David and Jimmie - Thanks! Well, you've both hit on a couple of areas that I felt nervous about as I was working on this painting. . .
David - Thanks! Handling the setting was tricky for this painting since skating rinks are so diffusely lit with a multitude of light sources. This area (under a 2nd level viewing balcony) where the skaters get ready to go out on the ice seemed to at least offer the possibility to suggest a more directional light source. The reference for the girl and skates was actually photographed away from the rink with natural light. I went with the 'atmospheric' and sort of roughly suggested background as a way to create a setting that was recognizable to the girl and her family but that didn't require me to fudge too much on lighting that didn't really exist in that environment! I was very nervous to show the client as I hadn't previously done a painting with such a coarse background - mostly slathered on with a palette knife. It wasn't intentionally 'classical' but the client had that same reaction to it (thankfully!
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Thanks Jimmie! - That hand was the only part of the reference photo that was blurred (in motion)... and my original plan was to use the hand from the next frame which was clear and held similarly near the flowers (mini-carnations)... but somehow the slight difference in the positioning of the 'clear' hand didn't fit naturally with the rest of the pose, so I resorted back to the original blurry reference and interpreted the hand from there. You'll see in the close-up it's still a little indistinct...