Misse and Luttine, day 10

Well, I made it in today, a little late, but I got there. Only thing was... I forgot my medium! Argh.

I painted with undiluted paint, which was OK, just not what I'm used to. I brought in some Yellow Ochre, which I usually don't have on my pallette. I do think that's what was missing in the white dog's coat. That, and the fact that Oudry probably used lead white, and I'm using Titanium, which is much colder. The Yellow Ochre did help. I worked on the white dog for about an hour, - I repainted her whole front half - the lights are laid on with many parallel strokes.  I also worked on the sky, deadening and lightening the blue. I started to feel like I was hurting it more than helping it, so I stopped after only an hour and a half. I also wanted to beat the rain home, which I did.

click the images for a larger view

Misse and Luttine day 9

I almost didn't go in today, because... intertia. But Hal said, "You should go", and I listened. It was too late for the VRE train, and it was after rush hour, so I decided to drive in. As I approached the Metro station, there was an electric sign announcing that "Parking is Available" at Vienna Metro. So I decided to Metro in.

I got to the NGA by 1:00, and sat down on the wall outside to eat my lunch. By the time I got set up in the gallery, it was 1:30. But I painted non-stop until quitting time at 4:00. I feel like I got as much done as a normal day when I get there at 10:00, but I felt better. When I go in early, I have to get up early to catch the last VRE train at 8:03. After having worked until 9:00 on Thursday night, and often not sleeping well, I'm pretty tired. I normally paint until 12:30, take an hour for lunch, and get totally exhausted not long after. So I think I like going in later better. It's worse coming home, though. Traffic is worse from the Vienna Metro in evening rush hour than it is coming home from the VRE. Maybe next time I'll stay in DC later so as to miss rush hour. The Portrait Gallery is open until 7...

Today I focused on Misse's face. I painted her ears and went over the brown patch. I mixed up a warmer white, but in the photos it still looks much cooler than the original. I went over much of her front half, repainting all her highlighted fur with the warmer white. I also mixed up the darker tone in her fur, which worked with just raw umber plus white. It still looks too disjointed, especially in the shoulder muscle, so I'll try to unify that area next time.

I also mixed up a better green for the trees in the middle of the painting, and repainted them. No Prussian Blue this time! I think it's a little better.

Next time, I will work on Luttine and the distant landscape. When I'm happy with the landscape and sky, I'll paint in those few trees in the background on the right. I still have to put in that weird little plant in the middle foreground, and paint their names. The end is in sight, maybe 3 or 4 more times.

Misse and Luttine, day 8

I haven't been here to copy since July! One thing and another... but it was very good to get back to work on this copy.

The first thing I did today was make some corrections in the white dog's front legs, shoulder, and neck. It was pretty close, but I saw that some things weren't lining up, and the anatomy seemed off. So I mixed up a light and a dark color, and used the dark to cut into the leg so I could move it. I also brought the chest down a little, and developed the shoulder more. I think it's improved. It won't be perfect, but I believe it's better, and good enough.

Another thing I did (and why didn't I do this before?) was ask Google (on my phone) "what colors did Oudry use?" I found a really thorough website from The Getty Conservation Institute about all the pigments used by Jean-Baptiste Oudry, found by scientifically analyzing his animal paintings. He also wrote pretty thoroughly about how he painted. Now, I'm not going to go out and buy colors like yellow iron oxide earth (what even is that?), but I did find out the only blue Oudry used was Prussian Blue, which I happened to have in my box. So I switched to that blue. And brown iron oxide earth is like umber, which I have both burnt and raw, so I used both. I also had Naples Yellow, which he used. Titanium White instead of lead white will have to do. It's really a very limited palette. I think using Prussian Blue and Naples Yellow, plus Burnt Umber, makes a green that's closer to the original than what I had before. I repainted the trees in the background, also the landscape to the right and the sky. I feel like I have to repaint everything each time I come. I guess eventually I'll be happy with it, and that's when I'll know that I'm done!

