New Copy, Day 1, "Madame David" by Jacques-Louis David

Yesterday, I returned to the National Gallery to start my new copy. I have been looking at this painting, "Madame David", by Jacques-Louis David (pronounced DAVEED), for many years, wondering if I could dare to try to copy it. I'm finally doing it! It is one of the most beautiful portraits I have ever seen. I've done a little bit of research into David, his color palette, and his painting technique, to try to get myself psyched up and ready for this. Here is a photo of the original painting, from the National Gallery's website:

David's biography is on the NGA website, so if you're interested, you can read it here.

As per the NGA's rules, I stretched a canvas a little more than 2 inches smaller than the original, making sure it was the same proportions (height x width) as the original. I printed out the photo of the original painting and gridded it out into quarters and marked the diagonals, and did the same for my canvas. This was to ensure that in my copy, the drawing would be as accurate as possible, and to save myself time in the museum that would otherwise be spent painstakingly measuring and remeasuring (I've done this with past copies, standing with my arm extended and sighting along it to measure all the elements. I know how to do that, but wanted to save myself the time and effort.) As a result of using this shortcut, I was able to get the basics of the painting sketched onto my canvas in a relatively short period of time. I used light gray paint. One very interesting thing I discovered is that David placed the figure in such a way that the exact center of the canvas is at the notch of her collarbones. Her face and figure are just slightly off center, with the figure a little more turned away and the head very slightly turned back toward us, almost, but not quite, straight on. The tip of her thumb just touches the center line.

David built his paintings up with many thin layers, glazing over underpaintings that first established the values. This is why his paintings remain in very good condition with little cracking. I thought I was going to do the same with this copy, painting a value underpainting in shades of gray, but I realized that I'm really not interested in doing that. This is not the way I paint in real life. My own paintings are mostly done very directly, mixing the colors I see and applying them all wet into wet. If I need to return to my paintings again, I'll often repaint an area completely rather than glaze over it. My copy won't look like David's for this reason, but I still hope to learn and improve my own figure and portrait painting by copying this. What I am doing is using a similar limited palette as I read that David used: Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Vermillion, Cobalt Blue, Ivory Black, and Flake White (Gamblin's Flake White Replacement, which isn't lead.) I'm also using Transparent Brown Oxide.

I decided to start by blocking in the dark background, and I started working on the white satin of her dress. I was afraid to start with the face! After a couple of hours of painting, it was time for lunch. Here is my copy at this point:

After lunch, I worked on the satin dress some more, but I could immediately see that the whites need to be put in last. The satin is very interesting, with warm darks and cool middle values. I started working on the face and other areas of skin, fighting my fear. I mixed Naples Yellow, Vermillion and White, and although my colors are darker, I think I got the hues pretty well. I painted around the nose and indicated where the eyes will be. Bluish gray in the shadow areas. I'll be repainting all of this over again when I come back in future weeks. I didn't have time to get to the red of her shawl. I'm not sure if Vermillion is the right color for this, and may have to expand my palette. Here is the painting at the end of the day:

This was further than I thought I'd get in the first day. I tend to be impatient and paint very quickly, but I will try to slow down and do this right. Please leave me a comment below!

Click on the images for a larger view.