Caroline Instructed us with layering effects while painting a Portrait. She stated that painting a portrait working dark to light and drawing out the face first was one of John Singer Sergeant techniques.
She proceeded to mix the paints ahead of time. She doesn’t use Brown but uses hookers‘s green deep and yellow for a nice brown. She lightens colours with yellow to avoid chalkiness of white. She mixes three types of yellow, very light, light and medium yellow. To warm the colours she adds a red yellow and white mixture and adds a little green to this for a pinkish tone. She chose a Filbert brush which is great for portraits. it is great for feathering.
She started with the darkest shade in the neck and works around the face with this dark shade. She noted that with the green background there will be a reflection in the layers. Now Lighter layers are put in. With the mouth she put red on first and then re-drew them with a red dark green mixture. She then painted in the mid tones and blended with the lightest tones. While doing this, you are re-drawing areas in the face. Study the face closely with the colour shifts in it. Check your lines and correct using a big brush to stop your fiddling. Balance lights with shadows. You can use a small flat brush for accuracy under the nose and nostrils. Continue to check the angles and build up layers and blend.