Painting - Novel Interior - Ayla's Place

New project for painting. We have to pick a novel, or a legend or even a poem, and depict an interior location inspired by our chosen work.

I decided to chose my interior from one of my favorite's novels from Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series: "The Valley of Horses".

This series happens during the ice age. The heroine, Ayla, having been banished from her Clan under the "death curse", is on a long lonely journey to look for "the Others". After a long fruitless voyage, she finds a small cave in a sheltered valley. She ends up living in the valley for several years, eventually joined by a steppe horse and a cave lion which she rescues.

The cave is described in this quote, when Ayla first discovers it:

"The cave was not large but not small either. The walls angled back from the entrance, widening until they came to a fairly straight back wall. The general shape was roughly triangular, with the apex at the mouth and the east wall longer than the west."

And a quick note about the "hole" in the ceiling:

"There was more light in the cave than she expected, and when she moved farther, she saw sunlight through a hole above the entrance and understood why. She also understood a more practical value to the hole. It would allow smoke to get out without filling the upper reaches of the cave, a distinct advantage."

So here is my Tonal Study! Gouache on Watercolor paper. More color studies, and the final painting to come!