Masquerade Ball Faery Series - Work in Progress

Gypsy Dancer Faery

The holiday season has past, all the decorations are taken down and packed away for another year. The temperatures have bottomed out and the snow has covered the landscape.

So I think it's time to once again heat up the studio. Don't you think?

Here's the start of the next attendee at the Faery Ball!

A Gypsy Dancer!

She should be lots of fun and help to warm things up in the studio.

She seems to be moving right along.

More skirts added along with a bit more detail to those skirts.

More definition of the "vest" type upper garment. I've been using some of my old costume reference books to find just the right look for that "vest". Lots of influence from 19th Century, folk dress of Turkey, Albania, Russia, Greece, etc...

And the wings have begun also. I'm not sure exactly where those are going to end up. But it'll be fun to get there. LOL!

Put this wing in ... take that wing out ... Put that wing back in ... contemplate ... wonder ... imagine ... where's that eraser??

To heck with the wings ... Put in the veil she's holding!

Okay, that works. Now ....

More contemplation ... Maybe it's just time to pack it in for the day.

I finally settled on the wings!! Yipee! After lots of back and forth. But I think that getting them in really helped to define her personality. Which then helped me to see some of the detail that needed to be added.

More trim to some of the skirts. But there still needs to be more.

Bracelets! Those were fun to put in. More??

Trim to her vest.

And this lovely lady is wearing her mask! I was a little afraid to do it. I wanted to be able to see her eyes and I wasn't sure if the mask would interfere with that. But I think that it works.

Not a bad days work, even if I do say so myself.

Thanks for watching!

And now we have hair. Or at least the start of it. I don't think I'm done with it quite yet. I LOVE putting in an abundance of tresses. Even though it takes forever to draw them in and even longer to paint them. But worth it!

I did add a bit of shading behind her wings. I was getting a bit confused as to what lines were what! So a bit of shading helps.

Really coming along wonderful, even if I do say so myself!!

She has more hair (yipee!!)

More detailed trim on several of her skirts.

More bracelets and arm bands.

Trim detail to the sleeve caps of her vest.

More fabric wrapped around her waist.

Now normally I think I would have stopped at this point in the pencil drawing. Reasoning that it starts to get really difficult to visualize the finished painting, if I have all these pencil lines to look at. BUT ... I think I might not end up with as much detail as I want in this piece if I stop here. SO ... I'm going to continue adding some more detail to the drawing before I transfer her to the wood panel.

Spent a bit of time pondering what should come next. Then added small bits of additions here and there.

Two more small wings at the top have appeared.

An additional necklace or two was added. As were another bracelet to each arm.

Then another set of "dangling things" (that would be a technical term - giggle..) on that inner most skirt.

Maybe just a little bit more definition to her skirts and she should be ready to move to canvas!

Alright!! The drawing is done!! And she's ready to move to the canvas. Not many changes to the last update, but enough, I think, to add just a bit more intricate detail.

Some vertical stripes to one of the skirts. That will help to define that skirt.

Another lock or two of hair to fill in some of the gaps and to add just a bit more "wildness" to her look.

A couple more horizontal stripes to one of the skirts.

And now onto the canvas.

If you've followed my work before, you know that I create the drawings to the same size as the painting. That way, all I have to do now is to lay the drawing over the canvas, put a piece of artist transfer paper in between and draw right over all those lines to transfer the drawing to the wood panel.

BTW, I've already prepped the wood panel. I roll on three layers of gesso to a piece of masonite. I sand each of the layers of gesso as it dries with a really fine sandpaper. I makes for a wonderfully smooth surface to work on.

WooHooo!! Let the painting begin!

As with all my pieces I start with the farthest back sections first! It's some what of a watercolor technique that I incorporated into my oil painting. I find that it really helps to give the piece added depth that way.

I did however, jump to putting in some of the first layer of flesh tones. Just so that I could see her and get to know her better.

