This painting was originally framed from chest up to a bit above the left hand, but expanded into a complete figure painting. I was somewhat addicted to painting the fabric, because I find it really calming. The same goes with painting hair. The process is basically finding obscure shapes in the designed silohuette that fits with the full form yet yield some kind of character within that visual focus.
The gold silk was abit of a challenge. It took me a couple of tries to figure out the pattern in the way it reflects light and itself. You can check out the milestones below:
I've probably said this before... I strongly dislike documentary steps when I work. I like to run with it once I began and not stop untill I've reached a certain point when the project is well established. Stopping and taking snapshots really takes away the momentum and once I lose some focus, it is all downhill from there :-/. The milestone above was probably way past the early stages. I changed it from a close up to a wide shot, added in the extra hair clumps, and I've already rendered out the face.
Worked on the cloth and the shadows. Used soft light layers to adjust the lights and darks.
The hands were bothering me so I changed them. You can infer an artist's ability usually by looking at the way they treat faces and hands. Knowing that I had to push myself to not be lazy with these focus points which I usually was too lazy to tighten up or fix.
Almost there! I also altered the face in the previous step.
