Hey all,
More progress on this today. Though I've worked on it for plenty of hours, it probably doesn't look like much:
Things are definitely coming together nicely, I think. I'm really enjoying that bright light on Henry's uniform, and have started to have some fun with it. Some of my favorite kind of stuff in painting can be seen in the edges of shadows - especially, when they're against a lighter subject, you're going to get a sort of penumbra of super intense color. It's the kind of thing that gives those bright values a luminous quality, as opposed to just being properly placed.
I just really feel that the quality of light can be exploited with the proper manipulation of edges. Though it's a bit crude so far in this stage, here's a better example of what I'm talking about
:
With that red along the edge of Aaron's fingers and lower arm, it would just be a flat shape. It would still give the impression of that light, but with that kind of color choice separating the darker tones from the light, I think it really actually shines off of the surface and makes the white in his jersey seem that much more brilliant, and even makes his arm turn in space a bit better. It might sound a bit crazy, but trust me, when seen on a painting in person, it's a really cool effect.
Anywho, hope you're enjoying the process thus far!
Graig