I often make paintings of girls in an ethereal background but this was my first with blue undertones. And it was definitely a hard piece but I love the way it turned out!
Step 1- Choose your materials. For mine ,I used acrylics on an A4 canvas paper but you can use anything you have. Remember, it isn’t about the materials but about your artwork.
Step 2 – Start with a rough sketch. It doesn’t have to be very detailed but should give you 
a rough idea of where the things should go.
Make sure its light as you don’t it to show through the painting. Also only emphasize on the important features. The background and all aren’t necessary at this point.
Step 3- Start adding undertones with paint. Don’t worry too much about this stage as you
are essentially just getting the feel of the paint and experimenting with the colors. I used cobalt blue for the hair and a light peach made up of red, yellow, a tinge of blue and white. The colors are very watery and light and we are going to build upon them with multiple layers.
Step 4: Here is where the actual painting process begins
You start adding layers and building the mood of the painting. The paint is thick at the moment and only dashes of water are used. The features are made prominent and different shades are used to add shadow and light. I added Prussian blue and Cobalt blue to the hair and added darker and stronger shades of peach to the face and added light pink highlights to the cheeks to form cheekbones. I started adding blue strokes to the neck and add them at the corners of the face. A range of colors are added in the background but they are pretty abstract at the moment.
Step 5- Here you start building upon the shade,dimension,shadows and light. The
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features start getting more defined here. As you can see the eyes and nose have dark outlines that give it a prominent look. The background is starting to get on. The colors are staring to merge and the shape and direction are forming. Black is coming into the picture forming shadows and giving a quintessentially 3 dimensional look.
Step 6- Here I started working on the background
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Im sorry but I don’t have the pics of me progressing through them. So I’ll do my best to explain. I added patterns and shapes with the blue and highlighted it with black. I added swirls of blue and added circles of light pastel colors and added strokes of golden. I repeated the process in the upper region with different colors. Even though it looks complicated this was the easiest and most fun part of the painting.You don’t have to follow the rules and can let your imagination run wild.
Step 7- This is where I added the finishing touches. i made the face paler with blue undertones. I went over the face with a pale color i made by adding cobalt blue, crimson red and white and a ting of yellow. I made the lips fuller and darker and added accents with black and white and golden spots. I blended the background and added slight shades in the face. I added golden accents with a cone filler through the painting.
And this is how it looked in the end
Have fun painting!!!!
-Adyesha
Meraki 