his is my first Keanu Reeves portrait. I particularly loved the source photo because of the amber lighting. However, painting it proved to be an ordeal. My habit was to use a wide variety of colors, trying to match the originals as closely as possible. When I tried doing that here, it was an utter failure. For the only time, I started a project, put in nearly all the work, and decided the piece was awful and could not be saved. Too many colors had been used, making the painting a jumbled mess. I thought seriously about abandoning the project altogether. Instead, after a week of thinking about it, I ditched the original and started over from scratch. For the second try, the pallet was limited to only three colors and a black charcoal pencil. The painting shown here is the final result. Unfortunately, despite the beauty of the colors and setting, few people recognized the subject. Some thought it was a Native American. Others even thought it was Daniel Day Lewis. This discouraging outcome lead me to do another Keanu with a clearer likeness. Now that Keanu has become a bigger star, few people fail to recognize both portraits. I'm glad I started over, since this painting is one of my most popular.