Update on Family Portrait

Below are 3 images of my parents' portrait in progress over the month of June. The first one is the newest.

#1 The painting as of June 30th.  I laid in the hands as I see them in the reference photo, which unfortunately is overexposed in that area. But I've recently taken a set of reference photos for their hands and after I review them I'll have to see what final position makes sense. In the original, my mom is holding a handkerchief in her left hand while not seeming to grasp the branch itself, so the position of the thumb is a bit of a mystery. In the last session, I decided to concentrate on the blue coat, bringing up the chroma of the cobalt blue while trying to model the folds and curves on the right sleeve. In a later stage, once I've brought my dad's coat to the same level of completion, I'll bring the blue back down with a few glazes as needed....

#2 June 24. At this stage, I began laying down some blue over the base grey I laid down. In the reference photo, there are several blues at play, some on the purple side (cobalt blue) and some on the green side (cerulean blue). Eventually I decided to make cobalt blue the dominant blue in the coat and scarf, although I imagine I'll add some greenish/grey tints to reflect the surrounding shadows...

#3 June 4. Early work on my dad's portrait: The reference photo (shown in my previous post) places his face mostly in the shadows and his eyes are obscured by the reflection of his glasses. I've just positioned the features where I believe they should be. More refinement will be done later, especially balancing highlights with his skin tone.