Sorry that it took a while to get this next step done. But since I was totally snow bound the last few days I thought it was about time to give the website the face lift that it's been needing for a while. And then I started the house keeping on it that's its been in desperate need of. Please bear with me as I get lots of stuff reconstructed and lots of pages cleaned up.

However, I did find time to get some painting done. And I thought that starting with color in the wings would help to set the mood for the rest of the piece.

I think it's a great start!

Even if I do say so myself .... I think I'm loving the wings!

They will of course need a few coats to give them that feeling of depth. But I really like the color choice. I hope you do too.

Now to incorporate those colors into the rest of her, without getting to overwhelmed with it. ... I'm thinking that she also needs some purples, greens and blues.

So I know that at first glance, it really doesn't look like much has changed from the last image.

BUT ...

If you look closely at the background you can see that a lot of shadow work has been done. The wings, her skirts and the arch itself all now have shadow, which will help to give it that 3D appearance that I'm so fond of.

I also added another layer of color to that yellowish skirt. Working in the shadows and highlights a bit more.

There's also been a bit more work on skin color. But there's a lot more work to be done with that.

Well here comes the colors.

With all the detail in the fabrics it's going to be a bit of slow going to get the first layer of paint in. But it should be fun to see where she will go. At the moment your guess is as good as mine!!

Not a whole lot of work this day.

The trim on the bottom of the red stripe skirt is in, basically. I'm not sure I like the design of it though. Looks a bit like a "circus" type of trim. I'll have to work on it some more, I think. But for now it can sit for a while.

A little bit of trim added to the "veil" in her hands. That's going to need more work too.

Spent a lot of time working on her face and arms. Skin tones take quite a few layers of paint to get them to look "real". So this is just the second layer.

I also worked in a bit of color in her hair so that I could "see" her face a bit better.

I also did a bit of work on a few on her wings on the left side. They also need a few layers of paint to get them just right.

I was actually able to spend a bit of wonderful time at the easel and got quite a bit of work done.

I worried about adding the green. Mostly because it looked like I was doing Christmas colors. And I didn't want to have that happen. But once I got up the courage and went ahead with it, I really like it. It's an earthy green which I think makes all the difference. ... I put in some detail in the trim, but I'm not sure about it. I think maybe it's a bit dark. But I'll let it sit and see how it settles.

I worked on the wings on the right side and punched up the color in those so that they matched the left.

Then some more work on her face and arms. I added a bit of green tinge to her skin, trying to achieve a bit of olive color complexion. I think I'll have to add a bit more though.

Some hair went in and then I played with a bit of her jewelry. That was fun.

Not a lot of time at the easel, but ...

Put in the trim on the green waist sash.

Added some green to the front of her vest.

And put some green hair wraps in her hair.

There's a bit more hair and some more gold beads in her hair also.

I'm not sure about the green yet. I think that it might be a bit dark. But, I'll let it sit and see how it goes.

I also worked a bit on the trim on the red & burgundy skirt. It's really hard to see in this picture. I added some green detail within the blue zigzag.

NOW, I have to decided on color for those other skirts. Hmmm.....

There was a bit less sun light in the studio when I took this image. So the overall color is a lot less Yellow. Which actually is a bit more true to the actual tones. At least at the top it is, the bottom is a bit bluer than the actual tones.

Anyway ... I finally picked a color for one of the other skirts. I didn't want to go with a true blue, but one with a bit more of gray to it. Making it more of an earthy blue, if there is such a thing. But again, I'm not sure. So it will sit for a bit.

I did pick a color for her blouse though. I needed to bring the yellow of the skirt up into the top of her costume and this looked like a good place to do it.

Okay, so yes, as usual, I'm having trouble with choosing and sticking with color. No surprise. All part of the process, I think.

Well, the blue in the upper skirt didn't last very long. It just didn't look right. So now it's a deep blue-purple. I think that it's better, but now quite right yet. But I moved on to changing the colors of other sections. :-O

The green in her sash went a lot lighter and had quite a bit more yellow added to it. The trim in that sash changed also. Lots lighter with more of an orange tinge to it.

