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Day 89. I did a master study of a Sargent portrait this evening using oil pastels in my sketchbook. It was very humid tonight, and my pastels were melting very easily, so this didn’t turn out as well as it could have.
That face is pretty cool! The palette looks very Zorn right now… is that on purpose?
I’d encourage you to get some of that tone distributed around the rest of the page… though that head is starting to outgrow the body a little bit as drawn… standard proportions call for three head units from chin to the sacrum.
Hi Bryan. I really love this so far. There’s something about it which is just really great. I agree with Ian that you’re not going to fit the whole torso in, in proportion, but if you can just do a bust, you’ll fit it in and it will look amazing!
Thanks Ian and Deborah 🙂 Yeah, the head ended up getting quite a bit bigger than the original drawing, mostly out of frustration working with the pastels and trying to fit in the details. I’ll remeasure and try to fix the torso.
Ian: Yeah, it is pretty much a Zorn painting. I was looking at Sargent and trying to copy his color choices a bit. It appeared to me that he mostly used raw umber for the shadows and yellow ochre mixed with white for the forehead with a little cadmium red on the cheeks. I added a bit of green and gray in a couple places (I forget the specific colors of pastels for those). The background is pretty complicated to get right with the oil pastels. I’m still trying to figure out which colors to use to get it close in the lighter parts. I would have done more last night, but decided to stop after the head because it was aggravating.
Day 90. I added a first layer of color to my self portrait today. Here is what I could accomplish before it started getting dark.
Day 91. I did a quick sketch and oil pastel painting of “Bindo Altovidi” by Raphael. It was tough. Next time I will measure more.
Day 92. Working on getting better at underpaintings. This one is a master study of “Lady With a Bowl of Violets” by Lilla Cabot Perry.
Yes, you are 🙂. As a two value system, your painting reads well. Can you ‘dry’ the underpainting in the app before going over it or does the top layer blend into it?
I can’t believe you’ve only got a week left of the challenge! How do you feel about that?
Thanks Deborah. Yes, I can put a new layer on top of this so it won’t blend. I’m going to try this green “verdaccio” underpainting technique in my paintings as well. Yeah, I’m glad I’m almost done in a way because I feel I need a little time to plan and research what to do next without the pressure to make a new work of art each day. On the other hand, this challenge has helped me immensely, so I’m going to sign up for another one as soon as I’m ready 🙂.
Day 93. More underpainting practice today. This one is a master study of “Portrait of a Gentleman” by Carravaggio.
Day 94. I’ve mostly been watching art lessons today, but I did a quick study of “Saint John The Evangelist” by Ingres. I’m going to do a more intense study 0f some of these master works eventually, but right now I’m just trying to get the light and shadow schemes correct.
I’m glad you’ve found the challenge helpful. I’d like to do another one also before too long as I’m finding the accountability of posting daily really helpful. I agree though – having a breather to think things through isn’t a bad idea. I still have a couple of weeks to go, so I’ll be cheering you on to the finish! I’ve learnt a lot from watching your work. Thank you 🙂
Day 95. I’m doing a lot of research right now, so not a lot of painting. This one is a master study of a self portrait by Mengs. I didn’t get the rose exactly right. I’ll try this one again eventually.
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