Here's a comparison of the my copy to the original in the area of the white dog's legs, which I worked on today:

I'll probably mess with it more later. Here is how it looked at the end of the morning:

After lunch, I worked on Luttine's coat. I know I'll have to adjust the color of the trees again - maybe too much Prussian Blue? I stopped early because I was suddenly very tired. I spent the rest of the day in the East Building looking at some wonderful art.

Here's a detail of Luttine, and the whole painting at the end of Day 8:

I'll try to be back in two weeks!

Misse and Luttine, day 7

Today I was tired from not having had much sleep in the past week, so I didn't feel too energetic. Still, I managed to make some progress.

In the morning, I repainted most of the ground, adding the shadows and darkening the greens. I felt like I was painting with dirty colors, but my copy still looks brighter than the original. I also painted around both dogs' heads, because I thought they should be a little smaller. Here is my progress at lunch time:

Lunch was fun, because Roxane and I stumbled upon a room in the back of the cafeteria where kids were making art! We were invited in to either make buttons or postcards. We both opted for buttons! They had a badge-a-minute machine, and gave us paper circles to decorate. There were colored pencils and watercolor crayons on the tables. I grabbed a book about Cezanne and copied one of his self portraits. Here is what I made!

After lunch, I put the yellow on the trees' leaves near the column. I made a darker, warmer white for the white dog's coat by adding cadmium yellow and alizarin to the white, and scumbled it over the white dog. I think it's still too cold a white, but that might just be the way the light is hitting it. 

That's about all I got done today. Back in two weeks!

(click on the pictures for a larger view.)

Misse and Luttine, day 6

I've been able to get to the National Gallery every other Friday on a regular basis, thanks to my wonderful friend Roxane giving me a ride! (If I have to go in by train, I tend to bug out and skip my day for the slightest reason.) Because I've been getting down there every two weeks, I'm making pretty good progress on this copy.

This morning I again tackled those #@! columns. Now that I know there are TWO columns, I looked harder at them and figured out where my copy was wrong. I worked on the columns for an hour and a half, then stopped for lunch.

After lunch, I worked on the sky and trees. I lowered the horizon a bit more. I still haven't put in those tall, spindly trees in the distance on the right. I forgot to take a picture on the easel at the end of the day, so I photographed it in the Copyists' locker room, where I didn't have room to stand back and get a straight photo of it. Oh well, you can still see my progress in this cockeyed photo. Back for more in two weeks!

(click the pictures for a larger view.)

"Misse and Luttine" day 5! The best day yet!

I had a great day today and feel like I made lots of good progress on this copy. I think the main reason was that my friend Roxane drove me again (thank you, thank you, thank you!), which saved me so much energy, from being able to sleep in a little longer, to not having to walk from the train station. Every little bit helps! I felt energetic all day, and didn't have that after lunch exhaustion that usually causes me to stop painting early in the afternoon.

All morning, I worked on the column. I felt that there was something off about it, and I wanted it to be correct, or it would always bother me. After obsessing over it for two hours, I finally stopped for a nice lunch with Roxane and Diana.

After lunch, I really got busy: I repainted the sky and clouds, mixed a warmer white for Misse's coat (I used Naples Yellow, which seemed right,) and lowered Luttine's head by bringing the sky and trees down into it and repainting her jaw lower. I made a rich black by mixing burnt umber and ultramarine blue with a little alizarin crimson, and painted all of Luttine that color, then I went back into her coat with a lighter value for the highlighted areas. (I'll repaint her again later anyway.) I also lowered the horizon a little and put some details into the landscape. I'll wait to put those few tall trees in for when the paint is dry in that area. I haven't repainted any of the ground yet.

The pictures below are from the end of the day. When I met my friends Roxane and Diana (who also came along today,) I was complaining to them that I really didn't understand that column, which was making it hard to paint it correctly. After looking at it for a while, Diana said that maybe it was actually TWO columns instead of one. I realized that she must be right! There are two columns on that stone base, one behind the other. Now that I see that, I think I'll be able to paint it so that it makes more sense. Thank you, Diana!

