nightmare painting

So, I suppose that I should start this off with a little background on the concept.  A few months ago I had a dream/nightmare where this guy was crawling on his hands an knees toward someone I know.  She turned instantly pale and old looking as she stared at him.  It was like a deer-in-headlights- type of thing.  She was so scared all pigment left her body.  It was freaky to say the least.  I thought it was someone in a mask just messing around, so I went over to her, and it turned toward me.  His sunken eyes glared at me, and I realized there was no mask.  He was white with weathered, fucked up skin.  I felt fear as I looked at it, then I woke up.  I sat up in bed kind of freaked out; it didn’t help that I woke up my girlfriend sleeping next to me because when I turned around I saw here staring at me.  Needless to say it freaked me out again and confused her.  So of, course I felt the need to paint this disturbing image that has been burned into my memory for all to be disturbed with me.  Mwahahaha.  No?  ok.  On to the stages of the painting.

The first thing i did was sketch it onto the canvas.

next i just started painting trying to make lines where i need to shade.

i just built it up a little more.

i saved the hair for one of the last spots because i wanted to get the face pretty much done so i wouldn't have to worry about trying to paint in between the hairs...if that makes sense to you.

so with the hair in place and the top of the face basically there i started darkening everything.  i didn't like the background so i made it darker.  i pretty much just thinned out some black with linseed oil and smeared it with a paper towel.  perfection.  haha  also i added the skin peeling in spots and just added a bit more detail.

and here if the finished product.  tightened everything up, and fixed the shirt.  i didn't really need a bunch of detail in the shirt, but i wanted it to look realistic for the most part. 

here's a detail of the eye.  i added some blue for veins...looked cool to me.

anyway...there you go.  it was all done in oils.  it's 18" x 24" on canvas.