Balancing the foreground

Every now and then I get a bit of a shock when during my painting process, I get a feeling that, what I thought would be an easy project is not turning out to be an easy one. The above painting had large shapes that are easy to paint; but that part didn’t help me. The foreground proved to be a lot harder task because there was the immediate foreground and the ‘slightly further out’ foreground with expert details needed for both!

A side note worth sharing is that during my planning phase, I truly enjoyed doing a quick study sketch of the boy’s expressions.