The first layer of another vine of morning glory has invaded the right hand side of the painting, creeping over the marble wall and wrapping the corner behind the Empress’ feet. The wormwood has been tucked in behind the leaves, and tomorrow these vines will extend further over to the edges of the canvas at the bottom and right. Here I plan to make quite a lot of foliage fill the corner of the painting to avoid excessive symmetry, and to add quite a lot of those lovely blue flowers and pink buds. I prefer to keep the work of painting the flowers separate to making the leaves, so I’ll add the blooms in later.
I may need to work on the Empress’ feet before I add colour to the leaves, so I’ll get more of the grey layers of vines cascading over the sill of the wall as it comes towards us, pop in a few more leaves above the wormwood, then move to working on painting toes, which have not had any attention for a long time. Time for a pedicure.
