Danielle

Stock reference used: [link]
From: [link]

I wanted to really knuckle down and work on my realism painting, lighting and coloring techniques. So I decided to try to reproduce a photo.

What I did:
-Used only two layers. One for the clouds, one for the model.
-Had the photo open in another file side-by-side with the painting.
-My only interaction with the original otherwise was to use the color picker. I did not trace, overlay, etc. the original at all. I eyeballed the proportions.

Overall I'm really happy with this exercise, and I hope I can put to use what I've learned in an all-original piece in the future.