Arranging Femininity Part II: "Dear god tell me why did I choose such a dark background?"

As the title of this blog would suggest, I've been, as the kids would say, "crashing out." Although my soul is telling me to do very thin, runny layers of black paint for grisaille underpainting, that's clearly not been working. Also, the composition changed slightly, in case you couldn't notice. Over time, I have slowly been getting over my fear of using dark colors, and in the future I will actually use darker values. Additionally, I am still working out how the box should look, as well as the nail polish containers. Tragically, that requires channeling all of my two perspective studies I have ever done. Oil painting isn't as difficult and uptight as I imagined it in my head, but not getting to rest my hand on the page is something I will need to get used to.

The greatest challenge I have faced is my background, as you have figured by now, for it is just short of pure black with a slight teal undertone. However, the amount of turpentine I have been using in my paint mixture is way too turp and far too little actual paint. At this point, adding layers of paint to my background has led to it getting lighter. Next week, I will be mixing it much darker so I can actually get the values and ground I need to properly paint my subjects.