Base coating blocked in on the Empress... Don't worry... It only gets better looking from this point!

Working on building the lighter shades up from the dark shades on the right side. Not much to see yet... But good things take time!

Starting to make more visible progress!

Starting in with the lighter warmer shade of brown.  The blue marks on the side help me line things up.  You'll see them move around in the various images.  Still haven't even started the left side of the canvas.

At this point in the canvas I was really nervous that I had made a jump too fast in my coloring.  The brown color is REALLY warm against the other brown.  Never fear, it all works out.  Its not unusual that I have a panic moment during the middle of a painting.

More highlights going in.  This image was taken in artificial light which does terrible things to the color!

Here is the Empress in natural light.  It makes a big difference how you photograph a work!

The final highlights are in!  There's a bit of a glare on the canvas from the camera.  Now onto the other half of the canvas!

Got the left side blocked in.  The original color I had thought I wanted got vetoed.  I think I need to start with a white/gray background.

Of course, I had to change my mind.  The white was simply too stark.  The green balances the work far better and adds to the glow of the natural hues.

A close up for those who have been curious how the half-tone images are built... Not silkscreen, just tedious patience!

Once I have areas mapped out, then I go back and paint them in!

As you can see, it takes a while to get done!

About a third of the way there...

Got everything mapped out, not to go back and fill in all those areas! (This is what I call the home stretch!)

Finally the flowers are finished!  I think they look awesome!  Now to take care of the center of the canvas!

Before I get the center area painted, the canvas is put onto its stretcher bars.  This is a really exacting part of the process as I have several straight lines in the composition.  It only takes the canvas being skewed a few centimeters to make the entire image look wrong.

If you didn't notice in the previous image, there was an area of white to the right of the Empress.  Got that filled in and retouched.

Okay, after a day of trial and error, the copper section in finished. Here's how it works, the view from the side, no visible image...

The view from head-on makes the image on the copper paint pop into view!