As you can see in the photo below, I have worked only on the very 'top' of the areas catching the most light, being careful not to use too much of the light colours, in order to keep the more strongly-coloured (saturated) mid-tones intact. One of the important principles of painting, I think, is the gradation from dark, low saturation colours in the shadows, through to more saturated colour in the mid-tones (think of this as the 'real' colour of the surface you are painting) and then a decreasing saturation again for highlights. This means you can preserve the dominant colour of a surface, while still using quite extreme contrast and lighting.

       The flesh is just about finished now! At this point, I went ahead with other parts of the figure until the painting was close to complete.

Step 7:

       This is the finished figure. All that I have done to the flesh in this step, is to add a touch of even lighter, extreme highlights or 'light points' on the most exposed parts of the shoulders and upper chest, and added some little finishing touches like painting the nipples, and adding a touch of extra colour here and there – you can see that some of the red nuances around the sides of the pectorals/armpits have been emphasised a little more, for example, and obviously I have painted the neck and face also.

       So there you have it! Another long-winded, overly complex and confusing article haha To be serious, though, I do hope that this helps some of you to understand the process I go through, and takes away some of the mystery of it all by providing a little insight.

Good luck!

sebastian