Audrey in Mcqueen

 Step 1: Posed and positioned.

 Step 2: Establish room and subject. At this stage things to keep in mind are value, and suggestion of colors.

 Step 3: To achieve the face that people will recognize from a far, use blocks of color to carve out the general position of the eyes, nose and lips, don't put in the details yet. Once those elements work together nicely to present a blurry version of her face, and you can tell when standing a few steps back, go ahead and fill in the details.

Rachel in Mcqueen

 Rachel Weisz is one of the most beautiful actresses in my opinion, and this particular Mcqueen dress fits her quite well. The easiest part of this painting for me is creating the mood I had in my mind. In my head, the light on her is sharper and brighter, but that didn't work out well on the actual image. I wanted the background to contrast strongly with the garment she had on; one is run-down and dusty while the other is shiny and expensive.

 Step 1: Decide on a pose and composition. In this case, she is in the center turning slightly side ways from the "camera".

 Step 2: I began establishing the atmosphere for the enivronment, suggesting Rachel's position in the imaginery space.

 Step 3: filling up the volume and staying within the color palette I planned for this piece.

 Step 4: Preliminary designation of fabric details for the dress and the footwear.

 Step 5: staying in the darker side is like anticipating for the climax during intimacy. I make sure I have all the ground work established, along with fixing the value and saturation before moving on to adding in the lighter values. This way, I automatically build a strong focus later on without the need to worry about the painting becoming too muddy or boring.

 Step 6: As I add in paint strokes, Rachel's face started to morph out of character. It is always important to step back and look at the whole picture from a far. If you can make out who she is from far away, the minor details are secondary.