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THE LADY IN THE BLUE SCARF

I said that I would put up a blog showing my painting process from star to finish.  This is how the Lady in the Blue Scarf came about: 

I start out by doing a pretty detailed drawing on the canvas.  Then I paint the drawing using only black, white and shades of grey.

The scarf took a great deal of detail work.

This may seem like a lot of work for under-painting, but it is very beneficial in establishing the values of a painting.  Once the black and white painting is done, there is not much question on where the shadows and highlights should be.  Even thought all of this eventually gets painted over, it is very important to the final work.  I’ve tried skipping this step and I believe that although it adds time to the process, it also adds depth to the final work. 

Then I start to add color and shading.  I don't pay a lot of attention to getting the colors just right at this stage of the game.  I never feel good about a painting until I have most of the canvas covered with paint.  Once it is covered with paint, I can start adjusting.

I take a lot of photos of my painting while I’m in the process.  Sometimes I can see changes that need to be made more easily by looking at a photograph of the work.  It’s like standing back at a distance, I can see shadows more easily from the photographs.

Most of the detail work is done, I've inserted some background color.

I wanted the background around her face to show some contrast.  This was my first attempt.  The lavender color was too intense.

I must have painted the background around her face a half dozen times before I came up with this.  This is pretty much the final product.  It may get some more tweaking along the way, if I see things that need changing.  I've not put the final glaze on it at this point.