Vines Wrap Leg

I’m thoroughly enjoying painting these vines, which are more realistic than my earlier more decorative flowers in the Empress painting. I’ve used my reference pictures from the back garden a little, but I’m getting great pleasure out of inventing passages of the vines, leaves and flowers, especially the wiggly bits where the vines twist on themselves and about the sticks that support the Emperor’s chair. I found that adding dark leaves around the ones that I silhouetted in white worked effectively to bring dimension to the mass of flowers and foliage. I have to connect the work I did yesterday at the lower part of the picture with that which I completed today at the top. It’s going to be fun to run the vines across the painting to meet with those emerging from the shaman’s mouth.