Bobby 2011.1

Continuing the unabashed editing of a now years-old portrait of my friend Bobby, whose hair is now shoulder-length, just to indicate how much time has passed since I took the reference photo (2009! Yikes!).
I started sketching in "pastel" in Painter and really took a few steps back to add in details that I was too timid to really map out. Even at the expense of warping what I thought were well-rendered features, I just needed to let go (as I had done earlier this year when I first started retooling this portrait) and let the instincts take over. I even started doing my signature color bursts, like the hot pink on his lips and the bright navy at his nape, just for kicks. They weren't necessarily in the photo, but I 'saw' them. The face will need refining later, but for now, the underpainting is coming along. I even popped up the levels in Photoshop, because I was too timid with the colors. It's actually fun again.