The underskirt and her veil went a lot brighter yellow and I added orange to the trim on both. (I felt that the orange in her wings needed to work it's way around the painting, so that the wings felt more a part of the whole, than looking just pasted on.)

Then I lightened up the red stripes in that skirt. It had gotten too dark and heavy. Then to include that red in more of the rest of the piece, I added it to her waistband.

Finally, I started to put in some of her hair.

Whew!!

Lots of work on her hair. It takes a long time to get this done because I use a small brush and put in individual tendrils in varying colors. I try to make sure that I don't loose the detail that I had in the drawing. It's a bit hard to see her, but it will be evident in the finished work.

Ummm... Then another layer of color went on that purple skirt. I brightened it up a bit more. :-)

Finally have all of her hair basically in. I'll probably go back in and fiddle with it some, adding highlights and shadows. I also added in some strings of golden beads. I like those and may have to add some more. I also think that she may need some more wraps and larger beads woven into her hair. But that will have to wait a bit.

I added some color to her mask. More will be needed there. And I started work on her bangles.

Really slow going right now. Lots of small details to work on with really tiny brushes.

Just a bit more of some detail work has been done. The belt with it's gold adornment is in now. Along with a bit more of the bodice of her vest. Her bracelets are also basically in.

I think that a lot of shading and shaping will need to happen to the adornments. That will take a bit of time and will be hard to see in these small images. Here's a closer look at her.

Slow and steady progress.

Lots of headway on the trim on the purple skirt.

And I extended the red stripped skirt up into the section above her green sash. It helps to make a bit more sense out of the red skirt (where it comes from and where it goes). But it also helps to extend the eye up into the center of the painting. I think that I will have to add some red to her vest front to continue the "line" up to her face.

I think that maybe she turned a corner for me today. Until this point I wasn't really sure that she was going to be as good as the "Pirate Faery". Which had me really scared. (artistic paranoia). But I think she's going to be okay!

A bit more progress. Some of the detail has gone into her vest, along with a start on her sleeve cuff. What's a bit difficult to see is the work on the edge trim on the purple skirt. It was a bit boring and I wanted something that looked more like it was an embroidered piece. I think it may need an added color or two, but it's already better than it was. Here's another close up view.

Tiny bits of this, small bits of that.

Sleeve cuffs are in, as is the edge of the sleeve trim. More of the trim of the vest is in, too.

The base colors for those fanciful ribbons are in, and I really like what they add. And the big necklace piece has been started.

So ..... can you see that I'm avoiding the center stripped skirt??? Totally freakin' me out! Yikes!

So have I ever told you how much I hate stripes?? UGH!!

But I've finally made up my mind to get to work on the last skirt. I've avoided it long enough! So here she goes.

I started with two shades of the orange. I thought that I needed to incorporate some of those colors in that are in her wings. It will help to bring the piece together.

So here's the rest of the colors of the final skirt all in place. And I think they work well to bring the whole look together.

There's only one layer of the paint on it now. So it will need at least another one to smooth it out and then another after that to get the shadows and highlights working.

I've had to paint over the ribbons to keep the smooth line of the stripe. So once the skirt is in place, I'll have to go back and redo the ribbons.

Lots of detail work has now gone in -

Her gold jeweled belt over the striped skirt ... The embroidered trim on her sleeves ... More necklaces ... Her mouth has changed a little ... as have her eyes ... the coin belts that are over the yellow underskirt are now in ...and the front edge of her vest now has it's trim.

Almost there!! (She's close enough now that I had to put the watermark in. Sorry about that. But have to protect her.)

Okay ... sorry it's been a few days since an update. I've been a bit under the weather and haven't gotten to it. BUT ... I'm back at it now.

It's a lot of clean up and fussing now. A last layer of paint went on the stripped skirt and then the ribbons went back in.

I think just a bit more clean up, shading and maybe a few more ribbons in her hair and this one will be finished.