So, I finished the White Poodle and decided to go back to my last copy, Cézanne's "Still Life with Apples and Peaches", which I had worked on from August 26-October 21, 2014. It was almost done, but I had just made one pass on the fabric hanging behind the still life. Here is how it looked at the end of Day 7:
It looked almost done, but I had made only one pass over much of the left side of the painting. You can see that the color of the hanging fabric in the background is much brighter in mine than in the original. One comment I hear a lot is, "I like yours better!", because people like the bright colors. But I'm interested in getting the colors as close as I can to Cézanne's. It is a challenge, because I'm using modern pigments, and I don't bother to research what he used. (Maybe I should!) But that's the fun, trying to get a match however I can. This skill translates to painting from life when I go out and work from the landscape or still life.
Today I worked on just the part of the patterned fabric to the left of and below the white pitcher. I would have reached for yellow ochre, but I found that I was out of it. Just as well. I had to make my own tawny earth color from cadmium yellow, cadmium red medium, and cobalt blue (yes, I know I'm using expensive pigments to mix what is an inexpensive earth tone. But mixing it is fun!) And there are so many nuances in Cézanne's colors.
Here is how my painting looked at the end of the day:
Does it look any different? Not really - I guess it's a shade darker. I'll probably go over it again next time. My copying day is shifting from Tuesday to Thursday because of a change in my work schedule. Stay tuned!
(click on the images for a larger view)
