A playful approach to painting a portrait

On occasions it is just fun to cast caution to the wind and just go for it. Such a thing occurred when I came to paint "Robert". Born and raised in this country, his parents came from the West Indies. My normal palette of flesh tones went straight out the window. No more muted, insipid, Caucasian flesh tones. He seemed to be all purples and blues and greens depending on how the light struck him. No careful preparatory drawing. Straight in with bold colour. Very exciting. Below shows how the portrait evolved out of the apparent initial chaos.