The Eyes Have It

From top to bottom, here are the three main stages in the development of a recent portrait.  This piece was commissioned by my parents, and my mother (an artist herself) expressly stated that she wanted a painting of her eyes (which always have such a lovely, dreamy look in them).  There is quite a difference between the second and third pictures; this is simply because in step two I found that I had focused too much on the mood of the eyes and not enough on the resemblance itself. . . with a little careful reworking, however, these eyes are quite unmistakably Mom's!