A figure in an interior

I have chosen to work with a photography with my model, he is reading a book by a window on a throw covered armchair. I have two sources of light one we can see and the other is just out of view. This adds some clear highlights which I am hoping depicts space around him. The colouring is simple and reverts focus from the background to my model.

Canvas 30x40cm

I painted directly and did not do any drawings. To almost replace the practice pencil sketches, I really focused on creating an accurate outline on my canvas, paying close attention to the scale and major lines.

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Base layers are created in buff titanium for the wall. I added burnt sienna to buff titanium for the sofa and then created a palette of burnt umber, raw sienna and buff titanium for the skin tone. The first layer of the denim on the jeans is made from ultramarine blue, coeruleum blue and titanium white. I tried to follow the line, detail and tones of the denim

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I changed the colouring of the sheet draped on the armchair. I used warm grey and created shadow with payne’s grey. I painted the window with white and a mix of buff titanium for the window frame and used a cool blue to add some shape. I also created a slight edge around the frame. I mix more colours onto my palette and added tone, highlight and shadow onto the skin. I also began adding black to the book andand was able to add features to the face. I used ultramarine blue and mars black to the curtain.

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Next, I tidied up the painting giving the armchair more highlight, tone and shadow creating a more flowing and floating fabric. I added some details to the window, skin, jeans and generally pulled together to finish the painting.

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Thoughts?

I like this painting as a whole, I think the angle is really appealing, it adds the perspective. The light is directly behind my model and theres another source of light just out of view on the right. I think I captured that with the highlights and shadows. This has been one of my favourite paintings to create.

I did not do any preparatory work although I suppose working from a photograph and the process of taking a photo to paint may help simplify the process of creating the painting. I wonder if maybe that is why I have creating something I enjoy more. Just a theory, I wanted to note.