I'm Thrilled!

I am thrilled with what I got done on this painting today because of what it was before that. I only posted the beginnings of it, so y'all only saw a bit of how far from my original vision I had gotten. Too many details got included when I should have just been blocking in. I know that I always tell my teacher that I put the details in so I know where they're supposed to be, but I got way too attached to them and then unhappy because of it. When I first saw the photo which inspired this painting, it was the light and the contrast that attracted me to the subject, not the actual people in the photo. So, I've been letting it sit in the diningroom, on an easel, waiting for me to finally work up the nerve to paint out that which was making me unhappy. First, I painted out the lady in red. I thought that was enough, but the whole feel of the painting was wrong. Today, I did a purple wash over the entire painting, followed by a greenish gray and some bluish grays. I worked over every part of the painting, getting rid of the guy on the left and really losing a lot of detail. Which was a good thing. And now it has the feel that I was going for when I began thinking about this painting back in September. God loves me.