Well, here is she is, all done and dusted.

I said in my last post I needed to add a glaze to the water which I have done but what I meant to say was the water was more of a lilac colour (not purple) than blue. I think the addition is a bit better than previously. I wasn’t trying to be too exact with the background as the project I was doing in college was portraits and figures, so the girl and the boy got most of my attention. We are doing an end of year exhibition in college soon of students work and the tutor has allowed me to put this in it, so it’ll nice to see it up. One thing is for sure is that more people know of John Waterhouse now that I’ve done this painting and that can only be a good thing.

I wish I’d seen the original before I had my attempt because I think I would have had the colours more in line. My greens are too ‘yellowy’ (maybe another glaze is needed!). One of the things I love about Waterhouse’s work is how the edges of things appear blurred. I always remember thinking when I was younger that his work was like looking at something through a haze of tears, a vision that I thought went hand in hand with the myths he painted, hazy as they were with no clearly defined edges. Mine on the other hand, is a lot clearer, though I have tried to blur the edges after the paint had dried somewhat. Think of mine as a modern myth 😉

Well, I hope someone out there enjoyed watching the painting build up. It’s really been a joy to do and I’d love to do another one (though I must start trying my own oils – but that’s another story). Boreas springs to mind as does Thisbe. I’ve done the latter in pencils but, out of love, gave that away. I was on www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com a month or so ago and seen that someone had posted on the site their effort at recreating a lost (and stolen) Waterhouse called Danae; it was done in colour from a black and white print as no colour reproduction exists. But it got me thinking of doing a similar thing with another of my favourites, that being Veronica.

Veronica

No one seems to know who owns this painting and again, no colour reproduction exists. I’ll need to think of what colours to use – or colors if you’re American 😉 If anyone has any ideas, send them in. I may do a mock up in Photoshop on the computer and see what different colours look like.

I’m outta here,

Jimbob