Portrait Updates

The color is so distorted in these photos, but it will give some idea of the progress made. I have had so much trouble painting the skin tones in the top portrait. Could not figure out what was going wrong until I figured out it was too saturated. After looking at several paintings of flesh tones in moonlight, I realized that no one was painting the skin as it would actually look, except that the lighting was cool and the shadows were on the warm side. Still have much work to do, but I think I have her likeness and that was a major hurdle.

The second portrait is coming along. The photo reference I have is quite dark, especially on the right side of the woman's face. I think it will look better if I key the value up slightly in order to see the eye better, as long as the client approves. Began the delicate work on the clothing. The cloth is a very important part of this portrait and I want to capture its softness and subtle folds. From this photo, I can see I need to tone down the highlight on the left cheek. It's popping out to much.