Dear Chris,
Thank you for giving critical consideration to my work. You and Enzi both have confirmed that which I suspected concerning that bright red accent. Would it have worked, had the accent been closer to his face -- a red bandanna tied around the neck, for instance? I was really intrigued by the concept of a unexpected shot of bold color in an otherwise monochrome setting and wanted to give it a try. But I believe I have learned a valuable lesson from this failure.
I have been toying with the idea of doing this same composition in watercolor. I tend to paint watercolors in multiple glazes with careful blending, allowing the paper to completely dry between glazes. I planned to include a background of softly blurred foliage next time, thinking the red/green color complements might work well. The child's skin tone is a warm cinnamon brown and the light on the subject is that of late afternoon. But of course, now I'm not so certain. If I paint the boat a less saturated red, might I avoid the mistake evident in the above drawing?
I do not have Photoshop (or to my knowledge, anything like it), so I can't as yet try the exercise you have suggested, Chris. However, judging from the many threads mentioning such imaging software, I think that I had better acquire it soon. It sounds like an extremely helpful tool.
Chris, two weeks ago I purchased your book,
Painting Beautiful Skin Tones, and have since been studying it with keen interest. One of my greatest challenges to date has been ascertaining the relative warmth or coolness of the light source to the shadow areas on the model. But your book offers the clearest explanation of the prinicple that I have read to date. Thank you! Sometime in the future, I would love to take one of your workshops.