Filling in the middle

 Now that I have the front row of Vestals established, and having the clue in the form of a sieve placed in my painting, I need to think about growing the numbers of vestals.

I will fill up the space behind the vestal with the sieve first.  I shall try a pose of the model sitting on the bent over sieve model, in appearance anyways.

I think this is an interesting pose, having models arched in opposite directions, forming an X, creating some sort of tension.

To fill in the space between the two models, I insert a model looking upwards at a 45 degree angle, directing the viewer outside of the painting.

A third model is placed on her knees, crawling over to another model with outreached arm, establishing some sort of a connection.

The Sieve

As I said from the beginning, when I first thought about painting the Vestal virgins, I worried about if the painting could be considered obscene and not suitable for public places.  My plan was to obfuscate with misplaced shadows and lights and outlines to make the obvious less obvious?  Does that even make sense?  

I also alluded to what I've learned about the Vestal Virgins, of the belief that these Priestesses possessing magical power, and as proof of their chastity by rendering a sieve leak-proof.  In other words, they can carry water with sieves.  My plan then was to include a sieve, or sieves in my painting to give it a smidgen of historical facts.  Perhaps not everybody researched the topic and some of us would wonder about the significance of such sieves and beg the question.   This would be an interesting morsel of trivia anyways.

There, this painting is not about nudity but references tantalizing background information about the institution of Vestals.  I feel much better now.

The nude is born with a pencil sketching first.

Defining my light values with ink and flesh color acrylic, and finish up with wavy white and ink lines for definition and highlights.

I am establishing the first hint that this is a painting about the Vestals.  A Vestal fidgeting with a sieve to see if it's still watertight?  Perhaps to validate her status as a Vestal Virgin?

As I am planting the clues I get a sense of going down the rabbit hole.  What to reveal next.