Painting portraits is my greatest artistic joy and an inherited talent from my mother's father, C.D. McEntire, a Texas landscape artist. The president of Magnolia flew over such a barn roof and ordered all logos to be standardize to that painting on that roof. End of story. Notice the the realism and detail in the back and foregrounds, as well as the apparel. I feel they are important in a pleasing portrait.
Most portraits require six weeks of soul and brush to complete.
In the seventies I was a commercial photographer, with a lot of portrait and advertising experience. This is fortunate, as I work from original photographs of my subjects. Medium Oil on linen or color pencil on museum board. Let's fill it. You may have a bird you wish to include in a portrait, and they simply don't take up as much space on canvas as Rover or Good Kitty, so we'll need to talk.