Painting the clothing in grey is satisfying, although I’m not satisfied with the skirt, which looks too tight and uncomfortable in my drawing. I borrowed some fabric from the theatre next to my studio and will get my daughter to kneel in roughly the same position with the cloth wrapped around her like a dress so I can create a nice drapery reference drawing to use in the painting.
I spent a few hours working on defining the upper half of her body using a Van Dyke brown over the grey. It always surprises me that there is such a big difference between the colour of this paint when it’s mixed with a white and that when it’s simply thinned with some walnut alkyd medium. Its a really terrific combination for getting the grey layer done. The light fabric wrapped around her abdomen is painted in Ceramic White over Foundation White, which gives the impression of translucence.
I started work on the wall, which I’ve separated with a shelf across the centre of the painting. The upper wall has a plastered finish with a painted stripe which is beginning to make an environment for the Queen to live in. Because I want the lower part of the wall to be marble I’ve painted it with a preliminary layer of blended and patchy grey and white, with a soft shadow along the top where the shelf will overhang it later.
