The making of 'Vicki- The Orchid Resucer'

The 'Orchid Rescuer' refers to Vicki's passion for orchids in all their forms. She visits any shop or garden centre that stock these wonderful flowers to keep them living longer than they sometimes do if they aren't selling well to customers. The stages above begin at the top left with a layer of verdigris (green). Looking back at the drawing, I seem to have lost the original sweep of hair along the hairline and down the temple!!! That can happen when the layering process takes place, it is so easy to hide the pencil guide lines with adding successive modelling  flesh tones. I worked on this painting while attending an outdoor craft show at the Roman Villa at Chedworth, Gloucestershire, UK.

I used the opportunity to work on this piece because my deadline to hand it over as a Birthday present was fast approaching!!!!

Though I got the painting to a completion stage on the left here, I still wasn't quite happy with the eyes and position of the jawline meeting the earlobe. So I continued the adjustments when arriving back home at the end the weekend event.
Below is the portrait as near as I can get it. I don't try to slavishly copy a reference of the person, I try to capture the essence of the personality.