Painted face showing a bit of sporty characteristic (8)
I believe the answer is:
portrait
'painted face showing a bit' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'sporty characteristic' is the wordplay.
'sporty' becomes 'por' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'characteristic' becomes 'trait' (I've seen this before).
'por'+'trait'='PORTRAIT'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for portrait that I've seen before include "Painting of a real person" , "Artistic representation (of a person)" , "Depiction of person" , "One picture" , "Person's picture" .)