Matteson Art

Mona Lisa: A work in progress DAY 4

Here's the finished underpainting. There's not alot of detail or subtle shading like the original; there a bit too much light on her nose but there's not need for fixing those details since she will be changing into a slab of driftwood soon.

Close-up head shoulders Final Underpainting
 

Final Underpainting


1st Step Wood Grain: Close-up


1st Step Wood Grain Full view

Some of the black wood grain can't be seen in the shadowy lower section of the painting. I either need to reverse grain (using a ligher black or gray color) or just paint the black darker so I can see it better. It took about 2 hours to paint the grain. Total time about 8 hours so far. Who said painting the Mona Lisa would be easy!

Now I have to paint the wood color over the painting so the underpainting still can be seen to some extent. Will it work? The other challenge is finding a color that blends with the frame which is 100 year old tobacco barn wood and doesn't blend with the colors in the painting. It looks like the color will need to be a yellow maybe with a touch of red. I may have to stain the frame slightly to match the final color. You can see the original color of the driftwood slab below.