Animation of Mona Lisa Painting step by step

The video as uploaded isn't as high-res as the one I made, but, you get the idea!

Small Progress!

I've been working a very small portion of the landscape by Lisa's right shoulder...thought I'd put up a quick pic of the mayhem.

As I go, I'm more and more impressed with the level of detail Leonardo achieved (and I was plenty impressed before!), and the infinite subtlety of all the aspects of the portrait. Everything I'm laying in now seems very heavy-handed by comparison...my aim is to keep layering until I've acheived the proper tonality and subtle smokiness, etc.

Color!

I've started laying in glazes of color in the background. I'm hoping to get the landscape well in hand in the next couple of weeks, so that then I can begin on the dress and parapet. Once all the non-skin areas are in hand, I'll begin laying in the many layers of glazing to complete the flesh tones, hair and veils.

I'm having trouble with the azurite glaze in the sky...the paint is grainy and it shows badly in a transparent glaze. I don't want to substitute another color as the azurite is a beautiful ultramarine color with a slight greenish haze that makes it quite unique. I'll be writing Natural Pigments to see what they recommend as well as regrinding the paint.

Thoughts

During the Renaissance and before, guild carpenters prepared wood panels for painters to paint upon. Often, the panel was already framed; sometimes the panels and frames had also been prepared with gesso and seasoned. There is evidence that the panel on which the Mona Lisa was painted was such a panel.

Some sources claim that the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo was a commission that was made through Leonardo's father, Ser Piero da Vinci, who apparently was acquainted with Francesco del Giocondo. Since Ser Piero died in July of 1504, and Leonardo is thought to have started work on the portrait in 1503, this could be the case. Did Leonardo perhaps choose a previously prepared panel because to him, the painting was a minor commission? hmmmm...

Here's a test upload of a time-lapse I shot of a little of the progress on the test panel! Hope it works!

Thanksgiving update!

Well, I've begun to add color to selective areas. I thought if I added an ocher overtone to the sleeves, I could soften the modeling there and start bringing the sleeves closer to completion. I've also started adding the landscape in the background. The reddish hue in the lower right of the landscape is a fairly unfinished area in the actual painting, having not progressed much beyond what I've painted in so far. I'm thinking that once the background is a little further along, then I can work the figure more. All my painting is very transparent at this point. Any imperfection in the lower layers is apparent in surface of the piece. I'll have to continue adjusting and softening blends and adding in all the myriad of subtle tones Leonardo painted in.



I've also begun the hero painting! I haven't done much, as you can see. I'm also starting it out differently than the other piece, using washes of black, rather than the umber I used for the previous panel. I'm intending to do a complete greyscale painting first, and add all my colors in after. The Book by Daniel Thompson talks about painting a graduated blue sky over a greyscale underpainting in tempera, and I thought I'd try that, to see what effect that gives.

I also recently found a nice, high-resolution picture of the frame, which has allowed me to draw up a blueprint of the celtic knot pattern for future use. I'm seriously contemplating carving the frame and doing it as "old school" as possible as well.....

More to come!

...aaaaand; Time To Dry!

Here's Lisa as of now, shot at pretty high resolution so you can see the image much bigger if you'd like. I've blocked in the basic sky tone and blended it around the hair, trying to keep all edges blurred. I'm also still playing with the shadows on the face, evening them up for the time that I'll apply a lead white and vermillion mixture to soften and even everything up in preparation for the final glazes of color to pull out all the complex shadows. I've also begun blocking in the dress and I've done a little more work on the chair and the walls of the parapet. The entire surface is at a point where the panel needs to dry a while, so I'm going to start preparing the cartoon for the hero panel (ah, did you forget I was doing TWO copies?) and I'll transfer the cartoon to the hero panel and begin the underpainting for that. I'm planning on quite a few adjustments, based on the things I learned on the test panel, and I'll post pictures to show the difference!