One light Painting

Nigel is a silversmith that frequents my local pub in London. He is a very interesting tattooed subject so i tried to capture a moment of him lighting one of his rolled cigarettes. I was initially going to paint the subject 'Nigel' in the background but then realized it would take too much away from the focal point which is the flaming match. So i decided to leave it out and concentrate on drawing the viewer in from the flame to the rings and tattooed hands, chains and finally the coat. The rings and chains are actually silver in real life as Nigel is a silversmith but because of the reflection from the flame it looks like gold which i thought was pretty cool. The chains were the hardest to paint as they were slightly out of focus which means everything had to be blended together. The only black oil paint used was for the background to create a high chiaroscuro effect and make the hand look like it is coming out of the painting. "Within the lonely tunnels of the underground lurk soft honeysuckle smiles. These young hopefuls are surrounded by darkness but in each one, there is a hidden light."-A match that lights the fire - by Ink