Genicheerios

Picture that I'm working off...


Another self-portrait... blah. (Nobody else will sit for me....!!! XP)




First, I start with a basic drawing, just in some sort of graphite so that I can see a basic outline.  It's quite often subject to change... 

Then, I start laying down a light wash (I didn't do the background on here... because I had no idea what colour to make it. :P), this time using brown mixed with black for the hair and a yellow-ish flesh for the skin.  After the wash, I begin to get down basic shapes and textures with my brush, as well as some of the darkest or most colour-saturated areas so that I would have a basic idea of where I'm going. ;3



Next, I changed out my brush for a slightly larger, flat one (...... Unfortunately, I can't tell you the size because it's rubbed off.... >____<;;;) And oicked out more colours.  I wanted a lot of yellow in it, so there's the yellowish flesh tone, banana yellow, red, dark brown (for hair *and* shading), parchment, white, and some black.   At this point, I was working my way down, starting at the top of the face, but ignoring the hair.



Soon enough, the skin gets mostly finished.  The black I used, though, has the odd property of turning green whenever I mix any sort of colour with it, so I began to play with the idea of using gold and grass green as the background tones.

The lips are all smudged out here because they're giving me problems. :P  At this point, there are still some technical errors overall, but the idea is mostly down (.. except for that stupid necklace....  Argh.  I'm still figuring that one out...)



Okay, so this is a really, really crappy picture. >____<;;; Oi...  But, actually, I chose this one because it has a flash and makes the colours look a little different...~  Here, I was working on some of the small things, like the lips (which, unfortunately, weren't dry when I took this, so they look really freakish. T.T), which I put some dark brown outlines around to make them stand out.  I widened the shoulders, as well, and added more green to the background.



And... final stop, where I am right now!  The lips actually look fine in real life, but are really bugging me out in this picture. O___o;;; 

For me, this painting isn't very thick.  There aren't a lot of layers to it because I actually blended a little for once.. Whoo.  The cross is *still* completely unfinished, and I am now thinking of changing the background to... maroon.

Thoughts?  Feelings?  Hugs?  All very appreciated. ♥