Again, Abandoned

As usual, I've added this to the procession of stages in the last post, where you can flip through to watch it change and grow to its present state. So many little nitpicky things I still want to do, but there aren't enough lifetimes. Putting it to bed once again, perchance to resurrect in the future for more work. This one has seen me through a massive upgrade of skillz!! And I believe it was mostly because I decided to forget about brushstrokes and paint all airbrush-smooth. That brought it into tight focus and let me see it so much more clearly.

My attention was being pulled right to the top of the head because it was the brightest part. I did that because the logical part of my brain kept telling me it would be brighter up there, that part is closer to the light source and facing directly at it, plus hair reflects more than skin. Finally I got tired of always getting drawn up to that blank area and put a shadow over it, which immediately allowed me to look a the eyes and the face first now. Ok, actually not the eyes themselves - they're downcast and veiled; mysterious (sharklike actually, I softened them in that regard from the photograph). But that fits her character - cold and inhuman, no interior life, so the windows of her soul are blank and dark. It's actually the eyelids you look at - the blinds of the soul. Fitting methinks.

Tightening it up some more; human-er and human-er.