I do not have a rational for choosing the photos that I would like to paint. It is really all on "feeling". A photo of our friend Gilles pausing after a short walkabout in the Cevennes.

Start with the eyes, and face. This is really tiny though, and I do not have enough light to get things right, but there is an irrational hope the "everything will turn out all right".

The doors are going to be light blue, but some of hte shadows, too.

Did the legs and arms, walking stick, and shirt, and the knocker which will be black (deep aquamarine+burnt umber). The colors I am using so far: white, yellow ocre, red ocre, raw sienna, deep aquamarine, burnt umber.

The door is going to be blue, but blue, like red is a transparent color, so the shadows and cracks on the door were painted in white+terre-de-cassel (van dyck brown), as was the shirt folds which will also be painted over, once it dries.

the doors and windows are deep aquamarine, cut with medium, painted over the shadows down in black and white before. I did a light coat of the same on the inside of the pillar, too. Same for the shirt.

Quickly filled in the background, ground, and then placed some hanging (indiscriminate) plant by the back door: cadmium yellow, and the aquamarine blue. I will do the shorts and the shoes after this. and then try to make the face brighter.

Did the shorts, worked for a long while on the face, trying to get the eyes better, bushier eyebrows, better highlights (added cadmium yellow to raw sienna and a touch of red ocre), added some weeds along the back of the stone bench, shoes, a red ocre wash to define the leg muscles better, and bent the wall behind the window to follow the bent far door (parallax in the original photo). And then strengthened the rod which actually ties the picture together, and gives it meaning.

I darkened the doors using a medium wash of terre de cassel and cadmium blue, to try to make the seated figure stand out more, also darkened beneath the seater.