I used Painter 7 for this painting. The reference for this painting was a magazine clipping I liked, but the painting looks very different from the reference, as I made significant changes to the face, the body proportions, the colors, the background, and the lighting. This piece was the last piece I based on reference that wasn't my own. Since then, I've been shooting my own reference material.

 

First, I block in all the masses, and then just went ahead and finished up the background, since I liked where I was going with the colors. I used nothing but the Palette Knife tool for this painting.

 

I then started to finish up the body, and got a bit carried away, since I stopped looking at the head for proportion comparisons...

 

Fixed the proportion mistakes in the arm and gave her more cushion in the back. I then started to work in the details in her face.

 

More details in the face.

 

Yet more details in the face.

 

Blocked in the hair strands, and started adding detail.

 

Fixed the hand a bit, and finished the hair, then signed the signature and went to sleep! As you can tell, I went apeshit with the Palette Knife for tiny details. That was NOT what I had in mind initially. I wanted a loose, simple painting, but ended up changing the Palette Knife's size to fairly small for details. I REALLY should STOP doing that. To read more about the details of this piece, please look at the original posting here.

 

Detail: