Secret

This is the least disastrous attempt at "Secret".  I don't even know where to begin. Part of the challenge is that I am starting where the lips and ear meet and I'm working outward from there.  This element is the key for the whole painting.  Right in that space is the secret!  Normally, when I draw or paint a face, I start with the general shape of the skull and work from the eyes out.  I'm stretching long unused muscles of observation here... 
A small painting, only 6in x 6in (oils on artboard), I think the tight composition is successful~ not happy with the color, but I think the texturing works.  I think the man's mouth and hand are also successful, but I wanted the woman to be more ethereal, and I feel she is a little too much "murder victim"...
I actually couldn't decide if she should be a ghost or real, and that indecision is showing.  All my good paintings, I have found, are driven and furiously painted~ there is no ponderance, no debate.  By the time I get to the canvas, I seem to already know what needs to be done.  It's a convergence of ideas and application that sometimes hits and many times misses.
Obviously, this painting is not for sale.