I'm glad I decided to work on this for one more day. I found plenty to do. I worked on the green areas in the foreground, which I thought were too garish. I did a lot of glazing and dry-brushing. Glazing to darken the greens, and dry-brushing (or scumbling) to add the lighter warm color that I believe was Degas' base coat. I feel that it worked pretty well. I also fiddled a little with the size of the rider on the far right. I had made him too small. But as is usually the case, the more I worked on it, the more problems I saw. I went to lunch - that was when I took the first photo.
After lunch, I worked on it a little longer, mainly repainting the sky, which I hadn't touched since the first day. I finally decided to stop before I noodled it to death. Even with the drawing errors, I feel pretty good about this copy. Of course it wouldn't pass for a forgery, but that's not what I'm trying to do. I enjoy trying to recreate the gesture that the artist, in this case Degas, used when painting this painting. I especially like that rearing horse, who doesn't even really have a defined head. This painting is all about the movement and gesture of the horses, and the jockeys sitting relaxed in the saddle. It was fun trying to capture the mood. Now, on to the next one!
Click the images for a larger view
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