Learning as I go

She's got a glow to her because the afternoon sun was coming in the window when I took the picture. Its not the best photo for now, but I think you can see the gist. Notice its taken me a month to get to this point. Its been slow going with my busy life and small commission piece I have been working on. I want Samantha to be the focal point and I think her face is competing with the flower as the focal point so I still have to work on that by changing color and value. The hair was such a challenge because it was dark in all areas. I found myself doing something I seldom do: using black to get the rich darks! I have learned that if you layer black over other colors or other colors over black, you can get rich darks. I apply the layers with a light even pressure and build up slowly. I'm not racing through this drawing, I don't care how many hours I spend on it. I am striving for quality and a beautiful depiction of Samantha.