I finally got back in the studio yesterday and made some progress.
It’s been so cold in recent weeks I’ve wanted to do nothing but cocoon myself in layers of blankets, but yesterday it was at least in the positive digits, so I blasted the heat and made the studio inhabitable.
I darkened the landscape surrounding the figures to help define them and give them some contrast. Also used some warm pink and orange to give the flesh some life.
There’s still a blue cast to the bodies so I may work even more warmth into them, but I’m going to hold off on making a final decision on that until I’ve had more time to look at the piece and decide if that’s really what I want to do. I don’t want to lose the impression of the environment merging with the figures, and pumping them up with too much fleshy colour might jeopardise that.
I'm also going to work at lightening the bit on the left were the greenery meets the sky, I’d like it to fade back and blend a bit more. It's currently a bit too loud and too florid.
Here's a detail of my favourite figure in the bunch:
