Art: Thoughts, In Shadow.

Thoughts, In Shadow (Oil on canvas board, 9x12").

In my reference photo, the model had the majority of her face in shadow and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to render the shapes.  I ended up creating a lost edge between her face and the hair, but found that creating a small temperature difference (warm in the face and cold in the shadows) provided enough information to get the features to read better.  I then played with the hair and background -- pushing and pulling each -- until I found a balance that I felt was effective in creating a mood.

Here are a few progress shots.  The outline was painted with a combination of red oxide, ultramarine blue, and alizarin crimson.  In the second shot, I had the face more rendered than the final painting, but found it distracting, and ended up scumbling it out to create a lost edge with minimal detail.