Model Study in Oils, Stage Two

At this stage, I'm still using turpentine to thin my paint, working through the traditional fat-over-lean (oil-over-turpentine) approach. I'll paint with a stand oil-and-turp mixture once the basic problems of the picture have been solved, allowing the final top layers to consist of nice, glossy, smooth glazes. I'm paying more attention to the model's facial features in this stage, and I'm also establishing the light source. Another thing I'm establishing here is what effect the light is having on the model's face, shoulders and chest. As a result, there are more very light yellows and pure whites where the light is hitting her the hardest. As her features recede from the light, I'm using gentle venetian red and then burnt umber as we get to the back of her neck. The background is black velvet and the model's hair is almost black as well, so I decided to mix two different kinds of black to help "pull" her hair out of the background. All of my blacks are created using burnt umber and ultramarine blue. The background is a cooler black, so the mixture contains more ultramarine blue. The model's hair is closer to a very dark brown, so I mixed the black to contain more burnt umber, creating a slightly warmer version of black.