Portrait of My Wife Stage 3: Underpainting

Sorry that it has been awhile since my last post.  We had two unexpected deaths in my family, and today is the first chance that I have had to paint in about two weeks.  If you have been following my blog (which makes you one of about 5 people in the world-ha), then you know that I am currently working on my first portraint painting.  My last couple of posts have been the preliminary sketchs of my wife that I am using for the painting. 

Here is the underpainting I made using raw umber, ivory black, and zinc white (not including the background which I did with a crimson red).  My entire goal here was to set the tones in the face and hair so that when I add the color there will be no guesswork. From what I have read, most people start a portrait with the eyes.  With the exception of the hair, the eyes were the last thing I painted here.  I started with the darkest part of the forehead and just worked by way around the face clockwise.  I then added the eyes and the hair and, for whatever reason, painted the neck last. From here, I will let the underpainting dry, and then go in and start adding color.  I hope to do that next weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.