Early paint test

Here's one of the test paintings I have going for the series I'm working on. I figure I'll work on as many of these for the next week then construct the cradles for the boards so I have almost 3 weeks to work on the main five paintings. For this first set of tests I used no reference or sketches, just went straight on working more with the materials than anything else. Also trying to hone in on a color palette I can be happy with. Don't know if I'll do anything more to this but will post if I do. If anything I can see going in and repainting the face from some reference. The eyes are way to small and features like the cheeks are over done.


The image on the left is still in progress and is being done with an acrylic wash and local color pass to give it a solid base to work off of, after which I'll go into it with oils and thicker paint. The image on the right is just oil paint with nothing added to it other than mineral spirits to thin down for washes. This is my first attempt in a long time at oils and I'm ok with the result, although I'm gonna have to work hard to get to the point where I'm going to be happy with the final five, so we'll have to wait and see. The medium itself is great, and I'm excited to start doing more of this to balance out the digital stuff, long hours in front of the easel are much easier than long hours in front of the computer.



Another pic to give a sense of scale. Really not that big, considering the main image of the 5 paintings I'm doing is 32x56, these are both just 10x14.