The portrait of these three siblings is now finished. Since the last blog entry I have been working more colours onto the two sister's faces, blending each layer, taking care not to lose the main features as the skin tones are merged. Teeth are the hardest to get right as they need shaping and colouring very precisely otherwise they can easily look crooked, rotten or bleached and I had to imagine what Luke's teeth might look like without his brace. When the picture gets to this stage I work on all three faces together to ensure they all belong with each other and don't look like individual portraits. I work my way through the spectrum of colours, picking a pastel pencil and marking each face where I see that colour before, choosing another pencil. Finally, the smallest adjustments are made to shapes, colours and tones of eyes, noses, mouths and hair strands, with purples and browns used to darken the shadows.
