New Painting 10"x8" on canvas

I needed to take a break from the big painting so I made a small 10"x8". The completed painting see the images below for a step by step.
Below is the first photo I took after I laid it in by toning the canvas with burnt umber and then I wiped out the lights.

Working on Tim's Face

I procrastinated all day and didn't start painting until around 1:30! I did manage to finish this figure.
Working on the cup first since it overlaps the face and then the hands overlap the cup. I started with mixing a cool light gray as the base midtone color. Then burnt umber and white for the warm gray shadows. The highlights I warmed up by tinting white with a touch of yellow ochre.
The hands were my normal flesh tones. I started in the darks with alizarin crimson and black and dry brushed in some paint into the darks. Then I worked out the darker areas with a mix of cadmium orange, black and a little alizarin crimson and burnt sienna.
The mid too lights I just added white to that and increased the cadmium orange to warn it a bit. The highlights are that orange with white and touch of black. The bathrobe is a grey mixed up with burnt umber, lamp black and white. In the dark areas I cooled the shadows with more lamp black. In the lighter areas I increased the umber and white.
Now I just gotta think through how I'm going to deal with the backgrounds after I finish the figures. I think that in the bright areas behind the figure I'll use an orange sepia like color and then dry brush the areas into the background a bluring the sleave a bit.

Painting the last female character and the male's face.

Here's my studio with my fancy Stoke stool and my Ikea rolling cart.
Now I begin with the darks which are made from lamp black and alizarin crimson.

The blue sweatshirt is actually just lamp black and white. Essentially a cool gray that looks blue in the context of so much burnt umber. I learned that trick from looking at some Peter Paul Ruben's oil sketches.
Working up the flesh tones which are made from cadmium orange, black, white, crimson, burnt sienna and some fairy dust.
Working out the face and hair. Some of the highlights in the hair are the purple gray that I get when I mix lamp black, alizarin crimson and white together.

The pants are payne's gray and white. The purse is just burnt umber, burnt sienna, and some yellow ochre in the lighter areas. Highlights are burnt umber and white.
Okay, the woman is done and now to paint Tim (the guy.)

48"x60" painting's progess

Here's my next eight hours of painting. I didn't get much done today. I kept having to take care of other things. I did get to finish another figure. See more of my work on my website at:
http://www.kenney-mencher.com/

New Painting: Step by Step Painting

What I've got done after an eight hour day in the studio. See below for how I started it and the step by step sequence.
9AM I'm in the studio with a plan! I tone the canvas with burnt umber as an impratura layer. On the music stand is the collaged image that is the plan. The image is a part of a larger set of images that I call my sequential narratives.

I start the painting by sketching in the overall shapes and wiping out the lights with a rag. For brighter lights I dip the rag in some paint thinner to remove more of the layer.
More of the drawing. It's very sketchy at this part. I plan on laying in layers of color and refining the drawing as I move along.
The finished underpainting painting sometime around 6 PM. Time to make dinner!

Painting of Beth. Oil on linen, 20"x20" using the imprimatura method.