International Women's Day Painting Process - UPDATED!

Hey bloggers!

So I was really ambitious after my classes today and got a head start on my painting - couldn't be happier!!! I forgot how much I love painting! Anyways, back to the poster heres the break down.

What I've done:

- Painted the whole background yellow ( I chose yellow because its a variation of what skin looks like and I thought it would really bring in the pigments more clearly. Also the colour of the hair is almost white so I thought the yellow would help being in the highlights.)

-"LADYGAGA" in white. I chose to do her name in white because I will be doing a dark backdrop and my colour scheme centres around black, red, and white. I also chose this because I know it will really stand out once the backdrop is painted in.

- Lips and Nails. So as for the nails and lips I started these to get a feel for the paint and how it blends before I tackle the skin. I also did these now because the skin will come up around the lips and the fabric of her head dress comes around the nails.

(Images were originally in the post, but corrupted to the point that they had to be deleted - I apologize!)

Hey Everyone!! So got some work done and here it is up til nearly finished!

So this stage was adding the eyes and final touches on the lips. The blue was really interesting to do in here eyes.

Next, I added the background - I think the black really makes the name stand out. It also should make Lady Gaga and her head dress show up.

Next I started with the first layer of skin - nice and light.

Then slowly adding some highlight and shadows. This stage took many turns and twists because I kept changing light sources.

Finally after getting the skin to where I wanted it, I moved on to the face. This was a fun stage!

After the face came doing the base for the hair. It's interesting how the yellow from the very first stage almost made its own highlights.

After the base yellowed hair came the highlights. I tried to make it look as natural as possible. And I added the eye lashes now that the skin was where I wanted it.

When I finally got the hair to the shades I liked, the head dress needed to be started. I mixed two different reds to create the highlight and lowlights of it.

Next came the darkening of the shadows and folds of the material.

And finally, here's where I am now. I added some more highlights and shadows to the head dress and added a few more features to the skin. The major thing was I added "International Women's Day 2012" as a tattoo on her arm to signify who she really is.

So a few more things to fix up and add, but I'm nearly done! 

Hope you got a little insight as to how I did it. And yes, I will answer the question many have been asking - as of now - I have been working on this painting for just under 20 hours. But every hours been worth it! 

Come back soon and see the finished piece!

Cheers - Rachel

Here it  is - the final art work!

In the end I added more shading to the skin on the face and arms, changed the tattoo to a more realistic look, and adapted the lips. Hope you enjoyed the process as much as I did.