Getting lost in the details with painting, is something that is all too easy to do. You ultimately lose sight of the bigger picture.
My aim with this particular painting was to focus on colour and form. Mixing and matching colours is one of the hardest things to do in painting, as our mind gets in the way. We have a tendency to paint or draw what we think we see, not what we actually see.
Eugène Delacroix kicked it all off when he started with the revolutionary technique of mixing complimentary colours into his shadows. His sense of colour later inspired the impressionists who became obsessed with colour. They in turn then figurative painters such as John Singer Sargent.
Colour mixing and matching is an in depth topic that covers more than just the paint, but psychology, illusion and physics.