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!