New acrylic painting started way back in 2010. This piece went through a number of changes right there on the canvas. See if you can count the number of times I repainted the hair:

Finished a new acrylic painting, which some of you may remember as this work-in-progress from way back in August, which remained unworked-on for the majority of September through March.

Sometimes I’ll do that, put a painting on hold for long stretches of time, only finishing it months later with very little work in between — a habit that would be much easier to hide if I didn’t painstakingly document every moment of my painting process for all the world to see. Speaking of which:

Speedpainting from reference, about 2.5 hours. This one was difficult because I didn’t have any easy shadows to fall back on and pretty much had to render based on some pretty subtle soft lighting.

Reference photo by Gilliann (model) and Bansheechild (photographer) on deviantART.

Went back and did some revisions/clean-up on this piece from the week before last. Mostly it’s just cleaner rendering (the previous version was pretty sketchy), but also a couple of changes to some shadows and forms.

Not sure if this qualifies as a “speedpainting” anymore though, as the changes took me another 3 hours — an hour longer than it took me to do the entire previous version! Ahh, so it goes.

As before, painted from this reference photo is by Aimee Fitzgerald.

Most years the first time I write down the new year is on a check. So very pleased that the first time this year is signing it on a painting. What an awesome way to ring in the new year! Let’s keep it up! I hope all of you out there accomplish all the things this year that you set out to do. Here’s to an awesome 2012!

Photoshop speedpainting from reference, about 2 hours. Reference photo by Marcus Ranum.