add detail to his hair, it's a bit blurry to match the detail in his face. I might also decrease the sharpness of the wrinkles on his forehead, the ones on his right side, our left, and the end of the one on his cheek. But that's also artistic choice. Still looks amazing and I couldn't do half as good, at this point anyway :)

It's brilliant Sabra, really special(;

OMG Sabra! I had no idea you did 2d stuff...You have TRUE talent my dear! Very realistic portrait,,,I am stunned. Ryan- P.S. No crit from me, Only an artist on the same creative level as you would be qualified to critique this...5*

Hey sabra. This is a really great painting so far. I won't bang on about the hair or wrinkles as I think they have been addressed already. I have just searched the original reference image for this pic and I think the colours and tones you have chosen are spot on. I think you may want to have a look at the values of your image. The forehead and bridge of the nose where the light hits looks a little flat. Play about with the RGB values in your Curves. You may want to duplicate the layer a few times, add some gaussian blur and lower the opacity on this new layer, merge down and add some noise to give it a bit of photographic paper feel. But this is just in my opinion. Stunning work and great to see your 2D talent is right up there with your 3D work. Looking forward to seeing a lot more of this.

Thanks for all your input people, I'll definitely continue to work on this with your advise in mind. :) Minty: You're right about the highlights, I need to work on that which is also why I picked this image. The original image is indeed very dramatic, great piece of photography. Glad to hear the colors are good, I'm always having trouble with that. :) Ryan: Yeah, I actually did 2D far longer than I did 3D. :) I drove my mother crazy scribbling on the wallpaper all the time. Eventually she gave me my 'own' wall. In some remote corner of the house. :)

can't wait to see the finished image (maybe do one in B/W.... pop the contrast a bit?).... the details really make the image... lifelike without being overly lifelike... (does that make sense?)

Lol, yeah I know what you mean. :) The guy's been on crack for ten years, so he shouldn't look too lifelike. Just a little. :P

Hi Sabra, a great portrait! But since you asked for constructive critcism: I don't think, there should be less detail in the hair. That part is shurely tideous but it would add to the hyper-realism of the face and the clothes. The left parts of the wrinkles seem too hard, more like cracks and the parts of flesh between could bulge a little more. When I compare your picture to the poster, the nosebridge on the photograph is much sharper while the end of his nose looks mor bulbous. And the middle of his upper lip is more pointed. But shurely you have seen all that yourself... (Having said all that - I wouldn't dare to try such a hyper-realistic work! I haven't done a portrait for years) All in all, I think your sympathy for the character (or maybe for the artist?) shines through, since he looks a bit younger and much more sympathetic than the guy on the poster. But that's your way of looking at the motive, what sense would it make for an artist to reproduce a photograph point by point without giving something personal into it. (I hope, 1. this was nearly understandable English? and secondly - I didn't go onto you nerves with these tiny details)

well, i don't know the guy, but this image is so intense and expressive!