"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!