New Way of Approaching Portraiture

I'm finally starting to realize that in order to make a portrait really be about someone, sometimes you have to stop focusing on what that person looks like. I feel like this is a huge step for me. I have been so focused on trying to make my paintings look like who they are of, but once I'm finished they really do not say anything about that person other than what they look like. I think my work will start to look very different now. Just a few of the artists I am now looking at are Susan Lichtman, Fairfield, Bonnard and Hopper.