A couple months ago decided I should take a bit of a break from my own original paintings and study some more old-master type paintings and drawings in order to learn.

Here’s one of the paintings I am working on, I started this in mid-February 2009. The original is by Petrus Christus and is referred to as Portrait of a Young Girl or Portrait of a Young Lady, etc. I’m painting it with oil on panel in an 11×14 inch size, although I think the original is closer to 8×10 inches:

Petrus Christus study work in progress

I found two fairly hi-res photos of this work, one is very cracked and the other seemed to have less cracks in it. After comparing the two though I realized that it just looks like they blurred one to remove the cracks, as well as cropped it, and the coloration and contrast is way different than the other and it’s even a bit rotated too! I now know that I need to seek out a bunch of photos of a famous piece of art since they can be wildly different.

Even though the drawing is pretty simple, it took a while to get her to look the same, she kept looking older in my version. The original is kinda odd, especially the nose and the right eye. I noticed that the original looks really strange when you look at it in a mirror. This is the first master-level painting that I have seen that looks weird when viewed in that way, every other one I have tried looks perfect in a mirror.

Partly because the original is so cracked and it’s hard to see some details, I am deviating in many respects from the original. I’m basically duplicating the form of the painting but partly in my own style. One thing that is awesome about this is that her gaze really follows you around the room, it’s rather eerie.

I did the face and skin in a raw umber dead layer underpainting first. Once I was satisfied with that, after many sessions and many hours, I started glazing transparent combinations of yellow ochre, burnt umber, and vermillion (hue) over the dry underpainting. The background was also painted with a few layers of glazed burnt sienna and burnt umber.

I still have a ways to go on this one. The decorative band around the hat has been very difficult, but I think I am close to figuring out how to do it.

*Update: For the completed painting see: http://www.chromaticblack.com/completed/petrus-christus-study-completed-portrait-of-a-young-lady

Categories: dead layer, master study, oil painting, portrait, work-in-progress by Airn
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Update 04-08-09: I finished the Bouguereau painting, here’s the completed version.

Update 06-19-09: The Petrus Christus study is done too.

Here are a couple of the projects I am working on right now.

Both are based on masterworks, one is “A Calling” by Bouguereau, the other by Petrus Christus, a work referred to as “Portrait of a Young Girl” or “Portrait of a Lady”, etc. I’ll post more about them separately later, probably when I am done with each. I’m painting the Bouguereau direct on canvas, no underpainting, and the Petrus Christus one is on panel and I’m using a ‘dead layer’ monochromatic underpainting (raw umber and white). Fun!

Bouguereau and Petrus Christus studies

Categories: dead layer, master study, oil painting, work-in-progress by Airn
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I’m continuing my drawing self-study…who better to learn from than one of the old masters, good old Michelangelo himself. I did this one with no grid or other optical aid, tryin’ to train the eye and hone the discipline. Prolly took me around 7 hours or so over 5 sessions. This is HB pencil on some Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper that I toned with a 6B graphite stick. It’s about 4×6 inches.

Bust of Cleopatra (after Michelangelo), drawn by Airn LeBus

Categories: completed, drawings, master study by Airn
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I really admire Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Le Brun and the impressive number of wonderful paintings she has left us. Later I will try to copy at least of one of her paintings, mostly for learning purposes, but for now I tried duplicating one of her chalk drawings. This was kinda a quickie, maybe I will try a better one later with chalk or graphite…I was not too into colored pencils, I rarely use them and now I remember why. I couldn’t really erase and they break when I try to sharpen them with my normal sharpener, I was just flailing in general.

Still I like this enough to post it here. I wanted to do this without a grid or any visual aid, and I’m happy with the likeness, the shading and such was rough but the overall form worked out pretty well. I’ve been working through the exercises in “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook” and some of the sighting stuff and negative space tips etc have definitely helped me, I had tried this same drawing a few weeks ago with a much crummier result. I’m also really learning to stop and check the work out from a few feet away, upside down, etc, to prevent problems with proportion and other unhappy surprises later.

Next I am trying a drawing by Michaelangelo, this time with graphite pencils (that I can erase) on smooth paper (on which I can shade smoothly).

Here is my drawing after Vigee-Le Brun, my version is about 4×5 inches and is colored pencils on fairly rough, colored paper:

Drawing after Vigee-Le Brun, Girl Wearing a Veil

Categories: completed, drawings, master study, portrait by Airn
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