A figure in an interior

As I am now totally bored with using myself as a model, I decided to snatch a couple of quick drawings of my other half, asleep in the recliner chair with his feet up.  I did these in charcoal because, at the moment, it’s about the only thing I can grip!  Managed to trap my right thumb in the car door so very badly bruised, , cut, swollen and nail very loose.  So, I am finding it virtually impossible to hold a pencil because I can’t hold anything with the top of my thumb – I am having to grip lower down my thumb which means I don’t have as much control over mark-making as normal.

This first sketch was from my seat on the sofa.  I have already simplified this, there is much more junk on the floor as well as a small, round side table and edge of the radiator cover on the right-hand side, so edited much of this out.  

I felt the figure was OK in this drawing but the background doesn’t give much opportunity to display perspective.  So, I did another drawing, this time sitting on the rug in front of him.

I felt that this sketch gave more possibilities to show depth and perspective (by the view through the arch into the kitchen and out the window) as well as the angle of the curtain rail and edge of the patio doors.

I also think the foreshortening of the legs and the size of the feet make for a more interesting view of the figure than the previous view.  The one thing I wasn’t sure about was the cut off objects on the right-hand side (edge of table and lampshade) as I feel they might draw the eye out of the image too much (the light lampshade against the dark curtains would probably be the strongest point of contrast).

I wanted to exaggerate the neutral tones in this painting: Dave was wearing grey and pale khaki clothing, the walls are a neutral/ cream beige and the floors/ kitchen units light wood.

So I mixed up a range of neutral colours, mainly comprising greys, browns and pale flesh tones.  I wanted the painting to have a darker undertone to signify early evening light, rather than a bright daytime view, and so tested the colours over both black and grey acrylic.  I decided to go with the grey because I thought the colours were too bright against the black, while the grey neutralised them somewhat.

After underpainting the canvas with the neutral grey, I loosely painted on my outline using dilute pale grey and began to paint.  I knew this would be a fairly loose painting, bearing in mind my lack of control with a paintbrush at the minute, and so decided to go with this very loose style.

Finished painting – adding more highlights plus detail on the face.  Also changed the colour slightly on the wall behind as felt this was too streaky and dull.

Compositionally, I feel this painting does work in terms of placing the figure in the interior – angles, size, foreshortening, etc.  The perspective is OK – door frame and receding space into kitchen.  However, some of the horizontals are out (sloping slightly) and the kitchen cupboards are too small/floor space too big.  The figure is OK – proportions are accurate and does give the impression of a sleeping/slumped figure in a chair.  And even though the face is very minimal, I feel I have captured the fact that he always frowns when he is sleeping!

Also makes my lounge look really boring and empty!  There is actually a small cupboard on the wall behind but that is obscured by the chair.  All the usual clutter in the kitchen is on the two walls behind the archway.

Also not too sure about the colours – floor is OK as are the clothes and curtains.  Put together, however, I am not sure they really work together.  The painting is also very sketchy, and not my usual style due to the issue with my thumb/not being able to hold the brush properly.