I wanted to do a portrait inspired by Cassatt. I have had an image of a girl standing on a couch commanding a dog with a wand tossing around in my head, and I want to do a similar composition and colors inspired by the Cassatt painting. I think my colors are going to be a little more explosive and my figures less defined.
Doing a few initial sketches I realize that the perspective I want is way different than the Cassatt piece. I will have to work with the height of the viewer to get it looking up at the girl standing on the couch. The perspective is going to give me more trouble than I anticipated!
I flesh out a few of the colors that I want to use. Yellow highlights and purple shadows with orange and red mid tones.The way the pose for the sleeping dog is turning out is inspiring me to do a dawn scene, where everything feels like its just waking up. The idea of a parent getting their cup of coffee and god-awful o'clock and walking in on their kid performing some arcane ritual amuses me. I might include another figure in the background to create more of a narrative.
I realize that I am going to have rework the colors and be a little more playful with my highlights and reflective lighting. Time to start from scratch.
Working on the colors more now; letting the perspective just kind of define itself as I play with the 3 figures in the environment. I like the idea of a really large window behind the girl so I am going to work on a landscape to help create a sense of place. I think I want to make the interactions between the colors softer, making them more of an oily texture rather than this digital acrylic I am working on. I need to focus back on my Cassatt piece for inspiration with overlaying shapes, getting things to sit together in a mix of foreground, middle ground, and background.