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Linda, I have never been one for the easy road and have always loved to push myself. Of course often to the point of utter frustration, but when things are easy I get bored and loose interest.
Chris, I had already been carving away as you have suggested and hoped that someone might have some magic solution to make this rather tedious job go faster. It just seems that when these fine lines are drawn you backtrack, since you have to go over the already established skin tones.
Peggy, if you read this, I will forever be in debt to you for teaching me how to check the proper value of your newly mixed paints against the already established ones. It has come in very handy, as I am swooshing around the skin tones to adjust the thickness of the strings.
I have to admit that I am amazed how precise Gerome worked. The nose for example, when viewed highly magnified, shows that it was at one point completely drawn in. Then through a play of different colors, all in the same value he made the nose recede into the shadows, without loosing an ounce of detail. At first glance the values in that area all read as one dark shadow, but upon close inspection you will find an extremely dark brown (of the nose), black of the tassels, a bit of Caput Morten Violet (tassel) and a deep green shadow of the background.
His detail work is also very precise. Details are highly finished, as in the case of the design on the gun and that big thing he is holding. (I have no idea what that is, but it looks like it could hurt if you get hit by it!). In the areas closest to the viewer, mainly on the sleeve, you can almost count the strands and stitches. Yet he leaves the left sleeve with almost no detail at all. Basically directing the viewer
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