While I respect any artist's right not to show teeth, I agree with Tom Edgerton that if it's central to the subject's character, just do it.
A lot of my subjects don't take themselves too seriously and the ones who are very animated sometimes look more natural smiling than not. So I do paint smiling portraits as well as unsmiling ones. Most people want some sort of pleasant expression.
Smiles shouldn't be considered a big no-no. I've done some research and find we're in pretty good company. You can go back to The Laughing Cavalier, but also in today's world I have pictures of smiling portraits by: Everett Raymond Kinstler, Dean Paules, Daniel Greene and Robert Schoeller. Not that they necessarily do a lot of them, but they do do them.
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Hybrid Mode
