David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 15)

Step 15

After a few more sessions of work, the rolled canvas on the studio floor is starting to take on a more solid, volumetric appearance. I stepped away from the images on the wall for a bit until I bring the other elements up to a similar finish. You may notice the green cast to David's flesh. I laid down a couple of washes of dilute terre verte over his head and arms and also modeled their shadows slightly with a stronger mix of green earth and verdaccio. The dirty greens work well to enliven the fleshtones, especially in the shadows, once more natural, pink hues come on top. I'll do a similar thing with David's jacket. Its local color will be a rich two-tone blue (kind of like the old man earth behind him) but I want to create subtle iridescent contrasts in the jacket's shadows, so I am applying a complementary orange over the darker values in the jacket. I'll allow those reddish-oranges to show through to some degree in the finished painting for a vibrant contrast. (Or rather, I will if it doesn't look like crap.)

Below are a couple of details following today's work. Still, of course, in progress.