Picked up a few 12″ X 16″ panels from the Art Shop at the League to work on over the next few days. This is how far I got on the first one. Not planning on doing much more to it. I know I should be working on the model but I just didnt feel like it. Not today.
Tried to crop the painting to see if it improves upon the existing composition. It needs further work though.
Stuck to my limited palette knocking off even burnt umber for this painting. Had a big problem getting the darks. I was tempted to use the black gesso that a classmate offered me 
I’m proud that I survived the temptation.
Areas that I need to work on are Perspective and drawing straight lines with paint.
I like the compositional difference in the “cropped” version better. It also takes my eye more to the person rather than the window and shadows above him in the previous version.
thanks Anil. I think in the first one the figure should have been placed a bit closer to the base. I’ve taken it almost to the middle which I found distracting too. In the crop, felt I needed to remove more of the black below and add a bit more to the top. Will do a couple of thumbnails before the next attempt.