Crinoline

I was in grizzly bear country during a recent hike and the guide kept reminding us to make some noise so as not to surprise any unsuspecting bears.  The guide said that the little bells that people wear on their clothing really are not loud enough to to anything.  As the group approached any blind curves on the trail we often stopped momentarily and uttered our "hello" first;  such that any bears coming upwind from the opposite side would not feel ambushed by humans.  We were also told to never turn our back and run, and never make eye contacts with any grizzly encounters.  Looking at them in the eyes would be a sign of hostility.

Obviously the guides all carried bear sprays for any unplanned meetings with the grizzlies.

The relaxed atmosphere led to kidding around as to what one could do to discourage the bears from attacking in the first place.

Making us look bigger was suggested by us city dwellers.  For some reason the ladies in the group  received the brunt of the joke by suggesting that they wear garments that will make them appear bigger.  At this point everybody was at a lost as to what such garments are called.  We were talking about the dresses back in the old days when the skirts were propped up like a lantern.

Someone said the word is bustier but that got rejected pretty quickly.  We all agreed that bustier had to do with the bust and that's not what we were referring to.  Finally the group agreed that the word is bustle.

After I came home from the trip I tried to look for the correct word.  Somehow the word bustle did not resonate with me.  Here is what I found

I don't know about everybody else, but what I had in mind was actually called crinoline.  This is a word that I am not familiar with so I am happy for this opportunity to be educated.

From that "A" frame princess style, my mind wandered off to the Korean style garments for the ladies.  The fascination of the new vocabulary inspired me to do a painting of such style of clothing.

I envisioned a painting with such traditional garb against a backdrop of Asian architectural motif.

I fetched my sized Xuan since it could accommodate some degree of pushing colors around, unlike the unsized version.

I divided the paper into approximate thirds by folding creases into it.  My subjects are to be placed at the intersection of the lower and the right thirds.

The subjects were sketched in

The heads were painted in

Next came the rest of the garments

I tried to decorate the fabric with patterns

Everything was loosely done at this stage.  I was not concerned about the correctness of the color or the lines.  I was treating the whole thing as a sketch so far.  I wouldn't do any changes until I painted in the architectural background so that I could digest the whole painting before I pay attention to any details.