Kris Kringle Faery - the Christmas Faery

This is the second work in this new Faery Series.

The concept is that the Queen of the Faeries, is having a Masquerade Ball for all the Faery Folk and we get to have a peak at all their costumes!!

So strictly speaking this series really has no end and is wide open in terms of interpretation. What I'm hoping to do is to create the initial four or five works in the series and then be able to come back to it now and again to create addition pieces as new ideas strike me. Hopefully it will all work out as well as I envision.

Since we're getting so close to the Yule Tide Season, I thought it would be fun to have one of the Faeries come to the ball dressed as Kris Kringle. So I started some quick sketches trying to figure out just what she would have chosen to wear.

I liked this one, but it seemed to be too tame, a bit too predictable and ordinary. So I stared over....

.... And this one came next. I think this is a good place to start the full sized drawing from and see where it takes me from there.

I'm going to try to do something a little different with this Work-in-Progress. I'm going to try to remember to take a photo about every hour or so. It should be relatively easy, because I listen to books on CD while I work (It keeps the left side of my brain occupied, so that it lets me draw/paint rather than do the laundry or whatever), and each CD is about an hour and 10 o 15 minutes long. So I'll try to remember to take a photo at the end of each CD. So below you see the first day's progress.

• The Arch, which should be a constant in all of the works in this series, was the first thing that went in.
• Then the basics of the figure.
• And onto the basic outline of her skirt.

I'm glad that I decided to take photos of this every hour or so. If I hadn't you all would have missed this back and forth war I seem to be having with the ladies' skirts!

I worked diligently on them for that first image, making sure all the folds looked good. Then I stood up and stepped back and ... well ... it was just too much skirt! Ugh! so out came the erasure and gone went all that voluminous-ness!! And then on to try again to get just the right amount of skirt to be fun, but not so over whelming that that is all there is.

I think I spent a lot of time just looking at the drawing trying to decide what to keep, what to change, what to add.

I think that I managed to get the skirt a bit more under control. She doesn't quite look as much like a bell now, I think. Then I decided that I didn't care for the front drape and that disappeared. So then the ribbons had to be straightened out a bit and made to come out of her waistband/corset. Then the poofy blouse look was exchanged for a slimmer jacket look and I started work on the collar. Geez!! Thank goodness for erasers.

Still doing lots of slow, back and forth work on this. But thought that I should work on the upper body for a while and leave the skirt alone. So the sleeves went in and her wings went in too. Still lots of work to be done though. And not at all sure why this one is causing so much trouble.

As you can tell, some hours are sent simply sitting and staring at the drawing. Nothing much happened from the last drawing above to the first drawing below. Just some ribbons added to the hat. But all that staring seems to have paid off in the following hours -- All sorts of detailed trim to the hat and stripes to some of the ribbons in the skirt, detail added to the bottom of the inner most skirt and trim to the sleeve ribbon sections. A lot more detail to come in this one, I think. So it may be slow going for the next few days.

More of the slow going, small details. (I do alot of research for the details, looking for just the right holiday type ideas. Then I do a bit of small sketches off to the side to get the arrangement of the details just right. Then they're ready to be added to this drawing.)

Some ornaments went in on one of her flounces and I made the fur on another flounce a bit fuller, more stripes went onto the long front ribbons and the jacket peplum. I took out the "rings" around her neck and then added some detail work. I think that detail may be a bit off center. I think that I'll have to come back to that later, because the thought of erasing it now just makes me twitch. And the upper section of her arm now has some stripes.

More of the detail work - Upper sleeve lace added ... Her mask was started and then continued until it was finished ... And if you look closely I've added a second layer of wings ... She just didn't look like she had enough ... I still think there's something missing in the wing area, but I'm not sure what, so it will have to sit for a while and see what happens ... Then I started to add in her hair ... I'm thinking long braids for this faery might be a nice change ... we'll see how frustrated I get with having to draw them. :-)

WooHooooo!!!! I do think that the drawing is finished. It's a little hard to tell in the pencil version if there is enough detail. In pencil it always looks really busy. Once you start to add color though, it calms down quite a bit. But I'm not sure that that is what I want with this little lady. So, I'll have to wait and see as I go along in the painting process.

