Step two and three in my tutorial.

Step two is when I establish the mid-tone area in the skin. I have used Matisse paint, light skin tone and softened it with white to get a nice mid-tone shade. At this stage I also decide the temperature of the light source which I've decided to make cool which means that the shadow areas in the skin will be warm in temperature.

Deciding that the light source is cool I then painted the lightest areas in white as white has blue in it and is a cool colour. If I decided to make the light source warm then I would use a very light and warm shade of yellow.

Because I have established good light and dark areas in the under painting, I can now go into the background before I give the skin tone anymore colour. Because of the way I paint skin it is important for me to have the background established before I decide where and how much colour I want in the skin.

At this stage in a painting I really get a good feel for the character and mood that I want to accent. My backgrounds and the colours I choose are focused entirely on my feeling about the piece. Because this is a portrait of me and because I know that I want to focus on the feeling of my light and bright personality I have chosen colours and shapes that help express this side of me.

Any background and the colours used should be chosen with the entire image in mind. I learned that just because I have a certain technique and lean towards certain colours that doesn't mean that it's going to work for every painting. You have to let the painting tell you what the right colours and flow are. Especially if you're working on a portrait, you have to let the personality of the person tell you what colours will compliment them overall and not just compliment them in the way they look but what will really capture the essence of their being.

Now that I've established the background I can now work on the skin tones and where I want to accent the colours and the reflections of those colours in the skin. Because the light source is coming from front on I will only be able to use the background colours from the planes on the face that are turned towards the background such as the side of the cheeks, the right side of the nose, the sides of the forehead and the turned planes of the hair.

Any questions and/or comments are always welcome.