For this exercise, I wanted to achieve a lonely mood, with a subject in dark surroundings. This time my model was clothed and more comfortable, in his evening element. Because I wanted to experiment with broken brush strokes, rhythms, and impasto paint, I began this exercise earlier on. I’m glad I did so as the initial interior was too detailed and distracting from the subject. If I were to try this again, I would like to experiment with the Interior being more detailed and the figure being blurred (as in Alexander Kanevsky’s work).

I tried to stick to the fauvist palette to keep things vibrant.

Because he had fallen asleep, I didn’t feel like he would mind sitting one position for so long. I did eventually cover him with the blanket as it was rather chilly with the windows open.

More than a few times, I had to scrape off paint and try again; especially in regards to the interior. This went on over a period of several days. The hands were the most challenging and somehow disproportionate to the rest of him. They resemble Muppet hands. I found it difficult to layer paint thickly and achieve detail, but it was fun.  I also used much more paint than I anticipated with all of my oil paintings for this section. I’m aware that I can make some adjustments to improve this painting, but for now, I need to move on to the next assignment or I will never finish.