I'm Going to Have Blue Christmas (without you) 6"x6" acrylic

This was for a DPW challenge to use Magnesium Blue (which I don't have) to do a value study of a celebrity.  I had many more frustrating moments with this than I had anticipated.  I wanted to get the fuzziness of his beard, the soft furriness of the hat and coat trim, the fleshiness of his face, the twinkle in his eye and the grandfatherliness of his personality and not have it look creepy because it is all blue!  What do you think?  The whole time I was painting, the song "I'll Have a Blue Christmas" by Elvis, was playing in my head.  See an early version of this song at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ODrPL9-kEs

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Autumn Values 6"x6" oil

This is one I had forgotten about.  I did it in 3 values and then came back and added color.

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The Reader 6"x6" oil

Sometimes I have the hardest time getting a good photo of a particular painting, and this is one of them...there is glare on it, so all I can say is that it is better than it looks!  I did a value study of this first.

VT Values 6"x6" oil

This is another values study using transparent oxide brown, Caribbean blue, and white.  It is of a local covered bridge that was washed out in Hurricane Irene, but has since been rebuilt.

Reader oil 6"x6"

I have been really interested in value lately and I decided to do some value studies.   This also gave me a reason to use my Torrid Gray.  I am trying to keep it to 3 or 4 values (light, medium and dark).  This really helps to reveal the composition or design of the piece and helps me to see where something needs to be darker or lighter (usually darker).
NFS

Lincoln 8x10 acrylic #240

This was a Michael Naples challenge on Daily Paintworks. The idea was to do a gray value portrait from his famous photo using just ultramarine blue, burnt umber and titanium white. It is a really good exercise, but the second part was particularly difficult. After doing this, he suggested doing it in color from the black and white photo. I will post my results tomorrow. I used acrylic and canvas board for this. I used to always paint with acrylics but since I have been using oil, the fast drying factor of acrylics really bugs me!