Hmmmm I think it works in this case, but that's just me :) Nice oil painting work here!

hey anna - i like this one... :) yes... and the "aura" works for me too - it's a bit unusual i guess... but could happen if there'd be a kind of backlight... i like that it gives more contrast to the background (my personal feeling) - to have just the contrast between the skin tone and the background would give it a "darker" touch... and i like the impression of "strong light" here... so for me it's fine... :)

I think it's a wonderful work ;)

beautiful portrait, full of character. i like the white around him. :)

Always hard to judge with a representation of the work - but it seems fine to this eye. Well done on a sense of vol with the body as well - I might deepen the face shadows a bit for greater contrast, but that's just me - well done.

I like the halo/aura around him too, yet, I think it could be made more by filling in the blue around his right ear, where most of the shadow is, giving it more definition...just my thoughts, but this is great as he is painted :) Thank you so much for sharing :)

Judging from the direction of your brushstrokes I'd guess that this is because the coloured background was added after the main portrait (an afterthought?), I see you painted around him whereas normally the background would be painted first and foreground detail overpainted after. I don't think this detracts at all though, as it's given an "active" halo/aura to Mike your Muse that adds even more of a sense of life to this portrait of him. There's only one teeny bit that bugs me slightly and that's the bit of background under his left ear, there's a sudden hard edge in the otherwise blended tones and it's following the curvature of his lower ear across to the bit of cheek/chin that's in the light. Very minor thing! Very successful portrait anyway, one gets an inkling of his personality here and that's not always easy to capture. Great one again and I wish people would leave you more feedback - I'm late coming as I've been in Dublin for a long weekend's drinking spree lol ;-)

There's no reason the background needs to be painted first. In fact screw the "normal" way of painting. Paint what you want and how you want. Look again, unless you want your painting to look like a photo, (buy a camera if you do,) it has a style, it lives, there is movement, there is character. I say it's a great portrait as is. Great work on the eyes and the over all tone and light. If you've ever taken a really close look, at the so called masters works you'll notice they painted how and what they wanted. Alot of them Picasso, Dali, Vermeer, Michelangelo would occasionally paint over thier paintings or add different backgrounds afterwards. Paint how you want Anna and ignore the critics. I know you asked for advice but there's no need to. Who decides what "normal" is anyway?