Development of Final Portrait on Calico

I chose to take photos of Gerald as I think his face and skin reflect the texture and story of an old person. As you can see in the photos he looks like someone who has "experienced the world". I predominately like the way he has stubble growing all over his lower face. 

I wanted to paint a portrait in the style of Colin Davidson in the same way I produced the series on painting as mentioned in the precious posting. However I wanted to make a statement and create a portrait in a larger scale. 

Primarily I draw out the outline of the face in the same way as the small painting, although I did find it a lot harder to visualise as you have to look from a distance to see the shape forming.

   

 I used a similar colour palette to the one I used before for the other smaller portraits. 

I started with the eye and I'm working my way around the face.

When it comes to the stubble and hair I painting a little under layer with a skin tone and then worked on top with a thin paint brush. I painting it hair strand by strand making the face look as life like and as three dimensional as possible.

I found the odd shape of the cheek particularly hard. I also had to revisit the highlights on near the nose to lighten them to show contrast within the face.

Now the face is finished. I left the forehead to the end as I need to blend the forehead and the hair together, in other words, I need to paint a base coat so I can then work the hair stands on top.

I'm happy with the way the face has turned out, especially the facial hair.