I used a very limited palette of colors for this painting: Prussian blue, unbleached titanium, raw umber, and gold ochre. I'm very partial to Prussian blue, which when used thickly is very dark and when used thinly is a lovely moody blue. Unbleached titanium is a mixture of titanium dioxide, raw sienna, and raw umber, and is a great color for pale skin tones.
I used Prussian blue for the background, blocking this in, initially leaving the area where the face was to appear as the white of the canvas board. I did, however, make the area where the neck would be as dark as the background, as I knew the neck in the final portrait would be in shadow.
Once the background was done, I used the Prussian blue left on my brush to roughly mark where the eyes, eyebrows, and nose would go. I then used raw umber to block in the hair.
