Portrait Marathon: Finale, stage one. Strider

That's quite a title, huh?  Well, let's get crackin'.  As I said in my last post, this will be my last painting in the Spring Portrait Marathon.  I've got a couple other projects I can't put off anymore, so Strider gets to be the big bang at the end of the show.

Here's the reference I'm working from. A gorgeous hunk of dark brindle really working that strong jawline and the sunlight stroking just the edges of his face.  Mmm MM!

I decided to try something a little different with this one.  I started with a midnight blue canvas (well, actually Thalo blue, but in case you don't know that that means, it's very dark blue), and will be working up to the lights instead of the other way 'round, as I usually do.

I transferred my drawing onto the dark canvas, and just started indicating where the lightest lights will be.  This is what that looks like at the moment.

The highlights on the canvas texture make the blue look lighter than it is.  It's almost black.

This should be interesting.  It will be like painting with my left hand to think this way, but that's supposed to be good for your creativity, right?

Okay.  Let's get to work!