Painting in progress...

OK, as promised earlier, here's a couple of painting pics. This is of my new pal, Danny, who is a sculptor and a university lecturer. I wanted this to major on his hands, as that's what he's about. We went for a walk in the woods near the university to see if we could find something that corresponded with the plan I had (see sketches)...

and he was going to bring a bit of his sculptural stuff.. but in the end we both forgot to bring that, what with all the clutter that I'd brought, lenses, tripod, reflectors and what have you. Danny was wearing shorts and the area is known for black snakes so it was a bit scary. I did actually get almost exactly that shot in the lower left sketch, but without the sculpture it looked odd to say the least.

Anyway, we found this tree with low branches that meant something to Danny and I liked this pose, it makes a lot of his hands, but once I was back in the shed, I was wishing that the sky wasn't so white to set his head against. I've tried to darken the area behind his head and added some limbs that aren't actually there in reality, but I'm still not sure about it. Anyway, thought I'd put something up. The head is getting close now, and the rest I'm going to keep as loose as I can. Bit more in the hands and arms, but I really don't want to overwork it, if I haven't already done so. We'll see.

I'm not sure about the clashing colours... anybody got any ideas?