I am working from Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Ginevra d'Benci. Yesterday I mistakenly labeled it as egg tempera. The National Gallery states this is oil on panel.
Most students in my egg tempera workshop selected portraits. I had no interest, that is until now. I have a plan to rework this portrait into one of my lovely niece Bethany. Exciting stuff!
That six weeks until you are a free man of Massachusetts will soon go by if you continue with your wonderful and varied art journey. I have just caught up properly with the last three posts and love the da Vinci inspired drawings and the lilies and the Prussian blue. I have,coincidentally, just added it to my watercolour box for the new journal.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, although my workdays seem to dampen my creative energies, my weekends (since the workshops) have been artistically rich and rewarding. The excitement builds!
ReplyDeletehi john, fun to see you are trying portrait...challenging,eh? i took more pictures of libby and am starting another painting now. of her. more of a 3 quarter view. have it transferred and ready to start layers today. did you finish the water lilly? dorothy
ReplyDeleteI'm just getting caught back up here at Nuncketest too after a busy week of summer events- it's all good but computer time (and art time) seem to fall by the wayside during these times. I think we try so hard to pack SO much into our short summers here in New England that it takes us all winter to recover!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on reaching your 1,000th post! Does it seem possible? Such growth has transpired since your first post and it's all so very positive and wonderful.
Portraits! How fun! I am so impressed with what you have shown us in these two so far- as Dorothy said, they are challenging but I think can sometimes be the most rewarding. It always amazes me when doing a portrait how the tiniest of details, whether adding/subtracting a pinhead of a shadow or miniscule length to a feature, can either produce a likeness... or not. I will be watching the progress of this portrait with great interest; exciting stuff indeed!
~ gretchen
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteChallenging indeed, and a lot of fun! Saturday was a perfect day to really settle in and relax into drawing.
Oh, that waterlily... It's on hold for now. I keep messing with the pads and I'm never satisfied. I'd really like to start over with a better picture--more lily, less pads, and clearly defined form with angled lighting.
Welcome back, Gretchen! Yup, the posts just keep on coming! :-) It's just such a normal part of my life.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it... The tiniest change can make such a difference. Today I became aware of foreshortening in the three-quarter view, seeing facial features applied to a turning sphere. That nose, among other features, shouldn't be straight ahead! :-)