Initial sketch on bockingford watercolour paper with directional lines for foliage

from the skecth some areas are worked in fountain pen and sepia and calligraphy ink to start to give form to the feautres, then a very loose wash of chai tea helps unify the colours and bring some surprise elements.  Some areas are blown to disperse the paint then left to dry.

Initial stages of adding tea over the feint calligraphy lines and trying to achieve the right balance, the board is tilted upwards and this gives vertial lines of colour in the tea areas, a little whiskey is also added to lighten the areas of tea that are too dark.

while the piece is still wet foliage is added by drawing sparse turquoise fountain pen lines over the piece, these are punctuated with marks in sepia and ochre coloured writing ink, when the tea is added these colours naturally blend to ahieve greens and earthy browns but maintain a looseness and randomness.  The edges of the glass are also being defined and slight refractions behind the glass are being worked.

Eye detail - building up layers using fountain pen and three colours of ink, turquoise, ochre and sepia, the eye required more layering to knock the colour back, again this is achieved using just 3 colours of ink. Sepia, Ochre and Turquoise.

Detail of face showing calligraphy lines with fountain pen, using layering of the fountain pen lines to achieve the edge effect of glass.

working the piece of glass that sits in front of the mouth.  to achieve a glass effect radiating lines are drawn on the work outside of where the glass lies, this helps to make the glass look as if it is lighting or obscuring the underneath through reflection.  When drawing on the glass I dilute the colour of calligraphy pens first by dipping the pen in water, this allows a feinter version of the ink to continue underneath.