Cooper, Addie, and Rio portrait in progress 18

Continuing to work on the “Rio hugging” figures. Three days on Karen’s hands and arms. A lot of fine detail there.

These are the pencil colors I'm using for Karen's skin. Except for the bunch of grey pencils on the left...those are for Rio's coat.

There are lots of colors in human skin. You might look at this pic and think it's "flesh color". But there are lavenders and mauves, pale yellow-gold, peach, pink, cream, even some very pale grey for the ends of the fingernails (not white).

I've outlined Karen's hand with darker greys, getting the bulges and indentations of the knuckles very precise, so I can see where the outline is when I fill in Rio's black coat.

Portraying a hand is almost as difficult as portraying a face.

And I believe hands in a portrait are as uniquely individual and as important as a face. If I've done it right, these hands should be "Karen's hands", unlike anyone else's.