1 What is your message?. What do you want the viewer to think and feel? Choose the focal point of the picture with this in mind. This is the area where the darkest and lightest areas meet.
2 Where is the light coming from?
3 Choose 6 main colours that you intend to use i.e. warm and cool before you start painting. Keep all of the colours that are used in a separate dish. A 'limited palette' painting often appears more harmonious.
4 Where the colour is warm, add cool colours for shadows and visa versa.
5 Re-evaluate as you paint by stepping 5 paces back at least every 20 minutes. Also putting a mount around the picture and stepping back to view it, often reveals faults in composition or tone.
6 Turn the painting updside-down and/ or look at it in a mirror to obtain a more objective view of the composition. When painting from photographs, I usually turn the source of reference upside down as well, in order to place the main features without distraction. Faces are distracting to draw because we need to look at them in a different way to our usual recognition mode (see Betty Edwards' book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain").
7 TECHNIQUES FOR ADDING COLOUR: Darkest to Lightest
Black, Umber, etc./ Cross-hatching 2 dark colours / 1 colour lightly blended / pastel applied with a cotton bud / pastel appllied with cotton wool.
8 TECHNIQUES FOR REMOVING COLOUR: Darkest to Lightest
Blending on the paper with fingers / blending with a shaper tool or cotton bud / blending with cotton wool / brushing with a stiff hogshair brush / erasing with a putty rubber.
