I've decided to use gouache on the face. The ink marks on the lips and checks are used as markers and will eventually be covered. I am going to add some color and contour to my face, which Mucha didn't because of primitive printing presses. Thanks to @builderofcastles I know why Mucha's prints had a limited color palette.

I will us dark blues for my back ground but I haven't figured out what pattern I want. I will be painting the background dark navy blue and the "Red Dust Art peacock blue. There is enough busy going on in the foreground and I like to keep the foreground patterns on the gown breast plate and jewelry as the main focus.

I've learned that using limit color schemes when painting helps keep my picture clean looking and vibrant.

Before my hair started graying I had almost black hair with red highlights. The subject will have dark brown hair with heavy black outlines.

In an age when the industrial revolution was making mass-produced goods available, it also seemed to be increasingly making them ugly and diminishing the role of the artist/craftsman in society. Art Nouveau was a revolt against this ugliness and there is a strong social component to the work that we no longer see.

First ink lines which will be thickened after the color has been applied

Colors for skin, reflections in gems, and background.

15 x 12 pencil in mixed media paper 2017

Alphonse Mucha (Wiki)

I used this portrait has my template. I am not good enough to make up one myself. Maybe next year I can draw this way from my minds eye. That's how I've learned to draw since I was a child, I copy artist I like.

This is one of the photo's I used, I took several pictures in basically the same pose and took the best angle of the nose, eyes, smile from each photograph. I gave 57 year old face a little face lift. I wish getting a facelift was this easy and cheap in real life!

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