I have started the first painting phase of the Lady with a Fan – master copy of the Velazques painting. Under the first painting layer, I first sketched in the drawing with raw umber, black and white. After that, a grisaille layer of blue/gray of the skin only followed. I left this layer partly visible when first painting, in between the warm of the lights and shadows, where the cool skin tones are.
After the paint is dry, I’ll continue with another layer of paint, the second painting. So almost everything that is visible now, will be covered with yet another layer of paint.
Hopefully, the flesh areas are then finished. Some fixing may be necessary, depending how everything goes, eventually.
I also did some of the highlights of the veil. The painting is quite small (the face is only 7cm tall) so I have worked with small brushes with sharp tips. iPhone camera lies a bit, the colors are not right and the hightlights are not so strong in the real painting. After the second painting, the roughness of the different plains of value and color should be more subtle and realistic.
While waiting for the wet areas to dry, I’ll work on the background as well as the dress. Those gloves are also quite tempting…
