Step 18

Today was for working all over the cheeks and nose. I'm getting the idea of doing oils. I am picking up bigger brushes and blocking in areas of colour rather than going with little brushes and picking at details.

Step 17

Today was for correcting a few details in the same eye and working on the mouth.

There is mostly just the head to do now with just some minor adjustments on the clothing and background later. I've decided rather than skip all over the face I'd start at the eye and begin getting it as close as possible and work out from it. So today I just worked on the eye. I'll start showing the face in the photos so you can follow the details. There will still be final adjustments after this layer is finished.

Step 15

I only had an hour to work on this today because I've started my xmas baking. So today I worked some more on the clothing and zipper. They are getting close to being finished. Back to the face again tomorrow.

Step 14

I was running late and didn't have a lot of time to paint this morning. That and the fact the face wasn't completely dry from last time, meant that today I concentrated on shading on the arms and vest. Very subtle changes but a lot of finicky work. Imagine blending like you do with eye shadow (those of you who use it).

Step 13

Today I worked on areas all over the face correcting colours. I also worked on the zipper. The changes aren't very obvious but it's one step at a time.

Step 12

It's been many months since I did any painting. Life just gets in the way. I have now decided that I need to schedule time daily to get back into the habit instead of just consigning it to the bottom of the daily "to do" list.

I'm back to working on this oil portrait of my brother-in-law and just in time. It has to be dried and varnished by December for a show it is going in.

I've started back by blocking in all over the face to cover the yellow empty spaces. I am trying to get the colours close in colour and value and will go back later to correct. The side of his face is not that light beige colour you see. I had a hard time getting an accurate photo. It is more the colour of his forehead.