Current progress shot on my copy of Bouguereau's Meditation. I've got paint on all of it now, but tweaking left to do on a lot. Need to work on the skin tones, fingers and toes, hair, all the cloth, and the foliage in the lower left (and a little in the midground).
The copy of the image I'm working from is very warmtoned. I later found a copy that's a lot greener (but also has the highlights blown out), and I wonder which colors are truer to the original. I'll stick with the warm for this one.
Working on the subtleties in the face and hands, I'm reminded of why I hate canvas. So many little mountains and valleys to deal with in getting a tiny line laid down. But a ton of canvas is what I have to work with, and maybe it'll help me work on painting a little more boldly. The canvas doesn't feel precious to me the way a board does, so I'm more likely to take chances. And it'll keep me from getting too tiny with the detail. I'll be really happy to do some personal projects on boards again sometime in the future, but this is just the beginning of all the master copies I'm planning to tackle before then. I feel like I have a great deal to learn about how to render foliage and other background elements, and some in subtle skin tones.
