My Painting for 2010: The Mona Lisa

I'm starting a new art project, another painting, and it's a big one this time: I'm going to make a copy of the Mona Lisa. And not just copy it as it exists now, in its present deteriorated form; I instead will use my imagination to envision the painting as it was in its prime, freshly painted, without smudges and faded colors. Also i will restore the approximately 2 inches total of painting that was cut/cropped from the sides. I will also attempt to learn/use the original sfumato technique that Leonardo is said to have used for this painting. I will not go so far, however, as to attempt to replicate the kinds of brushes or exact pigment mixtures he may have used. I'm fairly certain today's modern tools are superior to whatever Leonardo had concocted for his paints.

I hope to learn from this endeavor much about the painting's subtle compelling qualities; and i believe that by viewing it analytically i will be able to see the painting with a new kind of objective vision. It is difficult to truly "see" that to which we have been overexposed so greatly.

Also i will relish in the research and discovery of hopefully many new theories regarding the meaning of specific details or histories of mysterious smudges and damaged areas that are somewhat evident to me. I have many questions that i must answer before i set out with my paint box and easel; i must fully analyze and plan my moves authentically; i want to envision the masterpiece in my head, as Leonardo did.

I've already gone over most of the major Google hits for "Mona Lisa" and various derivations, and I've absorbed a lot of new and interesting information that will sort of provide a foundation on which i can build a reliable source image to copy from. A very high resolution image of the mona lisa was available on the wikipedia web site, which I find is often a very good source of high resolution art. The Wiki Mona has high resolution but is very dark and monotone, and will not provide any good color information. Gathered more images from other sites, which perported to display the "true colors" of the Mona Lisa, utilizing various spectrum photographic techiniques. Interesting stuff but their images were low resolution and protected by watermark. Ultimately I've colorized the Wiki Mona with the palettes of the various low resolution color sources, and this is the result:



Next step, i shall do a quick digital color sketch of the painting, and get a sense of the potential pitfalls and challenges awaiting me.