Finishing the Clothes for Fgures in an Interior

I'm happy with the faces now, especially since I added the glasses to the figure on the left, so now I've been adding detail to the clothes. It's surprising how it adds solidity to the figures, especially the figure on the right who's head looked a bit disconnected from her body. Adding the detail to the foreground and her legs will contribute more to this illusion of depth and solidity.
I'm looking forward to the composition all coming together now, and to see how the colours work together.

Features for Figures in an Interior

I've spent a while working on the features of the girls, painting and repainting and rubbing out and starting again. I'm trying not to get frustrated but when I shut my eyes I can see paint!

I decided to take a leaf out of Lucian Freud's book and paint with a longer handled brush, which has given more texture on the left face which is more interesting and "painterly." It's also enabled me to add more texture to the hair, which I'm pleased with. The shading is coming on better too, plus the features are more accurate, especially on the face on the right. The eye closer to the foreground on this face has given me a lot of trouble, mostly because of the tricky angle, which I thought was on a flatter angle than what it is in the original photo. This has resulted in me having to paint over and start again around five times, but I'm glad I made myself do it, rather than put up with an area I knew was wrong, and have to see it as wrong every time I looked at it.

I think I'll concentrate more on the clothing now, and work my way down the painting, so I can see it as a whole, then I can decided if the features need any further work. Plus I think I'll have to add more shadows to the left figures arm, the one closer to the edge of the canvas, as it still looks a little flat, plus the colours don't match up with the colours of the face.

More detail to Figures in an Interior

I've started adding detail to the hair and the features, now that I'm satisfied with the background. The issuse with the section behind the figure on the right has been resolved, thanks to adding more layers of a thin wash of lighter paint.
The features still needs a lot of refining, but it's starting to take shape, which I'm pleased with. The forms still look a little flat, especially around the arms of the figure on the left, but the face some good modelling to it, but again it needs finishing details, and the face on the right needs a lot of work to it, especially due to the tricky angle.
At the moment neither of the girls in the painting look exactly like their version in the original photo. I was hoping to get more of a likeness, but if it doesn't work out then I won't be too disappointed.

From starting to read the book Art and Illusion by E H Gombrich I've started to see the paintings and drawings I do to be more connected to the realm of illusion which is what they really are. This has helped me to see the shapes and forms that are created in the paint as more like abstract marks, which has helped me to analyse the images much more effectively. So rather than thinking "that's a nose, so lets paint a nose" it's more like thinking about what kind of shape that nose is, which can be very different to what you think the nose should look like. This has been very important to me in the development of the features, as has the information in the "painting portraits" book, indeed they seem to compliment each other.

Adding detail to Figures in an Interior

The pink areas for the clothing have now been added which brings more interest and warmth to the image, and adds even more of a contrast to the cool colours in the background. Plus I've adjusted the drapes behind the figure on the left so that it has more contours. The area behind the figure on the right is still a bit a problem because it looks too flat. Once I've sorted out these background areas I'll start work on the features which are the hardest bit of the painting.

I've been reading lots from the book Painting Portraits by Rosalind Cuthbert for any tips to help me with this task, and there's some very useful and important information in there, such as the way that the features distort as the face turns away. The figure on the right will be particuluarly problematic because not only is the face in a three quarter view, but is also turned slightly on an angle. I can see now that the eyes aren't at enough of an angle to match the figure in the original photo which has a much steeper angle to it. The figure on the left presents a problem because she is looking so low down. This means that the lips are hardly visible plus the ears will be much higher up in the composition that usual.

Development of Figures in an Interior

This photo, taken in the daytime, which more accurately depicts the colours used, shows the warm areas for the figures plus the cooler areas for the background that have been added. The photo which I was painting from had cooler shades of grey in the background which, even if they weren't there I would have added, as they'll help to push the figure further forward in the composition.

Next stages of Figures in an Interior

This next images shows the underpainting of burnt sienna, yellow ochre and white. I wanted warm undercolours because it's going to have a lot of areas of skin plus the colours of the clothing are pinks and purples. Maybe I should have used green as the underpainting colour because I've since read in a book called "painting portraits" by Rosalind Cuthbert that green was primarily used because it was a

contrast colour to the warm tones on top, plus it was able to effectivly portray areas of veins, especially on the hands.

Figures in an Interior

These are a series of photos showing the work in progress for the Figures in an Interior project.

This first photo is the sketch at the very beginning, with some paint added at the bottom. The colours are very warm looking just because I took it at night, so it's giving a false impression of what it looks like.