In any case, you can see the additions in this drawing session. .... braids ... more embroidery detail on the second skirt layer ... more trim to the lowest skirt, along with some bells ... trim to the cap sleeves ... a bit more detail to the center skirt bottom trim ... some stripes to the ribbons on her mask.

Now to transfer the drawing to the wood panel, which I've already prepped with 3 layers of gesso, sanded in-between each layer.

Here she is all transferred to the wood panel. it takes a couple of hours to get this done, but it's pretty simple work. That's why I create the drawing in the actual size that I'm going to paint in. This way all the work, changes and erasures, are done on the paper.

I then tape the paper to the wood panel, place transfer paper underneath (careful what kind you get, some of them are just way too dark and smear like crazy when you try to paint over them) and use a slim ball point pen on the drawing. I use the pen rather than a pencil, because that way I can see where I've transferred a lot easier than if I use a pencil.

Let the painting begin!!

Always the background first. Actually I try to work starting in the farthest back section first, then come forward. I think it helps to add depth to the painting. And since I started painting in watercolor first (a LONG time ago) it's the way that I've always done it.

Anyway, Off we go!

And we're off and running!!

Started with putting in some of the "glow" around the edges first, which meant I needed to decide what color her wings were going to be. (The "glow" around the Pirate Faery is the color of her wings, and I want to try to keep things sort of consistent for a while with this series.) So... a yellow gold is what I've decided is a grand color for a Christmas Faery's wings. Then figured that the center skirt should be the same color. ... Now what I have to figure out is ... do I just use the standard holiday colors? Or ... do I add some more in? ... And what would they be, if I do? Hmmm...

Another day of painting done and the wings are all in. But I think I may be going back in an lightening them up a bit. I want them to glow and they aren't doing that quite as much as I would like. I'll let this layer dry a while then go back in and play with them.

I then went in to play with her face a bit. To get flesh tones right, you really have to put in lots of layers of very thin paint. That gives skin the depth and softness that I think it needs. In my humble opinion that is.

But I just could not get up from the easel before I added at least a little bit of one other color. So in went a tiny bit of green! :-)

Just laying in the first layer of colors right now. The only thing really difficult about this part of a painting is deciding on colors and where to put them. Otherwise, right now, it's sort of paint by number.

Hmmm .... Well when I sat at the easel and looked at the painting I thought that just red, green and gold, were really not enough colors to make it an interesting piece. So I went on line and looked at all sorts of holiday type images. Then came back to the easel and added the blue skirt. Hmmm ... then I thought that maybe it was okay but it needed additional blue to make it work. So the arch went blue and so did a section of her hat. Hmmm .... then I thought that maybe it just had to sort of grow on me. so I worked on her face a bit more and added some more trim to her hat. Hmmm .... I'm not so sure this is right. Hmmm ...

Spent a lot of the day, looking at the blue and trying to make it work. ... First I added that dark red double border at the bottom of the blue ... Then I went ahead and put in the first layer of the fur trim ... then added that little bit of blue to the small section of ribbon that's peaking out on the right side of the skirt ... And still, I wasn't really happy with it ... It seems to Scream "Blue Skirt" ... not really what I want ... but ... Thought that I should leave it a bit longer ... so I worked on adding color to her jacket. Hmmm ...

Well, I have let the blue in the skirt sit for a bit more, but I did get rid of the blue in the hat. It's now a deep red. And I like it a lot better. Which doesn't bode well for the blue in the skirt. But I'm not sure what color it should be. So ... I've changed the color on the smaller section of the blue skirt, on the left side. Maybe a bit dark, but I think it's better than the blue.

