Mannequin Head - continued

Well, the gesso didn't cover the newspaper as well as I wanted, and it has a very matte finish:

One coat of gesso

So I took a break to think about what to do...I picked out some paint colors and tried them out over the first coat of gesso. Then I put another coat of gesso over the paint. I really wasn't happy with the way the gesso looked, so I decided to try using plain drawing paper over the newspaper and gesso. Because the newspaper had wrinkled and hadn't been very smooth, I decided to dampen the drawing paper so it would cover the features more evenly.

My painting test shows through

The wet paper went over the form very well, and didn't need any glue or Mod Podge to stick. I wanted to put a coat of Mod Podge over the paper, but needed to wait until the paper dried. After it dried, some of the paper peeled up a bit, so the Mod Podge was necessary as well as decorative. Now I'll start the painting process and finish with another coat of Mod Podge to seal it.