Portrait Painting step four - George

Had not touched the painting in awhile, so everything was dry. After mixing up a new batch of black, I took some on the side and thinned it with mineral spirits. This was brushed over all the dark areas and more depth happened as a happy accident. Mars Black was then used for the darkest areas to create more definition. For fur "highlights" mixed white, black mixture, and burnt umber.
Ultimately, just a lot of tiny brush strokes and readjustment of shapes.

 

 Now today, everything else gets finished!

It's all about LOVE

I like this song a lot and one of very very few that I can actually remember most of the lyrics to (besides baby got back).

Portrait Painting step three - George

Now this is a "rough" step where I'm attempting to block in the correct values and mainly trying to get the forms accurate. As you can see it can be a tedious process of layering and reworking.

Going over the (pointless) acrylic underpainting with oil, painting the darkest values first.

Thinning the paint causing it to be slightly translucent and going over the highlighted dark areas. I do not want to hide my previously established shapes, conversely I want to keep building upon each layer.

Much give-take is involved.

Brushes gradually get smaller as I keep working down to smaller and finer blocks. And this is the final step in the rough stage.

Now it goes to fourth step, which is the finishing details on the portrait; the fifth step is completing the background. All of this equals a finished portrait!