The Sultan's Favourite - stage 1

Original sketch

Early draw-in

I have chosen to paint an Orientalist picture in rich, warm colours to which end I am going to try using Zinc White as opposed to Titanium White for hopefully more saturated less chalky mixes and tints of colour as well as glazes for a richer effect. It is set in the early evening with the last rays of an orange/pink sun illuminating the scene of a naked girl sitting on an oriental carpet on a belvedere with pavilion overlooking a sunset-lit palace. There will be indications of town/city buildings on the right with a plain and distant mountains in the far background. I plan to have lots of rich reds, blues etc and the strongest contrasts in the foreground while the palace building will be softly lit against a slightly darker sky for more mood and atmosphere. This is of course a fantasy in every way and is very much in the tradition of the Western Orientalist paintings of the late 19th century whose imaginings of languid naked girls waiting for the attention of the Sultan as they bask in opulent interiors was in complete opposition to how harem life actually was. I have mixed up various Islamic architectural styles together in this picture as I want it to remain a fantasy with no specific location or country being depicted. It was first "drawn" in with a rag using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and turpentine before a tonal block-in was painted over it using the same colour mix also using a rag.

Tonal block-in