Portraits and people are a very popular subject for Xara artists, and there are as many styles as there are artists. Here’s a selection that shows you what I mean, and if you browse thru our previous issues (in the drop down at the top right of this page) you’ll find a couple more months were we focused on ‘people’ art - not to mention the many great examples in our previous ‘cartoon’ features. Derek Cooper (Masque on TalkGraphics) This recent TalkGraphics post from Derek set me thinking that it was time we featured portraits in Inspirational Art.  For good measure I have included two other very different images, interesting and distinctly Derek, from his Featured Artist collections on The Xara Xone; Story Teller and the second unnamed image alongside his Xara Xone biography (is that a self portrait?!) Simone Pampado Simone is another terrific artist using Xara, well known to many of you from his images in the Examples folder in the Designs Gallery in Photo & Graphic Designer and Designer Pro. He’s nailed the art of realistic skin tones. You can see more of his work in the Xara Gallery and the Xara Xone (warning, his Xone collection includes nude images, if that is likely to offend you then please don’t follow this link!). Valery Kouleshov (RUSS-USSR on TalkGraphics) And on the subject of realism, here’s one from the master, Valery Kouleshov.  It’s worth following the original TalkGraphics thread here since Valery includes images of a a few interim steps in creating the hair and blouse. And you can see more art from Valery in the Xara Gallery. Newton Florentino We were glad to see a post of a new image from Newton on our Facebook page the other day after a few quiet years - it sent me back to take another look at his graphics.com gallery. Here’s one of the images that fits this month theme. Not ultra-realism, but a really striking image. More please!