It looks almost as though the smoke is embedded into the wall, plus the contrast of the impressionist strokes next to the smooth texture of the man is very striking, and I actually prefer that the rest of the painting seems to seep away letting your eye always be attracted to the man, so he is not consumed by the dark background~(ooo eerie, haha)
So clean man. Really dig this one. Itd look a lil tighter if you could somehow have got some of those black lines on the figure and candle into the upper bg. Balance and all that,
I do like my impressionist strokes
quite heavy outlines around the figure aren't there
i always keep this in mind when i draw. I had a proff tell me once, " you can tell how well drawn a drawing is by the hands" and I truly believe that