This portrait is taken from a photograph of a good friend.  When I saw the photo I was struck by the fact that, while a perfectly clear and accurate record of my friend’s features, it did not show the intelligence, warmth and wit which are integral to her beauty.  My challenge as an artist is to rectify this.

I start work on the background as I am anxious to be able to remove the masking fluid as quickly as possible before it damages the paper.  Using a #10 round brush I wet the whole area and then apply a loose wash of Hookers Green.  I drop in patches of Lamp Black.  I very rarely use black but the moody intensity I want to create in the background calls for it.  While the paint is still wet I scatter over crystals of rock salt; this creates wonderful random organic shapes.  When the paint is still very slightly damp I brush off the salt, deliberately smearing the paint while doing so.  (A crisper effect can be obtained by letting the salt and paint dry completely for several hours).  I then use random mixes of the Hookers Green and Lamp Black to paint over vague leaf shapes, both positive and negative.  I could easily get carried away with this but stop here and might add some more at a later stage when I can see the balance of the painting more clearly.  Note that I drag some of the background colour over the shoulders.  This will help avoid the figure looking like a stuck on cut-out.

The face is now very nearly complete.  The lips are painted with Cadmium Red and Alizarin Crimson with touches of Cobalt Blue.  Note the way the colour overlaps with the skin tones, especially around the corners of the mouth.  It is still clear that Susie is wearing beautifully applied lipstick, but painting on defined edges would look unnatural and unrealistic.

A pale suggestion of Lemon Yellow and Cadmium Yellow Pale is washed over the hair, with small amounts of Raw Sienna dropped in to begin to suggest shadows.  A tiny amount of Hookers Green is incorporated to tie the figure in with the background.  This is now left to dry throroughly before any more detail is added to the hair.

I return to the eyes where the highlights are not quite right.  I scrape away a tiny amount of paper with a sharp craft knife and adjust the pupils with some more Burnt Umber and Cobalt Blue.

The hair is completed using Raw Sienna and the same colours that have already been used in the flesh: Burnt Sienna, Cerulean Blue, Alizarin Crimson and Winsor Violet.  This keeps continuity and avoids the hair looking like a wig or pasted on.  Winsor Violet is used to paint the shadows cast on the skin by Susie’s fringe.  More vague leaf shapes are added to the background and these are allowed to drift over the shoulders to pull the different parts of the painting together.  A little pure black is dropped into the lower right area to balance the upper left background.  Using the sharp knife I scratch a few fine lines to soften the ends of the hair.  Finished!