A Little Girl in Winter Red

How do you work with shadow and light?  Do you like flat imagery or that which has depth?  

I worked on this piece because of an interest in learning how to create depth in a painted surface through conveying shadow and light areas.  The coat became my primary focus and was challenging.  But there have been classical to modern painters who've done this kind of thing extraordinarily well.  I'm just beginning to learn what it takes.  That is -- a different kind of 'seeing' -- looking at the folds of fabric for their light and shadow qualities, and color properties.  Looking for the shapes of shadow and the shapes for the light.  That takes using the base color and mixing it with gradations of tints and tones to use to create the contours of the folds and depth shown by a sense of layers in different positions in space.  

I consider this piece a success because there is actually some depth to be seen in the coat.  Even the tilt of the head works, and I've not done that kind of facial pose before.  

Last but not least, the snowflakes were added digitally.  To imagine painting them was anxiety-producing, since I wasn't as confident about being able to fix a problem if one came up in the process.  

What are techniques that you use to paint light and shadow, and depth?  

Note:  Photo inspiration appears to be that of Mon-el Fine Art & Images.