"Wapping", Day 2

A little progress, but it doesn't feel like I've done very much. Still some untouched areas of white canvas. I won't be able to work on it again for a couple of weeks. Six painters from China are copying for the next two weeks, so none of us are allowed to copy while they're there. I'm planning on going in to see what they're doing, though.

"Wapping" by James McNeill Whistler, Day 1

At the top is the Whistler painting on the wall. I went in with a blank canvas, and my goal for today was just to get it drawn accurately. I struggled! My stretched canvas was not the exact proportions as the Whistler. Mine has to be at least 2" smaller than the original. The Whistler is 28 3/8 x 40 1/16 in. In order to maintain the correct proportions, my canvas should have been 25"x 35 5/16". But stretcher bars only come in even inches, so I stretched it 25"x36". Not much of a difference, but enough to create some distortion. I spent the morning measuring and measuring (using my brush at arm's length.) I was making myself crazy, so I took a break for lunch, and when I got back, I just started drawing the image, checking the measurements a little as I went. I saw that Whistler had divided his composition up very carefully. The height of the painting is the same as the distance between the left side and the dark vertical. I found other interesting divisions of the picture plane as I went. I feel pretty good about the drawing. I started putting some color in, and I'm aware that they are not correct yet, but it's a start. Next week I can work harder on the colors. This is going to be fun!