As one of Marvin's " repeat offenders" as he likes to call students who take his workshops repeatedly, I have to add the following observation.
Having attended many a workshop by other artists as well, I have noticed that painting a successful portrait requires skills beyond that of being able to work from life or copy well. These are but steps towards learning to paint, but do not make you a master painter.
The artist has to learn what distinguishes stellar portraits from the mediocre ones through educating himself by studying the works of Master's. You can be in a city of beautiful sights, but if you do not have the proper map to guide you, it will take forever to successfully reach your goal. With you map of knowledge and your reference then you get to tackle the next objective, which is as Micheal pointed out :
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The quality and consistency of that visual information is what is important. Where it came from is really a matter of personal preference.
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Those
serious about portraiture
explore every avenue that is given to them and to assume that they belong to camp A or camp B because of the way their portfolio develops is a misplaced assumption.
Every one knows that painting requires the juggling of an insane amount of information and brings with it new challenges, challenges which can not be worked through even if there is a studio set up. You simply have to paint and paint and learn from each mistake. To remain focused and alert to every little nuance that can make or break a painting is a constant struggle. Not every painting will be a knockout, regardless how hard the artist tries, because there are too many variables that come into play.
What seems to be lost in all these discussions is the effort put forth by the individuals who try to master and excel in all these tasks.
It takes a lot of time regardless how you work, to overcome your shortcomings. If we want to see improvement in the overall quality of paintings produced, than as forum members we need to allow our fellow peers to grow in their skills rather than offer deafening silence of our disapproval or shoot them down with attacks.