Hi! now that i am not working in my studio or in a hurry to quit and cook for our evening meal, i thought i would add a little more information for you. This stage where the image is transferred onto the canvas but no real work has begun is one of the most exciting stages for me. the reason is because there is so much potential and i have not yet messed anything up! If you look over the transferred image, you can see that there is very little paint on the canvas but more importantly, very little information is there; a drawing, a small amount of shadow and form, and thin, transparent work. Think about it. This is the first layer but it is barely visible. Consider too that this is the first layer of darks. since i was short on time, i did not do the darks in the hair. when i get to that, i will try to emphasize the sort of follow the dots method I use in this. I wont paint a lot of strands, instead, i will mark some of the deep hairs that are in deep shadow, which form shapes in the hair patterns. Then i will begin to put the hair puzzle together. in general, though, my next step will be brights. i will be as stingy with painting areas of brights as i am with darks. This is because i do not want big table top areas of flat white. The face of every human is made up of muscles and planes and bones and turning toward and also away from the light. it is all this which makes up the likenesses we paint..I find it fascinating and challenging. it will be our mission to learn this concept that a bright has edges that fade and darken, not flat areas of all one brightness. it is easier at first to paint only the very brightest (holding the truly brightest for highlights at the end). it will be easier to show you how adding the layer of skin (half paste of gell and white) will begin to modulate the brights and darks allowing the structure of the skeleton to form the likeness by the use of light. Hope you are all feeling better. See you Tuesday. Diana