MJ & Grace - Steps 3 & 4

At this point it was necessary to put some additional color over the raw sienna. While I typically paint the background layers first, I needed to paint the green grasses in the foreground in order to accurately judge the colors of the girls' dresses. Perceived colors are greatly affected by proximate colors (click here).

Then it was the background's turn, since it contained the darkest values and since I also wanted to paint the middle ground on top of the background. The background was unified with a semi-transparent dark green color. Highlights were added, while most of the middle tones were left uncovered from Steps 1 and 2.

STEP 3 - Foreground color and background resolution

Then I began to paint some of the dark and light tones in the "white" dresses.

STEP 4 - Dark and light dress tones

Next. . . Faces, Hair and Dresses.