the four year project - post 4

After many weeks of working on other projects, I've now come back to this painting with a vengeance. This post shows my first major sitting on that work since returning to it.

You can see I blocked in all the color, filling in the blank areas of the canvas (well wood). Placing my eldests hair color, the book and picture frame (on right),  allowed me to final gauge the overall tonal range. I have now gone back and toned the chair and the bureau behind a little, to get the range closer to what I wanted.

I also worked in to my youngest childs face, in previous posts I hadn't quite got his features right so I need to adjust elements to bring it into line. It always amazes me how subtle the human face is; where the smallest of changes to a nostril shape can define 'his' nose, and single brush stroke around on a lip can change the expression dramatically.

You may also notice I've blocked out the vertical from a stand light behind my youngest sons shoulder. Though accurate, the line of it fell to closely to the vertical of his shirt below. I will move this over an inch or so in time.

Few other quick things - I know in time I'll have to fix the foot in the bottom right. It's accurate, but looks too long for the body, I fear removing it will loose the figures grounding to, well the ground. Also eyebrows just placed with a quick dab, will have to refine later. Finally I really need to refine the tone of that orange shirt....

In the next post you'll see some close ups on the faces and I resolve them further.