After a hiatus of almost a year, I went back to the National Gallery today to start a new copy. (Hearing that inactive copyists were going to have their lockers cleaned out and their supplies discarded was what lit the fire under me.) I chose to copy "The Biglin Brothers Racing" by Thomas Eakins, for a few reasons. One, all the Impressionist galleries are closed for renovation. Two, Eakins was a Philadelphia painter, and this scene took place on the Schuylkill River. Having gone to college in Philly, I liked the subject matter. Three, it's a beautiful painting! (This is a photo of the original on the wall.)
I had a printout of the painting from the web site, and I folded the picture to find the centers. I discovered that the two rowers fit into a rectangle whose top is the horizontal center of the painting, bottom is halfway from the center to the bottom, and sides are the center third of the painting. Very cool!
I found the centers and thirds of my blank canvas, and carefully sketched the major elements of the painting with burnt sienna. (I could have gotten this far at home, but I much prefer starting it in front of the real painting.)
This is how far I got by mid-day. I toned the canvas with burnt sienna, except for the sky. You can see how dark the original painting on the wall is. I think it needs cleaning, it seems very dirty.
This is how it looked at the end of Day 1. It was good to get back to copying, I really love being there for the whole day, immersed in a painting.
After a hiatus of almost a year, I went back to the National Gallery today to start a new copy. (Hearing that inactive copyists were going to have their lockers cleaned out and their supplies discarded was what lit the fire under me.) I chose to copy "The Biglin Brothers Racing" by Thomas Eakins, for a few reasons. One, all the Impressionist galleries are closed for renovation. Two, Eakins was a Philadelphia painter, and this scene took place on the Schuylkill River. Having gone to college in Philly, I liked the subject matter. Three, it's a beautiful painting! (This is a photo of the original on the wall.)
I had a printout of the painting from the web site, and I folded the picture to find the centers. I discovered that the two rowers fit into a rectangle whose top is the horizontal center of the painting, bottom is halfway from the center to the bottom, and sides are the center third of the painting. Very cool!
I found the centers and thirds of my blank canvas, and carefully sketched the major elements of the painting with burnt sienna. (I could have gotten this far at home, but I much prefer starting it in front of the real painting.)
This is how far I got by mid-day. I toned the canvas with burnt sienna, except for the sky. You can see how dark the original painting on the wall is. I think it needs cleaning, it seems very dirty.
This is how it looked at the end of Day 1. It was good to get back to copying, I really love being there for the whole day, immersed in a painting.
1 comment:
Amy! Very cool! Love see what your up to.
Meg
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