More Shiva Painting

I think I'll never put my Shiva Paintstiks away. I love them. This is my latest painting placed into a digital background with lots of layers and added textures. Here is the original painting:

After much adjusting and fussing, I finally had to stop. I want to learn more about how to blend the colors better; especially skin tones. First, I need to get more colors in the paintstiks. I'm pretty limited right now in my selection. Then, I just need to practice.

I am making progress in Misty Mawn's Portrait Class but there is one lesson that I just can not get and I really want to do it. We are to use only a black pencil and white acrylic paint on a portrait. I've thrown away about four or five attempts now. For the life of me, I can't get the paint and the pencil to blend right. I always end up with something right out of Night of the Living Dead when I'm finished. Yuk! Why is it that when instructors do something, it looks so natural and easy? ;)

So it's back to the drawing board or, in this case, the sketch book. We will have a new lesson up this week: self-portraits. Uh...hmmm. I may have to dig in my dusty archives for a decent photo of me. But that's a few days away. In the meantime, practice, practice, practice...