Work and refinement, "M"

I didn't paint yesterday because, busy day. Today was a nice soaking rain, so, accompanied by episodes of This American Life on my podcast app, I repainted much of "M".

I didn't feel up to tackling the remaining metal work on the tray, so I started by repainting some of the piles of money. I adjusted the color and value of the 50s, 100s and 500s. Then I decided to add another macaron to the right side, which had needed something to balance the left side of the painting, which has so much more going on. Using a yellow macaron and placing it halfway into the shadow of the cup created some high contrast and helped it assert itself. Between that and the bright white milk in the cup, I now feel that the painting is more balanced.

I also gave the Mammoth a second pass, and refined the shapes and details of the macarons. Worked on the pot a little bit, making the color richer and evening up the angle of the left and right sides.

I still want to pay better attention to the Moss, and finish the mirror tray. I'll go over the mask again as well.

This is how the painting looks now, still in progress:

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