a prayer for my people: next stages

next washes on "a prayer for my people"

i started work today on the far eye using a #6 round brush that pointed well and my usual flesh colors with yellow ochre for the yellow to darken it a little. i first put in the shadow/edge of the upper lid and quickly added the upper part of the iris with burnt sienna. to gray it a bit, i then put in some spots of cerulean blue in the upper areas wet-in-wet. after rinsing and shaking the brush i drew that down to the bottom of the iris and out into the lower lid. all the while i was trying to avoid painting over the white highlights.  while this was drying i painted the medial socket/lid with cerulean blue and worked that out with some of the flesh colors to include the rest of the eye socket, upper and lower.  the brow was put in wet-in-wet with a touch of burnt umber. by this time the iris had dried sufficiently to paint in the darker pupil with ultramarine blue, again, wet-in-wet to get just a bit of blur. to finish this step i put in the far cheek from eye to jowl with the triple flesh combination. you will notice that i spattered some clear water next to eyebrow and cheek next to the mouth just to loosen things up as i felt that i was getting a little too rigid.

moving on:"a prayer for my people"

this next mini-step focused on the temple area and beginning of her t-shirt which defines the lower edge of her chin/jaw. the former was accomplished using a #10 round and applying a swatch of cerulean blue just lateral to the eye and working both up, down, and into the hairline with the flesh hues. the latter was a combination of turquoise blue and cerulean blue mixed on the paper.

final steps today

in looking at the progress to date. i noticed that the lower portion of her face from nose on down was too prominent. true there was some foreshortening as her head is tilted back, but still...... so i scrubbed out the t-shirt and wash in the mid line above the lips and moved everything north about a 1/2". i didn't really draw this in before hand with a pencil but ad libed it with the brush and paint. i am much happier with this configuration. after fixing this anatomical snafu, i turned to the forehead. the far area was painted first using the #10 round and some of the flesh colors adding more cerulean to cool down the area as i moved into the center and hairline. i didn't want much of a separation here so i painted the hair in with cerulean blue and burnt sienna. as i moved to her *left* i added more blue to the hair wash and warmed up the forehead wash by adding more red/yellow to the mix. i scratched in the hair with a palette knife. that's about all the time i have today so i am off to do errands and pick up my spouse from work. more tomorrow.