In two weeks, I'll work more on Misse - she is proving to be very challenging with her short white fur and wiry musculature and ribs. I'll also work on the ground, and lighten and put detail into the foliage just to the right of the column(s). I'm enjoying this copy, and these two doggies are very popular with the visitors. Looking forward to next time!

"Misse and Luttine" day 4

Yesterday I devoted myself to working on the white dog (Misse). I made corrections to the drawing in the area of her neck and front legs. I spent a long time mixing the colors in her coat, in the lights and shadow areas. I also mixed up a dark for the column she is in front of, so I could cut back into her form to correct the drawing. Here is how it looked when I went to lunch:

I was starting to reshape her head and paint her ears. My friend Roxane had driven me in today, and she took this picture of me at work:

After enjoying a nice lunch, Roxane went home, and I continued to work on Misse. I thinned and repositioned her legs, and added darks to the white areas of her head and body. But I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and after about an hour, I was too tired to paint anymore.

The dark areas will serves as underpainting to scumble over with the light color. I'm happier with the front legs. I'll try to be more rested when I come back in two weeks.

"Misse and Luttine" Day 3

Today I worked on the area surrounding the dogs - I didn't get to the dogs at all. I substantially darkened everything and struggled to understand that weird column.

This was when I stopped for lunch. I worked on it some more after lunch, but I forgot to take a picture at the end of the day! Sorry.

I spent a good bit of time in the Cézanne Portraits exhibit. It's up until July 1st - I will definitely spend more time in there!

Day 2, "Misse and Luttine"

One month later, day 2 on this copy. My goal for today was just to cover all the white canvas. I tried to get the color and value right. Worked on it for about 2 hours and got to this point, where all the white was covered. Then I went to lunch.

(click the pictures for a larger view)

The museum was very crowded today with lots of school groups coming into my room. Of course they were all fascinated with the copyist. I concentrated as best as I could, while being just as pleasant to everyone as I needed to be. I felt very out of practice, but it was still good to be there.

After I ate a nice, leisurely lunch, I decided to walk around the East Building.

It's always wonderful in there when the sun is out!

It's great to see the big Calder mobile up close

Such a gorgeous space

A Diebenkorn!!!

Another Diebenkorn!!!

After tramping around the East Building, I returned to my copy, and decided that I just didn't have the energy to paint anymore, so I cleaned up and left.

I had to take this picture of the Hirshhorn Museum, where I interned when I was in college.

It was a cold, windy day, but the sun was out. The Hirshhorn again.

I sketched the people waiting for the train home. Cold and windy! I'll be back in two weeks, hopefully it will be warmer by then.

New Copy - "Misse and Luttine" by Jean-Baptiste Oudry

I'm so happy I decided to resume copying at the National Gallery! Today was my first day on my copy of Jean-Baptiste Oudry's painting, "Misse and Luttine". Oudry was a court painter to King Louis XV of France.

Painted in 1729, "Misse and Luttine" was one of several portraits of hunting dogs commissioned by the king, who was an avid hunter, and wanted his dogs immortalized in paintings to decorate his many homes and hunting lodges.

Here is the painting, "Misse and Luttine":

The original painting is 38 1/2" x 51 3/4". The largest we are allowed to copy (without special permission) is 40", so using my handy-dandy Painting Resizer excel spreadsheet created by my husband Hal, I found that 30" x 40" came very close to the proportions (height x width) of the original.

I had prepared the canvas by drawing a pencil grid on it, dividing it into halves and quarters. I printed the image from the National Gallery website, and folded the printout into halves and quarters also. 

I intended to copy the painting directly in the museum, so I didn't predraw the image on at home, which would have made life easier. But part of the fun for me is figuring it out when I'm there in front of it. I spent a solid two hours this morning carefully measuring and re-measuring, holding my brush out at arm's length to compare sizes, finding centers and angles, and checking negative spaces. I used the printout (which you can see lying in my paintbox in the photos below) to check and make sure I had done it correctly.

This is the end result of my morning's work. I broke for lunch and enjoyed perusing the book store. When I went back upstairs, I decided not to paint any more on it today. I will start on laying in the color when I'm here next, which will be in four weeks.