Paint by numbers

The latest painting is entering the final stages. Hooray! I'm not in my favorite "trace over everything" stage, where I tighten things up to make them ultra snazzy. I still have some details to figure out, but the final will look a lot like what you see above.

The big decision is figuring out the background. I'm mulling over two choices: A very pale yellowish color, and 50% gray, which I purchased after I noted my lack of it for the LAST painting. To be honest, I prefer the white background, but that would need some touches to keep it from being boring - meaning a lot of underpainting and, uh, overpainting... and paint is expensive!