Progress....

 

 The Saints Again...

I had some Extra time off from work last week, Dear Readers, and was able to give the Saints my undivided attention for a couple of days! Above you can see the last two on the front half of the ceiling looking just as they have been for years. They both looked "almost" done, but in fact needed a great deal of work. I began with Luke because I was copying him from a Medieval original, and therefore it was easier to know what was needed. His paintbrush, the portrait of Mary he is painting, his robe, his halo, all needed work. The most obvious part was his arm which holds the picture frame, it was not bending in a natural enough manner... so I started there....

 

In order to make the wrist and arm align in a more natural way, I had to shift the outer edge of his "stole" so it fell closer to his body.

Then I repainted the robe and elbow. Of course, I neglected to take a lot of pictures.

Here you can see I have started to paint the floor under Bridget's feet.

I felt she needed to be better "grounded".

There had always been a need to make Bridget look more "medieval".

 She was one of the Saints that had no original painting to copy.

Even though she looks lovely as she is, 

I needed to make changes to her face in particular.

 

I changed the shape of her head covering and added heavier outlines.

One of the things to remember is that these paintings

 are hard to see in place... subtlety is lost completely! 

But meanwhile, I had also added more details to the other Saints...

Saint Lucia and Saint Nicholas still had many details to complete.

I got carried away with embellishing the floors...

I indulged my love of patterns.

Not that you can really see it when it is in place... 

but I will know it is there!

And the ground under Saint Cecilia

 also needed some softening with details...

So I painted blossoms...

Which you can see here.

And along the way I also completed Saint Nicholas' Croizier,

 and added layers to the Hunters in the border.

And I suppose you want to see it in place in the Castle Great Hall...

 

 It is really difficult, even with the flash,

 to get a picture of the entire ceiling in place!

At least this one sort of shows the floor details!

Well, Dear Readers, I made a lot of Progress

 painting the Saints.

And they might even be nearly Finished!