The carnation is making slow progress … lots of details in the play of light, which I have to invent in this case… The lower row of teeth is now a little more in shadow and the upper row is slowly becoming more even, so it becomes a little more unreal and comic-like … The candle is slightly reflected in the abstracted surface of the book …
Next, the teeth are made more even and a little more three-dimensional and the abstracted cubist candle is painted a little more waxily, and the carnation is of course emphasized a little more (more clearly).
I didn’t paint an ember on the smoking wick, I had considered it, orange or red embers don’t work of course, but in white-grey tones it might have worked … I decided against it because it would then emphasize another focal point in the picture too strongly.
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