Red Shade

One more before I move onto paintings of a more airy nature.  Like so many other pictures I've painted, when I saw the original, I wondered when I was going to paint it.  Notice I said when, not if.   Since I've been struggling with portraits anyway, it was a perfect pairing.  

I knew I would have trouble in two areas.  First, of course the hair.  Secondly, the hand.  I painted several layers of skin (yes, I'm very happy that I got a good skin tone, and not just a yellowish, pinkish tone).  I left a little bit of a hard edge to some of them, but I don't think that matters very much.  The jacket came next.  I needed to have a color different than the skin and different from the hair.  Accomplished.  The hand needed a few details.   I have a friend who tells me, "Suggest, don't State." and so I dind't try to get the hand exactly perfect, rather just some lines and a little shading.  I actually think it works.  Lastly  the hair.  A lot of hair.   Normally my hair looks like a blob of color with some streaks in it.  This time I really tried to make it look super real.  I think I probably made about 20000 brushstrokes on her hair.  (OK that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by too much.)  I didn't want all the hair flowing in the same direction, and I didn't want it all the same color.  I tried to vary it with 3 to 4 different colors.  

Well, all in all I think I did a good job, maybe not stellar, but I bet, better than most.  Hope you enjoy.

Another Head Shot

Well, this one didn't quite turn out the  way I hoped.  I think the problem mostly is with the hair.  Yes, her skin color is a little off, but I don't think that affects this painting in the least.  I was trying a slightly different technique for hair, and..... well, lets just say I think I need a bit mor practice with it.

The main point of this exercise for this painting were eyes.  On the original, I thought the eyes turned out pretty good.  looking at the scan, maybe not quite so much.

Here is the original picture.  You can see that it is a pretty plain picture to start with.  I think I got her nose pretty good.   You all will have to decide for yourself.  Hope you enjoy.