After seeing the power of saturated colors in the last piece, I decided to mess with this one a little. Punched up levels and had to adjust saturation a few ties before it looked ok, but the adjustments made the lighting and shadows look too harsh:
I had to do some repainting and make the transitions a lot more subtle.
Incidentally, the first one above is the closest to the actual reference (screen grab from The Americans). It's a very dark show with lighting that frequently leaves the characters faces in shadow and draws attention instead to the space behind them or maybe a ray of light slants across part of the body - very much like the ultimate 70's movie, all nihilistic and anti-heroic. But the painting just didn't work that way - I had to punch it up to make it work. Guess this is all part of learning how to be an artist.
I hate when I do this!! Post an image, work on it some more, post the new version, work on it some more… ad infinitum. But I guess this is how you learn. It seems to be only after I post it to my Flickr gallery and see it nestled among all my other paintings that I can actually gauge it. Anyway, now it looks strong and smooth - strooth? Ok no - that'll never catch on. And forget smong.
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