Week 4: Young Girl Reading by Jean-Honore Fragonard

{end of day status}

Yesterday I was back in gallery 55 at the NGA to work on my copy. The day was focused on correcting the structure of the girl's head and then deciding I needed a little more space from the constant re-working of this part of the painting, so I decided to move onto the dress. Instead of trying to copy every single stroke with deliberate control I am trying to capture the energy of the composition and paint the gist of the folds and puckers of the collar and dress.

You will notice that I also laid in the yellow ochre background again, this is because I got the burnt umber ground too dark and thought it would be best if I just went back to the original value of what the ground was. Next week I will go back and lay in the background in again and this time making sure my values are more in line with the original painting.

Thanks for visiting and being a part of this learning process,
Liz