The second stage of this painting was to add the basics for the drapery and the background to some initial step. I want this to have a bright morning feeling of just waking up. That will mean a lot of light on her and a background that reflects that mood. The photos I took of Nat for this were just her sitting on the bed and there is a window behind her and another in front of her with morning light. The window behind her wasn't in that position but is roughly as it really exists.

I painted the window casing in a very thin burnt sienna just to define the outline. I then used a gray of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue with a little white to give a dull neutral gray to the wall. The next step was to put a wash of white over the window area and then define it with dark lines for the blinds. I then used the same gray as the wall to give some definition to the blinds.

I let this dry not because I needed to but because I was busy with other works and just got back to it this weekend. I painted the white comforter with a thin white and Naples yellow mix. The shadows and shaping was done with a gray made with the same burnt sienna and now cobalt blue. This was painted rather quickly and with more of a painterly manner. I didn't want to get too tedious about it or make things too smooth. The reason for this is I'm going to be painting the skin very smooth and carefully so I want that contrast with the somewhat more painted fabrics.

The sheets really were red but not that red. I wanted them to start as a deeper more neutral red that could be adjusted later when there was a skin color. The red, I hope, will help define the skin color. I could have used a green as a contrast to the pink skin but I didn't want that much contrast. I'm looking for more harmony then contrast.

The painting is only 20 X 20 inches so this whole fabric painting didn't take all that long. The next step will be to put the basic color and value range on the skin to define the shape. With that I will bring up the background quite a bit to get the window defined and get what will have to be the drawing done of the wood and such so that won't be an issue later.

The whole painting is designed to give that fresh feeling of a beautiful woman waking up and still half-asleep sitting in bed letting the cool sunlight help to bring her out of a good deep sleep. There are many times a woman looks beautiful but one of the times when she looks as if she were opening up as a flower in the morning is that first few moments when she wakes up and allows the day to greet with a refreshing light that says "Good Morning, You are Beautiful" (that is if she wasn't awakened when she didn't want to get up. [grin] ) Then just get out of the way and close the curtains very quietly.