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Clive,
I would stick to a smaller format, head and shoulders or head and hands. I would not attempt to do a full body, especially with such casual dress. I am assuming that this is not a commission, where if you get paid enough money, you might take on something like this. That's a lot of painting on the wall for a very casual portrait.
I may get into hot water for this, but my advise would be to do many many heads. You could do six, eight heads in the amount of time it would take you to do a full length of this size. At this stage in your training, you really need to concentrate on nailing those heads. And the more you do, the better. You need hundreds of heads and miles of canvas to get good at this, and working out the composition in an overstuffed chair and docker shoes with white socks takes you away from that task.
(BTW, I've been looking at your Madamoiselle M. portrait, I just need some time to post....I'll do so later today)
Bill, love the "Unknown Woman" by Ivan Kramskoy. One of the greatest portraits in the world.
Peggy
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