Sometimes it takes a few Paintings...

Sometimes it takes a few paintings... to make the painting that you are looking for!  This one was a challenge that did require a few paintings to achieve my desired goal.

It all started with wanting to paint a portrait from a shot a friend had taken.  It was a point and shoot camera with direct flash and a wide angle lens shown below.

Retouching TIPS: The first thing I did was to add some "eye lid shadow" onto this little sweetie's eyes. This is a very small  thing which can make all the difference in the world. I just used the Dodge tool VERY lightly to do this and bought back some modeling which the direct flash had lost.

Next, I toned down the hot spots using Curves in Photoshop which allows for specific color darkening and/or lightening.  

My Photographic Source file for Painter X:

Beginning:
The 3/4 crop is perfect for using my Painter X m2 Custom Brush Set .



Next:


Next:

I struggled with the painting looking too much like the source photograph on my first painting...
And so I tried again with a conscious goal in mind not to smooth her skin too much.
I looked for areas that I could leave evidence of my brushwork . Those turned out to be 
around the edges of her face, as well as the background and clothing.

Final Detail:


Final Painting:


Never say Die!