Selfridge's VII (Harry Selfridge)

The big man himself, Harry Selfridge.

This is the seventh (of fifteen) in a series of practice pieces painted in Manga Studio 5, based on screen caps from season two of 'Mr Selfridge'.

Here, I made an obvious attempt to push the caricature of the portrait, instead of relying on my usual slapdash gesture drawing. I also stopped using color comps by this point, which was actually quite liberating (I was mainly practicing color comps for when I start inventing my own compositions, rather than painting from reference). I found that I had no more color problems since I took the time to pick the right color when I needed it, rather than resorting to the color palette I established in my color comp. (After I pick a color I always test it on the canvas before I start painting with it; it's impossible to judge if a color is right until it's next to the colors that will surround it.)

This is probably also the first contre jour (strongly backlit) painting I have ever done from reference, which was fun. I ended up exaggerating the contrast in the figure to bring out details.

(Finished March 17, 2015)