Copy of Jacques Louis David drawing

[erikdennes]

This is a copy of Jacques Louis David’s “Combat of Diomedes”  It is half the size of the original at about 3’x 5′ painted on plywood.  Now that I have photographed it, I see all kinds of things I would like to correct, but I’d like to get some other opinions as well.  Below is a detail of the painting, and below that is the original drawing.  It is painted in acrylic with a fine liner pen.  I’m thinking I might overpaint the whole thing in oil for better blending.  I learned A LOT by doing this study, and I guess that is the point.  A larger version of the original can be found online but the file was too large to upload.  Thanks in advance for any helpful comments!

[Annie Survis]

Wow! First of all,  what a huge undertaking! The scale and the amount of detail is honestly inspiring!

I definitely think if you want to improve the mood of this piece,  you need to soften it,  as you said.  Especially the outlines.  The are more suggestive of shadows than outlines in the original.  I think some of the values need to be toned down a bit too, especially on the left of the foreground.

This was really cool to see! Thank you for sharing it!

[Jillian Phillips]

Holy smokes! This is incredible! Well done — I agree with the softening comment – the whites feel a bit too white in some areas and that might help soften the mood just a tad.

Good job!

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