Ophelia

So my parents got me this awesome light desk for my birthday, which is AWESOME for tracing. So that's what I've been doing. I'm tracing all my favorite art pieces to gain a better understanding for how the artists drew in facial features, drapery, landscapes, etc. So far I've only traced John Everett Millais's Ophelia and I'm not even done with that, but I've got a lot more ideas for future projects. (P.S. it's not really tracing; I trace the general outline so the proportions are correct then I pencil in the details and shade it in. So I'm not just mindlessly tracing...just to let you know. :)

I painted the flowers in using gouache. I'm not planning on painting the rest; I only wanted the flowers to look like flowers instead of pieces of garbage floating down the river with the tragic girl.

This is one of my favorite paintings. :) I quote Abby: "It's so haunting." What a great story; what a great painting. There are several other paintings by other artists of Ophelia but this is my favorite because it's so delicate and melancholic (is that a word? I'm too lazy to ask google...).

The URL for the original full-scale painting by Millais is here: http://undream.sinthetique.net/&/pre-raphaelites/J%20E%20Millais%20-%20Ophelia.jpg