One Thousand Times

I have faced this screen One Thousands times. That's 1000 blog post since May 2006!  I knew it was coming up and I gave some thought to how or if I should celebrate.  The celebration part hasn't materialized yet but I decided my 1000th post would be one of the things that gives me the most joy. And that is sharing and showing and telling.  So yesterday, before I got too far into this page in my Postcard Journal, I started taking photos. 


For this page I'm painting a "fake" of "The Bride" 1893 by Johan Thorn Prikker (1869-1932) who was from the Netherlands.  I'm not sure what Professor Doctor Tad Keys will have to say about it, but here is what I can tell you. 

I am painting on the book page and before this first photo, I used gesso with sage green paint to cover the big dark alphabet that was on the page.  I do not always use gesso but I knew this sketch was going to be very detailed and could not handle any visual/mental interference.

I used vine charcoal on the larger shapes and then used a pencil for the small detail.  

I tried to "read" the layers that I could see and it seemed the whole page had a green cast.  In other words, every color had some green in it. That is why I started with the green under painting. Once I was happy with the sketch, I went over the charcoal lines with pencil and then wiped away the charcoal dust.  I was at the desk here in town with limited supplies; therefore, I used a Sharpie Fine Point and went over the heavy lines. Now I regret that I could not wait to get home for a finer pen.

Here I have painted the funny flower shapes that looks like heads or skulls to me. I used titanium white and the purpose was to save the shapes/sketch.

Very subtle changes here.  In the first one I started adding a green glaze over the dress area with Jenkins Green fluid acrylic. I also used titanium white with matte medium over the dress. In the third shot, I started adding very light layers of color within the other shapes and painted the white flowers again. At this stage, if feels a lot like coloring book or paint-by-number.  But remember, I am trying to fake this. 

Little by little more layers of color. Notice the dark outlines are being faded out in some areas.

more color definition 

Today, I brought a black Vellum Writer and used the fine point to outline some of the shapes in the background.  The thinner line in the background gives some depth.

It is hard to tell what I have done but I just kept gradually adding layers of color.

Here I started working the background in the top. But notice, I have painted the tulip stems away in the bottom left.

more layers of color

I painted the white monkey heads back in, the white lines around the bride, the black line detail and signed it.

I could take this a bit further but I'm happy with it and will see what Professor Dr Tad Keys has to say.
I hope you enjoyed this One Thousandth post.
♥