Stage IV

 The last part to work on now is the vintage paper background. I put in wet-in-wet technique to get the stained, weathered look and painted in the postal stampings and text. The very last step was to do the ribbons. This is the finished product. "Commedia dell'arte" is the name of the painting.

Stage III

 In Stage III the marquise pattern is now developed and the next part is the scalloped pattern at the top of the painting.

Stage II

 In Stage II, the frame is now complete and I am now putting in the design in the background. You can now start to see the ribbon pattern that will be running through the painting. The diamonds or marquise pattern is often part of Pierrot's costume.

Stage I

 As I was developing this painting, I documented how I started. Here is Stage I. You can see my pencil drawing and the first thing that I developed was the mask. I did that because that is the central theme and subject of this painting and everything around literally frames it. In the painting there is a frame and I first laid down Cadmium Yellow. There is some gold leafing on the frame and Cadmium Yellow was my choice to bring that out.

New Painting

To add to my collection of venetian masks paintings, here is my latest completed last night. Yes, everything is painted and I have not incorporated any collage material. This is a Pierrot mask. 

Pierrot was a common character in Commedia dell'arte.  By collecting decorative paper design, I have been using the design element in my paintings lately. Along with ribbons and frames, I put together this composition. See below to see my collection of paintings depicting Venetian Masks which I love.

Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italy, that was popular in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century. Commedia dell'arte was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as commedia all marchers, commedia improvviso, and commedia dell'arte all improvviso.