Day 6, Copy after "The Concert" by Gerrit von Honthorst

My last copying day was June 5, because I took the summer off. Summers in DC are miserably hot, and I don't want to be out walking to the bus in the afternoon in 90+ degree heat and humidity. (My sweet husband now drives me in in the morning, but I have to walk 1/2 mile to the bus to go home in the afternoon.) I was planning on returning in late September, but another copyist was working on a copy in my room, so I had to wait until he was finished before I could return, renew my permit, and resume my copy. I got the word last week that I was free to come back, and so I returned today.

Today I did not work on any of the figures. I focused on the tabletop. Beginning on the left in the little triangle of negative space under the arm of the man with his back to us, I repainted the books on the tabletop and tackled the pattern in the cloth on the table.

It wasn't long before I ran into difficulties because my drawing isn't perfect, and so the negative spaces didn't really have enough room for the things that go in there. But I'm not going to fuss over it or change the drawing in any major way. My copy will just be a little different in those areas. What's important is getting the colors and values correct.

After a late lunch, I continued to work on the cloth. It was interesting to try mixing the yellow that's in shadow areas. Sometimes those areas appeared green, and sometimes I perceived them as violet. I got kind of fussy with the shapes in the fabric's pattern, but I'll repaint it all and try to be looser when I do. I also want to correct where the edge of the table is in the foreground - because of my error in placing the man in the left foreground, I moved the edge of the table down to make it fit under his arm, and I need to move it down on the right as well.

I forgot to take a picture of the painting on the easel in the gallery, so I took the photo down in the locker room before I put the painting in the storage rack.

Click on the image for a larger view

Day 5, copy after "The Concert" by Gerrit van Honthorst

Yesterday was my copying day, and it was also my last day of copying until September! I don't want to go into DC during the summer heat, and it's going to be extra crazy and crowded near the National Gallery because of the 250th anniversary of the US and all of the different celebrations taking place. I'll stay away until September.

So since yesterday was going to be the last I would see of this copy for a few months, I focused on developing what may be the most important part of the composition - the man sitting with his back to the viewer, in the lower left foreground of the painting.

This man, probably the group's leader, is a dark silhouette compared to the brilliantly lit group on the far side of the table. He points to something on the page with his bow - he plays the cello, the neck of which he holds in his left hand. I spent the whole day working on him - the black fabric that drapes around his figure is a complex marvel of folds. I used my darkest colors - Ultramarine Blue, Dioxizine Purple, Quinacridone Violet (aren't these names wonderful?) to mix black, and then I lightened it with different opaque colors for the lighter areas. I am not accurately matching the colors yet, but I'll make another try when I come around to him again. I also repainted and darkened his beautifully rich satin shirt. Such sumptuous clothes! The fabrics are very enjoyable to copy.

I also made a first pass on his hair and face, so striking in profile. Here is how the painting looked at the end of the day:

The gallery was crowded with visitors and I spoke with quite a few of them, so the time flew by. I forgot to take a picture in the gallery, and had to photograph my copy down in the locker room. If you'd like to see the original painting that I'm copying, you can look back at earlier blog posts, or click here to see the original on the National Gallery's website.

I put the photo of my copy next to the original painting on my computer, adjusted their sizes so they lined up, and took a screenshot. My copy is exactly half the size of the original, and the proportions are the same. Seeing them side by side like this is very helpful in spotting where I need to make adjustments. I'll look at this screenshot over the summer so I'll be ready to get to work the next time I'm there.

My copy will wait patiently in a rack in the Copyists' locker room until I return in September. Have a great summer!

Click on the images for a larger view