Portrait Marathon update: Phoenix is Done!

Whew!!  Phoenix is finished, and I'm quite pleased with how he turned out.  I'm impatiently waiting for it to dry enough so I can scan it to show you.

*drumming fingers*
*checking dryness, checking time, adding 3 hours for the east coast*
*drumming fingers some more*
*checking dryness, huffing in frustration, and going to get a beer*
*squinting at it at an angle to check dryness, dabbing on more paint, and huffing in frustration again*

H just came in, and he said, "It's better than the photograph."  *doing small victory dance*

Well, while I'm killing time (yours as well as mine!), I'll talk about it a little bit.  After the last update, I needed to work on the background a lot, and keep detailing Phoenix himself.  I dabbed in some red and purple-y colors, like my sketch, and almost died.  Augh!  Ick!  Well, I wasn't too committed to those colors anyway.  More blues!  Layering in cool and warm blues, lighter and darker, then adjusting the lighting in the figure to reflect the blue light, I kept playing back and forth between Phene and the background.

Yeay!  It's dry enough.  Scanning now ...

Meanwhile, I was really liking the blues, layered onto the other purple-y reds and some browns I'd also washed in there.  Then I remembered Robin's comment here that Phene's color is blue.  Bonus!  :D

Okay, you've waited with me, and ....

heeeeee---eeeeeeeeere's

Phoenix!
*Grrr!  Waiting for the picture to upload!!*
Oh, for pete's sake!  What's the hold-up??  :P
Uploading elsewhere ....
Honestly.  Sheesh.

Okay, let's try this again.

Heeeeeeee-eeeeere's PHOENIX!!

What do you think?  It's okay, right?