Val is now finished, looking very glamorous surrounded by red feathers. I'm really pleased with the way she looks and I like her sparkly jewellery. So, following on from the last blog entry I focused my painting on the eyes and mouth again, switching to a rigger to apply fine details like eyelashes, eyebrow hairs, colours in the iris and gaps in the teeth. I also kept revisiting the skin tones, adding glazes of cadmium yellow and burnt sienna as well as introducing green into the shadows. I painted the dark areas of the necklace and earrings to define the stones. With the hardest part almost complete I moved on to paint her hair, adding in various shades of brown and red to reflect the feathers. Then I had fun painting the feathers, flicking some luscious reds and purples onto the canvas with a wide flat brush. I brightened her lipstick a bit and was fairly happy it was finished but decided that by creating a diagonal from corner to corner with the red, I would be able to put more shine in her hair. And finally, with more shine on her hair I scumbled more white around some of the diamonds to make them shine more too.
