So let’s start with the “easy part”. I’ve learned over time there is no such thing. However, I chose the drapery. I’ve always been fairly good at drapery – since my first art lessons even. Then I bounced around a bit. It’s often disastrous if you finish one element at a time. They feed off one another and won’t look right.

Artists have developed short cuts since the beginning of time, I suspect. Sadly, I knew my drawing skills weren’t up to getting this drawn without taking up too much time. I had 9 days from the time I came up with my composite to paint the dang thing! So I printed the piece the exact size of my paper (16×16). I then used the photo to transfer the image using transfer paper. Lucky for me, I have a printer I could print that large on. I traced the spaces for shadows and highlights on the babe and the cloth. I won’t do that again. It just ended up being too much information. Despited, supposedly being the exact image recreated, I found things wrong as I went along.