Process of Creating "Underwater"

The first step was to tint the entire canvas with a layer of raw umber so that the layers that followed would have a neutral undertone without having to mute them individually. Then On top of the solid color I did a sketch in pencil, inked it with india ink then added highlights with white.

Next I started to add the middle tone background blue

Then more of the foreground color

Then I filled in the hair and added more glazes of blue in the background and deepened the shadows on the face .  

Here is the completed painting:

"Underwater" 18x24 oil on canvas Dec 2011