There Rousar encountered a Carvaggio painting in the Vatican that showed the lowering of Christ into the tomb. Carvaggio had placed the figure of Mary Magdelene in the background. Five years later, he could wait no longer to begin the work. The making of a painting is no small task. Next he must find models that match his vision for the work.
Scheduling is often an issue, since key characters are sometimes needed for long hours.
Once models are secured, Rousar makes character sketches on separate canvases. Rousar typically goes directly to canvas whenever possible. He mixes a warm brown color with lots of turpentine and puts major contours on the canvas. Rousar works on every part of the canvas about four times. He gets the shapes down, then fills in darks and lights, then makes color values more precise and finally adds dark or light accents.