Testing Tides

Painting we are to take an excerpt out of a book that describes a room and create an interior space for it. I chose "Clockwork Angel" by Cassandra Clare, a teen fiction novel. This is my passage:

"Tessa rose to her feet, glancing around the small room that had been her prison cell for six weeks. It was smaller, with flowered wallpaper, and sparsely finished- a plain deal table with a white lace cloth over it where she ate her meals; and the narrow brass bed where she slept; the cracked washstand and porcelain jug for her ablutions; the window sill where she stacked her books and the small chair where she sat each night and wrote letters to her brother - letters she knew she could never send., letts she kept hidden under her mattress where the Dark Sisters would not find them. It was er way of keeping a diary and assuring her self, somehow that she would see Nate again someday and be able to give them to him. 

She crossed the room to the mirror that hung against the far wall, and smoothed down her hair. The dark Sister, as they in fact wished to be call preferred her not to loo messy. Although they didn't appear to mind her appearance one way or the other past that - which was fortunate, because her refection made her wine. There was the pale oval of her face dominated by her hollow gray eyes - a shadowed face without colour its cheeks or hope in its expression. she ore unflattering black school marmish dress that the sisters have given her once she arrived; her trunk had never followed despite their promises; and now this is the only piece of clothing she owned. She looked away quietly."

Some preliminary colour theory and symbolism ideas in sketchbook for this project.

 So I fiddled around with a painting on photoshop. I did an underlay gouache base in a water colour type effect on recycled brown paper. I have paint chip strips on the side to help with the colour palette. Through the use of layering, masking and adding in texture screens, I was able to transform an idea into a more thoughtful piece. I might not be done yet, and might adjust things, but here is the original. 

Grayscale, monochromatic, and normal colouring sections.

Work in progress, modifying the space to have more contrast. I worked with colour burning, on midtones @ 60-70%,

Current version of this piece., there are some areas that need some work; lightening some areas, but the few details I missed I may want to look back and reconsider. There is still another version of this project I want to look at in the same manner.

Texture added to windows for a dirty, dusty, unkept look.