The Night Prelude, Part 5

At this point, I'm zeroing in on the end of the piece so this is likely to be the last post regarding its process until I get it scanned. For me, the changes to a painting become increasingly subtle as it grows nearer to completion, with the changes at present on this particular piece having mostly to do with background and foreground elements. In essence, I'm mostly working on trees, weeds, and fog, and it's likely not to be interesting to read about going forward.

By the end of last week, I'd gotten the painting to this point:

As you can see when compared to the previous post (link), there's some background work that's been done. Whereas before you'll see that there are larger, more nebulous shapes indicated for the background, I have finally begun to define individual trees and branches.

So far this week, I've done a few finishing details on the dress, and a fair bit of work on the foreground, with a small amount of additional progress on the background made as well. Here's where I left it yesterday:

All I've got to do, really, is finish things up. The grass and brush at front will require another pass, as will the background. I'm still not 100% sure how much detail I'm going to indicate on the tangled forest behind the figure, but I'll easily be able to work that out as I go. Too much detail may pull focus from the figure and could undermine some of the atmosphere, while too little detail might make the whole thing feel a little under developed.

The way I see it, there's no reason that I shouldn't be able to make that decision and bring the entire piece to a close by the end of today. But if that's going to happen, I guess I better get on with it.