I like to experiment.
During the course of a recent portrait I took a picture as the project got underway, then another somewhere near the midway point, and finally the finished work. It was not well thought out and not a through job. But... looking back at them there are some interesting things going on. At the time I was too caught up in the painting and so missed an opportunity to "document". I think that the best solution for me might be to find a camera that periodically takes pictures - or gee, scrap the whole idea.
Regardless - I started this painting with a pencil sketch in order to establish the features quickly. More often, now I just put a background color overall, such as a medium grey (50% grey). Then I will use a faster drying color in order to draw in paint the basic features as well as rough in the shadow areas. As I said - usually - I pretty much violated my own operating habits in order to return back to pencil drawing followed by paint. Bad boy!
Somewhere at the mid-way point. Well, looking at this, you can see that - just about everything changed - maybe except the basic positioning.
And finally, the finished and framed portrait.
