New Project: Portrait of E. and R. Ray

I started a new project two weeks ago at the cottage: a portrait of my parents.
The reference photo below is an old digital photo from a visit to Haliburton on Thanksgiving in 2001.
In my first session, I did a quick dry brush drawing based on a cropped version of the photo. I wanted to focus more on them as subjects and include less of the background woods. But I felt that my placement of my Dad was flawed: with the left elbow disappearing into the right edge of the canvas, it made his left arm look like a stump! So I moved the figure to the left several inches. I lost a good drawing of his facial features, but I'll recover them later... The background woods will be lightened much later and I've decided not to include the tree trunk; I want to include some open space instead with the suggestion of younger trees and

For this painting, I'm trying a new gadget that allows me to connect an iPad to a tripod -- very handy!

Current state: 

Original layout: 

Reference Photo: 

Finishing Touches for Still Life #3

I'm in the final stage of this painting now. The pine cones and basket were completed in April.
For the last couple of sessions, I've been concentrating entirely on the red cloth, trying to recreate the criss-cross pattern in the cloth. At first, I was tempted to recreate all the black lines as they flow into the darkness. And then I realized that the lines become increasingly soft and lighter the farther back they go. Painting them this way has given the cloth a softness that contrasts nicely with the crisp outline of the apple. The attention stays on the apple, where I want it to be.  The real apple (substitute #3) was removed by students in late April when the smell became too much to be. I don't blame them. :)

For the final few sessions, I'm going to continue softening edges where they need to be softened, and also repaint the background one more time.