Category Archives: Making work
Architecture!
I’ve added the bones of new sections of window to the left of the painting in a rethink of the architecture of the painting, mostly because I dislike the small size of the window as it was, but also simply … Continue reading
Shadows and Light
Putting shadow beside the Lady, the sword and the grail made everything feel far more three dimensional. The sword casts an interesting shadow shape which I enjoyed working out, while the grail is much closer to the wall, so the … Continue reading
Leaded
Working on the painting yesterday and today turned into a real pleasure, with a major change to the composition with the addition of some leaded glass behind the Queen and a base layer for the sword and grail. The window … Continue reading
The Sword and the Grail
I realized that the perspective of the window was a little askew, so I’ve enlarged one of the receding walls a little and narrowed the other to accommodate a correction. The window is a little smaller as a result, … Continue reading
Grail Fresco
      I’ve used Bembo’s illustrations for the Tales of Lancelot to produce a fresco along the wall behind the Queen, referring to the work of Botticelli, his great contemporary, for the feel of the faded paint of fresco paintings. (I love the Botticelli frescos … Continue reading
Bonifacio Bembo
I’ve been mulling over how to approach the mural that I wanted to put onto the wall on the upper right side of the painting, but after a lot of thought I’ve decided that the composition works best if the … Continue reading
This Ear and Fingers
Because the hand was quite inelegant I’ve extended the fingers and flattened them out from their original bunched position, altered her arm by making it thinner and repainted the base layer of the sky and landscape around it. The white … Continue reading
Red Lips, Red Hair, Red Dress
The face is much improved thanks to a solid day of focused work, although the ear still needs to be fixed up. I spent a lot of time around the mouth and eye, re-shaping the contours of the shadows to … Continue reading
Red on Red
  This sounds crazy, but I’ve spent a long time painting the red dress red again with the Red Ochre, deepening the colour and adding and blending some blues into the shadows. I added a little Raw Umber into the Ochre and used … Continue reading
Lady in Red
It was a dramatic day of change for the Queen painting in the studio today as I added Red Ochre to the dress. I left the grey version of the dress alone to dry for a couple of days to … Continue reading