Okay, we're going to try him again. Thank you for deleting the previous pink Steve, hopefully this one will be better.
Steven, thanks for the suggestions on deepening shadows, I will do that. The background landscape is not imaginary, but from a photo I took last fall. The lighting is very much like Steve's photo, I just haven't done much work on it. The foreground grasses are all lit from low left, and the background trees will make more sense. I only wanted the colors for ref for now. The landscape photo is on disc, I'll post it after I find it. The bench and picnic table came from another area in the park, lighting is wrong on that, but I'll try to fudge through when I get back there.
I spent tonight on his arms and hands and will post after I get a decent photo. These are critical for what I want to show about him and I'm purposely showing the heavy viening and gnarled look to them. I've never painted the fine hair on arms, so I guess I'm going to learn. Steve doesn't want shaved arms.
A while back I made myself do a painting of a longhorn steer, my assignment was to use no prepared brown or green. I learned a lot on that and will stay away from the sap green for the remainder of this one. I'll post it if Cynthia will approve an "animal".
Jean