Oil Painting of Newly Weds!

Hi all, I've been wanting to do a lively, expressive oil portrait for sometime, and when an old buddy said she was getting married, I could think of no better wedding present than a fun portrait of her and her lad, to match their own spirited personalities...

14 x 18 Inches
Oil on Canvas
(Based on a reference picture that was provided by the couple,
the pic was slightly skewed for a better composition and a sorta yin yang symmetry)

Instead of going for an overall highly finished look, gestural brush strokes and an unfinished background would hopefully strike an exciting contrast with the somewhat more realistic technique of the faces,..

This was quite a challenging piece for me as I haven't painted anything near this sort of style for a very long time... The grooms portrait was especially demanding with its extra lively facial expression and I soon learnt I better add more oil for darker skin tones or they dry too fast and the wet on wet look gets lost... 

An amazing learning experience as always...

Here's a little on the preliminary work I did for this piece..

Thanks for visiting!...