Breton Girls, day 5 (final)

Today I wrapped this copy up. I worked on the girls' faces (including the one on the left that the lady last week told me Not to Touch), and also spent time on the big house (I moved the right-hand chimney to the right). There was much more I could have done, mainly in the realm of teeny-tiny brush strokes, but I just don't care that much about that. I'm mainly interested in getting the drawing, composition, and color correct. I'm enough of a perfectionist to be unhappy with certain areas where the drawing doesn't match the original, but not too much of a perfectionist that I can't abandon it when I get tired of it.

Now I'm thinking of my next copy. When I went in today, I was seriously thinking of taking a long hiatus, or stopping copying completely. It's just such a big effort to make the trip in every Monday... but I had a pretty good day, and I decided to keep on going. I have three possible paintings that I'm going to ask permission to copy, and I'll start a new copy in two weeks.

Breton Girls, day 4

Last Monday was Veteran's Day, so it's been two weeks since I worked on this copy. I had been feeling kind of bad about the painting the last time I was there, but today went better. While I was setting up, a visitor (I think she was French) stopped to tell me how much she liked it. When I made disparaging remarks about the girl's face, which I had painted in hurriedly last time, and which I hated, she said, "No, it's good! Don't touch it!" and asked for my card. That gave me confidence to attack the painting again.

As usual, I spent a long time mixing colors and ended up wasting a lot of paint. But I think I made good progress. Next week I will concentrate on the figures, and try to wrap this copy up.

(click on the images for a larger view.)