Lady Sophia

I've been wanting to do some oil painting recently but haven't had the means so I decided to go for it with Photoshop on my Mac. I approached it much the same way I would a traditional painting; I toned the canvas with a warm neutral tone, did a quick burnt sienna block-in then started to refine the drawing. I then switched to more of a pastel (or egg tempera) technique where you pick out pure colors and build them transparently one over the other until you reach the right tone. What's wonderful about this is that you can see the wonderful colors underneath which make it glow.
I always intended for this to be just a head and shoulders study so I gradually lessened the detail moving down from the face. At the end I added some paint smears and spots to balance out the piece and give it more of a classical painting look.

Many thanks to the model [link]Lockstock and her Princess stock image