Lucian Freud is a recently-deceased British painter with a lot of personal relationships intimately tied to his work. He is also one of Jenny Saville's inspirations; it's easy to see how his abstract patterns of color and distorted proportions contributed to her work.

Reflection (Self-portrait), 1985

Though I am not a big fan of the dry, mundane subject matter of Freud's paintings, there is an underlying psychology to his portraiture that I am drawn to much more than to Jenny's work. The expressions seem to be looking inward, contemplating rather than acknowledging the presence of the painter. And when their gaze does happen to meet the viewer's, they seem annoyed or exasperated by it, as if they resent being in the picture. I love how Freud banishes the seductive or reverent gaze that a lot of portraits tend to assume.

Figure with Bare Arms, 1961 

Besides his stylization of proportion and shape, which is always something cool to experiment with, I think I'd like to replicate the relateability of Freud's portraits, the way they seem to resent their documentation during a moment where they'd prefer to be alone and invisible.  Freud captured these mentally fatigued expressions by taking over a year each to finish some of his portraits, as he worked slowly over multiple sessions and painted his models from live observation. But I think a similar result could be achieved by simply aiming to create it. Posed, perfect portraits are all too common with selfies and advertisements, so I think the different direction might be an intriguing relief to a lot of people.

Interior in Paddington, 1951