Beginning a Study of an Old Woman

 This week I began work on a new oil sketch of an old woman over a previous (unsuccessful) self portrait on a 10 x 8" canvas.

(above) Flipping the prior self portrait study upside down, I roughed in a compositional grid to help in locating the portrait sketch in the center of the canvas.

(above) I completed "day 1" work by filling in the dark background tone, which will help to work in the light masses when this is dry.

(above) This afternoon I began by working in the light masses, particularly on the left side of the portrait, then beginning to find more half tones in the shadow mass on the right.  In the coming stages, this region will become significantly darker.