Experimenting with personal work

A couple of portraits that I've been experimenting with are shown at the very top of this post. These two images lead to the creation of my Gaddafi portrait 2 weeks ago and shown below in the previous post. I've been playing with how much detail and or how simple the illustration needs to be. How much is to much? How much is not enough? What resonates with the viewer best? I've also shown some previously commissioned portraits for The Los Angeles Times and PASTE magazine here, all collage and mixed media.