Deciding to change direction for once, I returned to my travels in Japan as I had always wanted to do something like this. The model for my painting was wearing an exquisitely patterned kimono full of flower patterns - real and imagined. Even the charcoal-grey areas had a slight texture and small details created with embroidery. Her hair had been twisted and arranged into a bun-like shape which cast its own shadow on her nape - an area long considered erotic by the Japanese. The waist band featured silk bows of different colors along with embroidered cords - the whole a delight to paint! With a subject like this, one is faced with a dilemma. What should one focus on - the kimono or the model? The way I got around this was to arrange a composition with the model facing away and most of the kimono cropped but with enough left to give an idea what the rest of it would look like. Overall though, I was especially attracted by the highlights in her hair so I focused on that first.
Here you can see how I started with a first pass of oil color after transferring my drawing onto the board. With this stage done, I drew in the details of the kimono then gave that area a first pass also. Returning the the head now that the paint had dried, I slowly brought the hair and arrangement of flowers on the left to a finish before moving back to the kimono and adding the final details there. Finally I could call it finished - a long project but a rewarding one! Size is 12 x 9 in (30 x 23cm), oil on board.
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