The light, reminiscent of a Rembrandt portrait. The composition gave me a tough time as it didn’t seem to sit comfortably on the canvas. I changed the orientation of the painting to give the portrait more space to breath.

It seemed appropriate to use the last bit in the tube of Rembrandt Madder Deep. A magical paint colour that I have managed to use for the last umpteen years. I used it for the underpainting of the portrait. A tad radical, however, I read somewhere that Rembrandt used red underpainting for his portraits.