Painting the full figure portrait

I need to focus on the art of portraiture and full figure poses....the genre is not new to me but it might as well be - I have to raise my painting bar so high it will cause imminent nose bleed! 

A few years ago I did enter the 13th Annual International Portrait Contest......and afterwards even had my entries critiqued. However, my attention got diverted away from portraits...it wasn't on my critical path and I wasn't interested in commission work associated with it.

However, portraits and figure work are a very big part of the art world and something to be mastered if you want to play in the big sandbox of representational art.....just an observation, but most of the attention and awards seem to go to this genre of painting.

Reviewing my painting history (to my surprise), I do use a lot of figures in my paintings, so maybe its not a surprise portraits have my attention again....not commission portraiture but painting the human face and body as central elements to a painting.
 
I did attend a live model class at the end of 2012.....I guess as a prelude to re-entering the game....If you will, gathering pieces to a projects concept....not knowing what it was. Like many things, art has a natural flow and one thing leads to another and all of a sudden it becomes logical. That's where I am, at a logical point in my art career. I need to get good enough to win! Until recently never cared about prestigious awards, but now I do! 

My first project is to get (3) paintings completed by March 4th for the  Portrait Society of America's 15th Annual International Portrait Competition....LOL the goal is to become one of the 20 finalists! Now you know why those imminent nose bleeds are probable.....the competition is stellar and fierce! The only advantage in my corner is I know what I'm after, I know what I have to do to get there...simply paint brilliantly!......I know, I'm still cracking up! Obviously this is going to take more time than the 4 or 5 weeks I have right now.....but no time like the present:=) 

Later...I gotta paint!