Starting with a photocopy of a photo of my brother Jim, I covered the back of the photocopy with dry raw sienna pigment, and trace the major lines of the photo onto to canvas.

The eyes are done first...

Putting in major patterns on the skin.

Then the lighter sections of the skin. At this point the mouth is awry, and his friendly smile looks like a smirk. yuck...

A new session. I bought this little table easel for 8 euros. I did the hand first, to get back into the swing of things, and then worked on the face.

The shirt will be bright red, but to make bright red, you need a white underpinning, so I drew in the shirt in white with some terre de cassel shading. The back wall will be yellow, but i also put in a darker undercoat.

Finished the undercoat for the wall, and darkened the windows. I will let this dry for a few days and then appy the red paint for the short and the yellow paint for the walls.

Added a coat of yellow ocre to the back wall.

Straight vermillion for the shirt.

I made Jim's left pupil larger which helped balance the face. Gave him more hair on the right temple.

Uniformized the back walls. Did the tie, and started on the Christmas theme. Jim was wearing this bright red shirt at my mother's 82rd birthday party, near Christmastime, 2012.

I had decided the painting was too drab, so I stuck a Christmas tree in the corner. Made the tablecoth green, too. Sketched a plate.

Straightened out the windows a bit. Colored in the wainscoting.

Added some Christmas candles and their reflections.

Added in a small painting on the back wall. The painting is gayer now, there is contextual story. I will stop here.