Elaina's Portrait

I have so many colors in this portrait that I'm starting to lose my sanity! I wouldn't recommend working on a portrait of someone from a photo and not being able to see that person in life. This is my niece who lives in Arizona so I am relying on photos in which to work from. The photos flatten and dull her skin tone so I am trying to bring her skin tones to life. Today I asked one of the artists in the studio to help me. First thing she said was that I had done an incredible job with the hair. I must say that I really enjoyed rendering the hair but its the face I want to bring to life. The she said I added too much brown to her skin tone and she needed more warm pinks and oranges to make her look like a child. I agreed because I had added Prismacolor Chestnut and Black Raspberry which are nice warm purple-browns but they dulled her complexion. Thank goodness Stonehenge paper erases so easily. I lifted off the brown tones and gave all of her skin tone a wash of Prismacolor Pale Vermillion which warmed everything up. So upward and onward I go with the portrait hoping that one of these days I will have my skin colors down to a science like my candy apple colors!