Working on Terri Irwin's portrait!

When I work on a portrait, I try to have everything that can help me.  Be it a postcard, several pictures, a shirt, I figure the more reference the better.  I am finding more and more, having a camera allows me to see mistake after mistake, but it allows me to see them, so I can correct the work and make a better portrait.  

Here is a shirt I purchased when I was at the Australian Zoo.  It allowed me to have the exact color of the shirt!  (To match it exactly with pastels is yet another feat of judgment!)  

At the Australian Zoo, Khaki is not just a color, it's an attitude.  I want to keep that saying in my mind as I paint this dual portrait.  

Here I am set up, with references, a postcard and that same exact photo of Terri in a calendar I also purchased while at the Zoo.  She is a very fit woman, muscular and thin.  

Okay, now remember, this is just the preliminary lay down of colors.  I see mistake after mistake already  but I want to focus on what I do like already.  I do like her eyes.  And the coloring, which for some reason, didn't come out as dark as it really is.  Remember, a photograph will produce greater clarity than a pastel painting.  

Still with all that in mind, I see how awkward I made the shape of her face...and I will correct that.  It's hard with the little tiger she's holding because it's hiding her face a bit.  I also see how I need to improve her mouth...mouths are always a problem for me, but I will work on it until I get it perfect. 

I think I also have her too fat on the more visible side of her face, but I think that's more that I need to define the planes of the face more and I'll have it.  On the side showing less face, I need to make it larger, but again, it's because it's hard to tell where it ends, and I want to be careful to not take too much away from Steve's face as well.  

Overall, for that first coat, with no true blending (oh, for those who follow my blog, you know how I love to blend portraits, and some of you artists, I drive crazy doing that...haha, but that's my style.)  

Lots of work to go but for now, I'm calling it a night.