I have been a tad slack with posting my updates for these. I have been posting a Flemish Technique WIP on the forum and figured that most of my blog readers will be less interested in the minutiae of period painting.

These two photos show some of the more obvious developments. There are other photos that show minor changes but I will cut this long story short.

Here is where I started color blocking the Baroness. You might remember from my last post on this that I was going to alternate figures? well, that didn’t really happen.. I got a bit carried away and started adding some more detail to the Baron’s face. The difference in skintones between the two meant I needed to blend separate sets but it all worked out well. and my new medium blend has meant drying time has cut down enormously.

I started getting into the fun stuff here, details details! I worked on hair and the instruments, the shirt, edging, and if you look closely you will see my first foray into translucent fabrics! what fun! (not).

This painting is much easier than the other one for some very simple reasons. I am more inspired by this subject. the photo I am using is unified with strong tones and a lot of expression. The royal portrait was less strong because it involved amalgamating photographs, altering light and tone and adding expression. this makes a lot of quite boring work!

I also laid the ground work properly. Yes, I posted a lot of pictures that didn’t seem to go anywhere, but painting the underlying layers properly is what has allowed me to proceed in depth and character to make a more satisfying painting.

I am almost done now. Ahead of schedule which is nice, I am possibly going to glaze the faces a couple of times to add some smoothness, translucence and depth to the skin, like I did with Bre. But other than that it is finished! its nice to let it dry a bit and to allow me to rest as well.