The Head of an old man

Besides John Sargent,  one of my favorite Artists is Rembrandt and "Head of an old man" was one of my favorite of his paintings.
He painted this portrait about 1629.  As you know, he painted many self-portraits but I really like this one enough to copy the
"Master".   I think its a good practice...of course, the shadows and colors are already there for you to copy....so do we really learn ??  I'm hoping we do...!   Although the original was painted in oils, I chose to paint it in pastel.

Deep in Thought

I took the reference picture for this pastel painting from morguefile.com that I found from visiting Linda Popple's wonderful blog. http://lindapopple.blogspot.com .  She was generous to post Morgue file which displays hundreds of free pictures that you can use.  I usually use my own photos but when I found this man's picture...Well, his face was SO full of emotion that I really needed to paint him.  The photo was in black and white so I painted it in sepia and added a little color.  I only wish I knew something about this man that I was able to  share with you.

Since I am the original dinosaur,  I don't know how to highlight so I hope you'll be able to find this site!!