Portrait of Us (Painting as of Jan. 18, 2017)

I returned to this project this morning. I am painting a double portrait of this couple, working from a vacation photo that shows them in Greece on a motor bike, wearing helmets and sunglasses. In December, I did a pencil sketch to get to know their faces. (The sketch  is posted here Dec. 14,  2016).  Then I used it as a guide when I was ready to start painting, tracing the main lines of the sketch onto the canvas, using graphite paper.    Since then, I have been working out lights and darks with thin layers of acrylic paint, using only brown (burnt umber) and white.  I will add color soon, but right now this is "underpainting". Today I started by making some more corrections to the faces and adding some light to them. I think the likeness is getting there. I measured features on the reference photo and the canvas, I turned the canvas upside-down and painted, and I looked at the painting in the mirror. All of that helps. I also worked a bit on both helmets and on the necks and shoulders. Finally, I worked on the sunglasses, adding lights and darks, working from the photo.  I was surprised at by how much of a difference that made.