More Painting...

 

 

And Those Patient Saints...

You Might recall, Dear Readers, that I had recently added the paint to the opening doors for the Great Hall section of the Castle. But I had only done the base coats of primer and the pale gray. The arched wall of this side of the Castle had been painted a long time ago, so I thought I had better get the rest of the inside painting completed. This required that I remove the front wall (it has only been screwed in place for this reason) so that I could get the rocks on the two sides of the opening doors to be properly matched when seen from the inside. Not that anyone will be seeing it from the inside very often, as this requires that I get the camera inside through the interior doors to the Great Hall.... but I would hate to have it look wrong on those few occasions! 

The method is the same as that used for the other walls.

First I paint the "courses" of the rocks...

And then I determine the proper spacing of the verticals...

Trying to make them as they would need to be in a real wall...

"two over one and one over two" is the standard recipe.

This means the vertical edges are never supposed to be

 right over the previous row's vertical edges.

And then I added the rough "texturing" of the rocks.

This is meant to be very "sketchy" and not detailed.

And finally, the grout lines are added.

This is when they start to be convincing as "rocks"!

(It surprises me every time!)

But you might also remember, Dear Readers,

 that I have been trying to complete

 the Ceiling of the Great Hall for ages and ages.

And every time I start to work on it, 

I realize something else is needed first.

But I have decided that it would be great if

 I could just get those Patient Saints finished!

So while the front wall was removed,

 I also removed the ceiling and set it up on my "easel"

(really just a chair with the ceiling propped across the arms.)

I had even made a list long ago of all the tiny things

 that needed to be worked on.

Saint Elizabeth was easy... only the floor lacked details.

The grid was drawn for tiles... all I had to do was decorate them!

Of course I had started to paint them 

before I remembered to take a "before" picture!

So you can see the first ones have been given a pink color.

I added a red dot to the center of each pink tile.

That was all I need to do for Saint Elizabeth!

And I neglected to take "before" pictures from them on...

You will have to take my word for it that

 Saint Hedwig needed details added to her seat

 and Saint Marc needed extra layer "clean-up" around his halo.

Mary Magdalene needed only 

some touch-ups around the framework.

Saint John needed details in his hair,

 the eagle's talons, and the writing on his scroll.

And some framework touch-ups too.

The truth is that any number of other layers and trims and 

"clean-ups" could be added as well... 

but they are not "needed" to complete the image.

I did not get any work done on the other half of the ceiling...

But I turned it around so they are now ready to be completed too!

I am sure if you look carefully you will spot some of the missing pieces.

Meanwhile, I finished adding the grout lines.

And I reattached the front wall.

Here you can see the doors open...

(I do apologize for the dark pictures...

 It is so dark in the evenings now!)

And now you can see the Great Hall from the interior...

with the flash turned on... and the ceiling not in place...

Well... flash does reveal all the flaws!

But I think it is starting to look like I hoped it would!

 

So that's what I have been doing, Dear Readers,

 just a little more painting on the Walls,

 and those Patient Saints.