Painting portraits

It's been a while since I've painted something with my wacom. These last few months I've been doing a lot of different things, 3D art, graphic design, photography. So know it's time to do some painting again.
I painted both of these yesterday and I really enjoyed doing it. But I really needed a reference photo for this. I hope that one day, after practicing a lot more, I'll be able to make something like this without a reference :)

Here's a portrait from Thranduil from the Hobbit:

And a portrait of Daenerys Targaryan:

Canon 60D + Tamron 28-75mm

Last year I saved money and bought a Canon 60D body and a Tamron 28-75mm lens. With the nice pack of snow today I decided to shoot some photo's at the local petting zoo. I definitely noticed my new lens is lot sharper than my older 18-55mm lens. Here are some of the photo's: