Miniature #15 (process)

This "study" is based on a lovely painting by Jules Elie Delaunay "Portrait of Madame Georges Bizet (1849-1926)" (here's a link). My study was of the head only. Here are a series of images showing my progression to the finished image, and an attempt to make the face look feminine. The original feels so modern in style, though the clothing is definitely vintage. The canvas was toned with cerulean blue (a compliment to the basic skin tone). The skin tone is misleading in these photos, and most closely resembles the pinker tones from in the 3rd image. Hope this progression of steps is enlightening to some. I always enjoy seeing the artist's process so hope others do as well.

Step 1: After the canvas was toned in blue, shapes were blocked in.
Skin tone and background color identified.

Step 2: The nose and lips were defined and shadows are forming.
The chin is looking very masculine -- I'll get right on fixing that.

Step 3: Dark values were filled in and the hair (blue is still leftover
from the toned canvas). Chin size has been adjusted.

Step 4: Eyes defined and skin modeled. The original painting's model
has much deeper set eyes (so more in shadow). The skin tone is less yellow
in reality, and actually more closely resembles the image above.