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: