by Jack
This painting is dedicated to my friend Hubertin of Lyon, France. I hope you enjoy it. Cette peinture est dédiée à mon ami Hubertin de Lyon, en France. J’espère que ça vous plait.
Cela a été fait dans le style des artistes néerlandais du 16ème siècle. It is acrylic on canvas. Completed 6/21/2017. All comments are welcome, it’s how I learn.
In this painting, which was my first attempt at doing a 16th masterpiece style, subtlety was the challenge. The hair must appear light and natural, yet angelic. The highlights and shadows must draw the figure out of the canvas. The layers upon layers of paint make up the skin tone. There are many unique colors here that I could never duplicate again. The complexity of the painting is impossible to explain, but with close examination it begins to show itself.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Lee, that looks more like Taylor Swift than Madonna….. Just kidding. Very nice. I’m very impressed. Facial features are very difficult but you captured a natural expression. What was your source; a model, a photo? Do you sell you work?
For this one I just used a picture I found on the internet and took a portion of it to use as my Madonna. It was painting in the 15th century…so I tried to replicate the style. Fun, but challenging and after this one I think I will do landscapes…much easier! And thanks for the kind words. Oh yeah, and I sell them, sometimes for the price of cup of coffee….hehehe
This one is worth much much more than a cup of coffee.
Jack this is an extremely difficult challenge and you’ve done well, my friend. You’ve worked without the benefit of being in the presence of the original painting so I’d say your mastery of technique holds up well.
I haven’t the benefit of the photo you used so my next remarks could be off base…perhaps the young lady is like many whose faces are not symmetrical?
I studied drawing many moons ago pretty extensively. Drawing is the foundation of all good paintings. Study the face. Compare it to the photo you used in terms of drawing it and see if you discover distortion that isn’t in the original. This is an exercise in seeing…and then of course being able to draw exactly what you see (exception to interpretation).
Let me know what you discover?
Hi Tina…yep, the face is not quite symetrical. What I did was take a picture of a picture of the painting and then used that as my model. I think it’s easier to use a live model, but I had to work with what I had. I deliberately mixed some unusual colors into the skin tones to give the painting unique colors and yet keep it in the style of the 15-16th century. That was a challenge. As I was doing it I came across some little tricks the original artist must have used and it was like a Eureka moment for me. That was fun. I’m moving forward in time to the 17th century for my next painting, done in the style of Italian masters… it’s already about 20% done. I hope people like it, but even if only I like it the experience will be worth it.
Exactly true. Glad to see you’re enjoying the process.
Here is a blog I enjoy. As a bonus, he leads off each edition with artwork.
http://www.woodpilereport.com/html/index-483.htm