Portrait of an old woman

I now start to add more colour in the light areas with the same pastel I have been using throughout the portrait and also painting in a colour which is in between the cadmium pink and cadmium red to harmonize the colours more. I also started to blend certain areas with my finger and leaving some areas of tone and colour a bit sharper, we don't want one big blended portrait, we want hard and soft edges throughout. I painted in the features a little bit better now using the same burnt umber I used for the darks.
 

I now smooth out the lips more so they blend in with the rest of the skin tones and painted in the nostril more accurately. I also painted in more strokes for the hair and following the form of it with my pastel strokes, I also painting in a few details under the left eye. I started on the blouse using the same burnt umber I used for the darks and I am still using the same colours in the portrait which we started with only two or three different colours.
 

I now paint in the head with more colour and form in the hair going over it with burnt umber and going over this colour with a dark cobalt blue to get a rich colour. I painted in all the features a bit more strongly and more defined and roughly indicated the necklace.

I have painted in highlights of the hair with a lighter cobalt blue and an even lighter cadmium red light for the highlights in the face. I have defined the ear a bit more and added more middle tones around it. I have also put in the pearls of her necklace by just indicting the lights in the pearls with a zinc white highlighter.

Here is the finished portrait and all I need to do now is to add more tone and blend areas that need it, I've left other areas harder where two colours meet. I have also defined the features a bit more and all in all I have tried to keep the painting fresh and alive without blending the pastel too much. We hope you have learned something here.

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