I’ve spent the past hour or so painting hair.
In the reference photo, her hair is bright white at the top of her head and not a lot of detail shows at all. A side effect from the photo techniques back in those days.
So I have to recreate hair that doesn’t really show in the photo other than bright white or pitch black fields.

It’s quite easy since her hairstyle doesn’t leave for a lot of options. The curls are very predictable.

I haven’t done anything about the right side just yet. Since the left side is a bit more elaborate I want to take care of that first.
The basic layer of hair that I did earlier is nothing but a flat layer of grey as I’m sure you remember. It’s still there and in the end it will create depth to the hair itself. Other than that it’s also a way of not having to paint the darker hairs that is showing just below the highlights. In short – it’s cheating in a way :p

Right now it looks rather cartoonish, but with a bit of luck that will change once I’ve got some more detail added. But, the most important thing is to get the light right. In a lot of old portraits like this one, the light would make up for the lack of color and in many cases it was also extraordinary considering the techniques they used.
That said, in a painting you don’t always add all those darkest shadows or the brightest highlights. Instead you have to imagine what it would have looked like without the effects that the camera lens created.

Now it’s bedtime though. The headache is not so bad any more, but I’m frozen and very tired still. So this is it for today :)
If you click the image you’ll see the original size I’m painting in.

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