Jamie Stokes
A Fixture
Before I went ahead and laid down my smoke paints for the stockings effect I deiced to preshade the legs, to help 'boost' the colours underneath, before being muted by the overlay of the 'stockings'.
For the entire figure, the flesh toes, I decided on doing something a bit different - I worked from the lightest tone (IE, the highlight tones) then added more pink to get to my mid tone, then added even more pink to get my 'shadow' tone. As this is a large (-ish) figure for me, and I am using an airbrush exclusively for the flesh, smooth toes are essential.
Plus, it was something different for me to try. (traditionally, most figure painters start with a mid tone, then lighten or darken accordingly, which works fine)
It can be seen where i have darkened the skin tone, in places the make sense to me; around the ankles and lower calves, the backs of the knees, where the legs cross, around the knee caps and on the underside of the thighs, where natural shadows would fall.
Glad I did, although I wasn't sure how it would turn out at the time, tilla fter the stockings were done.
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