Hardie oil, WIP to completion

Rather than tack this onto an old thread, I'm opening a new one. This is the oil sketch - I can still only call it that because it's a stab at the man from old black and white photos - from the early scribbles, through the Terre Verte and quick-drying white (an old tube of Flake in this case) underpainting, to the final glazing, which in this case was done in one sitting - I'd have liked longer, and more glazes, but the small scale of the thing alone suggested a less refined approach. Point is - from this, you can see how a portrait can be build up using a quite old-fashioned technique, the whole key to it being getting the underpainting right - because if you don't, it's not going to work at all.

The oil one (this one) is just 7" by 10"; (I got the dimensions wrong on the Gallery - I always was innumerate): the acrylic, with that LOVELY halo, is around 8" by 11" (I got those dimensions wrong, too: time to do a bit of editing....). Bigger would actually be rather easier, I think....