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Photo #2
The way I approached the underpainting helped a great deal to make sense of the unjulating links of the chains inside the medallion and on the headdress. Now every link is connected to another and there is some order in the house. Note how I used the most obvious shapes in the reference and made sure that they repeat where they need to be in the painting. There are plenty of little ommissions, but since the major shapes are in place the piece looks correct.
When I layed in the paint, I aimed for value 9 my lightest Yellow Ochre (no white- that's reserved for the highlights only!) Then I placed in the darkest value 1 of Raw Umber. These two along with the values of the underpainting then allowed me to create the form and general layout of the chains and the medallion.
The areas facing the light source receive the lightest values and decrease in value becoming less intense and darker as they turn away. Watch out for those pieces that overlap others, casting shadows and making those areas darker.
While looking at the shapes and how they relate to each other ask: "What color is it? Is it cool or warm? Intense or dull? Repeat this at every new layer application and hopefully everything will fall into place.
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