I'm a big fan of the art books by Andrew Loomis. Every time I read "Creative Illustration" I find something new and I often think: "Why didn't anyone show me this before?"
On page 116 he writes about a painting technique he calls the soft approach. Large tones are painted in directly and edges are softened immediately. After that details are added while the paint is wet.
I have drawn quite a few portraits in pencil and charcoal that turned out well, but I find portraits in color still difficult to do. Taking one step back to black and white paint is a good exercise.
This is the first of three blog posts of the painting in progress.