Worked a bit more on her jacket. She now has upper sleeve poofs and a stripped band on her peplum.

Then decided on her hair color, I think. With so much color and detail going on around her I feel that her hair has to be dark to set off her face. So, I'll start with this color and see what happens as her costume moves along.

Well, I finally decided that the blue had to go and that purple was what would take it's place. And so you see the result of the first layer below. I think that it's too dark right now, but I have to let it dry and then I'll go back in with some lighter tones. However, I am much happier with the way this looks. I also got rid of the blue in the arch and made it purple also.

Then I finally figured out something else that was bothering me. ... Her wings, for some reason, just looked too staid. There just didn't seem to be enough "celebration" going on. But I couldn't figure out what to do. SO ... I printed out a couple of copies of the pencil drawing and carried those around with me for a few days and drew lots of different options on them. FINALLY ... I came up with the idea to add holiday decorations to the arch! Well ... Duh! And so I worked out the configuration and then transferred the drawing to the canvas. Even with it just drawn in I knew that it was right. Yipee!

I think I've got it!!! Color wise anyway. I did lighten up the Plum color and I really like it much better. And the bells, holly and ribbons on the arch make all the difference. She looks much more festive! So then I went into the hat and added color to all the elements there. Making sure to add some plum colored ribbon. Okay, now to decide on some of the other sections.

Moving right along now. Added the plum color into the trim on the red skirt and finished that same trim off with some gold. The small round gold ornaments will eventually be detailed to look like bells. Then I worked on adding some more shadows to the outside of the arch and to the right side of the faery. This will help to add to the depth of the piece. ... THEN I decided that red wasn't really a great color for the inside of the sleeve tops - so I'm now in the process of changing those to orange. Why? you might ask ... well ... hmmm ... just because ... :-)

Lots of good work done today. ... Added more ribbons to the bell decorations. I thought that they needed to be a bit more festive and they also needed the addition of the plum color. ... Then I went to work on that big border on the green skirt. And filled that in nicely. ... I think that all the detail work on this piece is really helping to bring it to life.

Moving right along now. A bit slowly because of having to do the small details, but still moving.

The first picture shows that the ornament detail on the green skirt if finished. ..... The second shows that stripes on one of the front ribbons are beginning to appear and a second layer of paint has been added to the bells on the archway (It's a bit hard to see, but it was necessary in the large version. ..... And the third image shows the ruffled layer of her sleeves has been started and all the front ribbons now have color!!

She getting close to the end now. Which means she's also getting slower. Each hour and a quarter photo shows only a little progress, but all the blank spaces are being filled in. She now has a belt ..... Trim at the bottom of the yellow skirt ..... and purple ribbons on her mask. Look closely and you can also see that I did some more work on the fur trim of the purple skirt. Fur takes lots of layers for it to be believable. So there will be some more layers yet to add.

I hope that all my friends in the US had a wonderful holiday. It was busy and great here at our house. The kids were home, along with our delightful grandson! In the midst of it all I did find some quiet time to paint. Worked a bit more on her face ... Some more work on the fur ... The detail is all in on her mask ... And I finally decided on a color for her blouse. Not too much further now.. Hopefully she'll be finished this week.

I know this seems to be taking forever to finish. Sometimes life just gets in the way. But really, now I'm on the last few hours. It would have been a big help, if I had cleaned my lining brush out properly the last time that I used it. But I did not! Ugh! So off tot he art store I went to purchase a new brush!! Silly me! Anyway .... I did get quite a bit of finishing work done. ...The fur trim received what I think is it's last layer of color. ... I worked on darkening her hair, especially around her face. That helps to give her face more accent. ... Then I added another layer of color to her face to give it more depth. ... Then some white lace went in on the inner red skirt. I did that to help the white birds blend in a bit more with the rest of the piece. ... I also added some white lace to the upper sleeve ribbons to break up the color a bit. ... Then I was ready to start the lining work. It makes everything really pop.