I am painting over an existing piece that never really went anywhere. It has a lot of Mars Black on it, which I do not intend to use as my black for this piece. I will be using Ivory Black. The Mars is VERY blue. What I have learned thus far is:
- Caravaggio's "drawing" is superb in this painting. The face is extremely well rendered.
- His use of reflected light is beautiful.
- The attention to detail is very interesting, and carefully observed.
- I know he painted with glazes after establishing his form and lights - and that is what I'm doing too.
- I keep putting down a fairly strong white (with a touch of yellow ochre, burnt sienna and cad red) and glazing over it. It seems I am getting a decent likeness of paint, but because I do not have an underpainting - or even a decent ground, I am getting a semi-dull color. It is tricky to get the warm tones to shine through working off the Mars Black.... I know he painted off a warm ground.