Just a quick update as to what the state of the painting is so far. I've decided that the underpainting of the face and chest needed to be refined further before I did the white overglaze, so I wiped off the glaze I did previously, and am in the process of obliterating some erroneous lines that were drawn in right at the beginning. Once the underpainting is more correct, I'll reglaze and begin laying color on to the face.

I'm continuing to refine the landscape by Lisa's right shoulder (on the viewer's left). I'll also begin adding more detail to the right side of the landscape soon. If you look by Lisa's right shoulder, you can see where I've begun to indicate where the layers of silk veils will lay over the landscape.

Color: A Natural History of the Palette

Just finished reading a fantastic book by Victoria Finlay called Color: A Natural History of the Palette. It documents her international journeys to find the original sources of rare, natural pigments. Fantastic!

Closer!

Here's a close-up shot of the same mountainous area I took a picture of before. I've refined the colors and shapes further, and am getting closer to the final look of the painting. Miles and MILES to go, but the experience is fun and very challenging!

You can see in the right corner of the image that I've added a glaze of lead white over the flesh areas. I'll add more to the lightest areas of skin to help blend shading even further before I start adding glazes of color and shadow. I've also begun to indicate the embroidery on the guarnello.

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...