Portrait of Lili

When I look at other people's work, I'm often most drawn to portraits and figurative paintings... secretly itching to try it myself but hesitating for good reason. Anyway, with Lili around as a willing and very photogenic model, I couldn't resist trying my first portrait. I had to re-do the face completely a couple of times. It's hard enough just to do a mouth, but to do a particular mouth, that's challenging to the extreme. I'm seriously feeling the need for some instruction, but will continue practicing and trying to work it out until I can get some lessons. I want to try another portrait next...