Step 20: Restate the Halftones |
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Restate
(Steps 18 through 21)
Now you begin the serious work of restating everything you have
done. You have just come from a rest period, so stand back and
study your painting with a fresh eye. Then proceed to retrace
your steps, going back over everything — in the same order
of the original painting — and restating. Start with the
darks. Restate the darks, making your judgements sharper and
more accurate. Then restate the halftones: some darker, some
lighter, some perhaps more intense, some less so, etc. All along
the way refine and correct the drawing. |
Hover to zoom final painting |
| This is an important and complex step. Here the
assignment is to proceed back over the entire terrain of the
lighted portion of the head, making all new judgements about
the halftones: a touch lighter here, a touch warmer here, a
softer transition here, and so forth. The reality of the forms
becomes ever surer, as these subtle adjustments are made. This
is really the heart of portrait painting. The entire mosaic
of halftones is being delicately adjusted for hue, value and
intensity. Every correct statement makes other correct statements
easier. Gradually the entire thing begins to take on a cohesion
and a logic. The reality of the head begins to come through. |
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