So this is the humble beginning. Just the roughest blocks of colour that sketch out very vaguely where the main features in your pic will be - eyes, nose, mouth, etc. You could choose a reference pic if you've got no idea where shadows would fall; squint at it and rough the light bits out on your page.

From those blocks of colour, you can smear out a rough face. It doesn't have to be good, and, as you can see, this isn't. But the hood, face, neck, are all coming into focus, like a ghostly image forming on the page. I've thrown in some more brown since the first one to get some colour variants in what will be her robe, and to show her far shoulder.

Having got that far, I've started to throw in some basic details. Everything's open to change, so it still doesn't have to be any good. Normally I'd start by detailing an eye, but here I've gone for the lips. If you've done a few paintovers and seen how these things look in close-up (300%), it's suprisingly easy to recreate them. Again, you can pull in a reference picture to remind yourself. I've used a strong fine smear tool plus a fine dodge for the highlights and burn for the depth. I've also used dodge and burn to build highlights and shape to the face. This looks like one of those scary Francis Bacon portraits - but there's a long ways to go.

And here I've added in an eye, again with dodge, burn and smear. The highlight in the pupil is really crucial. It's in the wrong place and it's not looking very convincing, but the basic shape is there, and that's all we want. In other parts of the portrait, I've given some colour to the background and filled in some of the shadows gently with a soft airbrush tool. The shadows shouldn't be totally black - they fill with reflected light from the skin and background. A bit of judicious airbrushing with a middle-range skin tone helps stop it looking 'dirty' and gives it warmth. With her one misplaced eye she looks like something out of Picasso.

I've worked on the eye here and added another one, which is handy for her. I've burned some more depth back in, and pulled in her nose and jawline, trying to make her face cohere and look less 'monolithic' (it's alright for orcs but a human woman needs to look a bit more palatable...). I've been playing with her neckline for the last few images, but I'm not that worried about it yet. I haven't touched the robe; deal with it later. Over the previous few images, I was feeling that this would never look any good... but here she's starting to take shape. Don't give up!

Softening her face with a bit of blur, and pulling her mouth and jaw in is really starting to make her look more coherent (and somewhat prettier). Her nose and forehead line are straighter. She looks less simian and more human. I'm going to have to add back in the detail I've blurred out but that's okay. I've used a fat warp brush to pull features in without damaging them too much - the warp brush, carefully used, is your friend when adjusting features, because it doesn't blur and stretch as severely as smear. It can tweak an expression, the curve of a lip, add a smile or sneer.

Okay! Now with a changed lip and jaw, more airbrushed warmth and a bit of a smile, she's looking quite human. I've brought her nose in and up again, and filled in the far side of her face a bit. I've adjusted the shadowing to something a bit more plausible, and airbrushed out that nasty dark smear on her jawline. At this stage I was finally thinking, okay, this is not going to end up like the bastard son of Picasso and Bacon, and I won't have to title it 'Hideous Half-Orc Elderly Female Ranger (diseased)'. :)

Now for some detailing. At this stage you're close to the kind of work you're doing with a paintover. As I said, I needed to replace the detail I lost on her lips, and that's the major change here. Dodge 'n' burn. Note the highlighting on her upper lip. I've fixed the highlights on her chin and nose, so now they look more 3D. I've also airbrushed her forehead line a bit, to give it a touch more colour and a sense of the shadow cast from her hood.

And from here on in it's paintover work. Strong fine smears pull out the hair, and it automatically picks up the highlights from the face. I've reworked her eyes and strengthened that all-important reflected light in her pupils. I've deepened the shadows with burn and airbrushing for colour, and given more definition to her nose, more highlighting to her lips. I've gone back to work on the neckline to give it a bit more shape, depth, and plausibiltiy - she's got a bit of an Adam's apple here though - oops!

My favourite fine smear detailing gives the robe a fabric look rather than a blurry smear, and a few careful spotlights give the glow to her chin, light in the background to highlight her hair, and more sparkle to her cheekbones and eyes. I've added in just a little green to her skin tone on her lower cheeks - you can barely see it, but it helps make the picture cohere and makes her skin seem translucent. Almost for the sake of it, I've tweaked the shape of her lips and nose too - I didn't want the smile I had before, but I've made a bit of a Michael Jackson of her nose, which I'd have to correct.

She's pretty much done in this picture. I could have stopped here. Her features are quite soft and all the basics are in. I made further changes though - I thought the image was a bit flat, and din't like the nose. If you prefer this image, you can download a single .tga and adapt it for use in NWN.

I've fixed her nose here and adjusted the lighting on her hood with a broad, gentle burn, giving it more shadow. Conversely, the highlights are dodged up. I've smoothed her chin and returned just a touch of a smile to her mouth, and deepened the shadows in her neck, losing a bit of that Adam's apple. There's just a shade more green in the skin tone around the bridge of her nose, too.

Comparing the pic alongside other NWN portraits, including my own, I felt it was just a little too low-contrast, so the finishing touch here, apart from a few more dashing hair-swirls, is some quite bright lighting to accentuate her face and eyes, and a slight reworking of the background to bring in more orangey glow. Looking back on it, maybe I should have left it at version nine for which I offer a .tga above? What do you think? As I've said before, one of the trickiest things is knowing when to stop. :)