What's on my easel at the moment

Here are some photos and thoughts about one of the paintings I'm working on right now.
I've had the idea to do a painting with this composition for a few years but haven't been able to pull the trigger on it until now.  Sometime I seem to work this way, where I have an idea for a composition and feeling for a painting but I may not have the right person to model for it or I may just need to sit on the feeling for a while before I paint it.

Here is a very rough compositional sketch from my mind.

Here is my study drawing from the model.

After my drawing I was not sure I was happy with the composition and feel so I photographed my drawing and played around with it in photoshop.
I printed out a small 8x11 image of the drawing and then painted on top of it to try things.  I also photographed the painting study and played with it in photoshop. 

I ended up wanting to move the figures apart around an inch and put a blind fold on the profile turned to the dark, I also wanted to have the hair down on the figure on the left.  When I first thought of doing this painting a few years ago I was going to have both figures blindfolded but I like the contrast of sight and blindness, light and dark, sight and sound or other senses.  

I then traced my drawing study and transferred it to my linen.  The painting is 18in x 24in

Day one painting with a limited palette of earth colors.

Second coat, starting to use a full palette of colors.

Start of third coat of painting on the figure on the left.  Now it's time to focus and start to model the subtle changes of form, trying to capture the way the light is falling around the form, the beautiful rhythms and patterns it makes.

Here is a detail.

I sometime find it interesting to look at a painting I'm working on in a fame if I have one of the right size handy.  It makes me see the painting differently at times.

More to come soon!
Noah