Subtle landscape of the face

If anyone had asked me a year ago, was I interested in making portraits, I would have said definitely not. Yet it's hard for me to resist focusing on a model's face. The general plan is, with few exceptions, always the same. What's engrossing: the subtle shades of difference in bone, skin, light, and expression, the deviations from symmetry dictated by the pose and the person's own face. Not to mention the luxurious responsibility of gazing intently at one person for hours on end. I drew Tsering four times (here are the 2 profiles) before I started to paint the oil (center).