Another progress post

I've been working on this little painting copy the past few days when I get a chance. If you know much about current artists, I'm sure you recognize this one immediately ;) My copy isn't perfect--the drawing's a little off here and there, and goodness, I'm having a hard time matching the greenish hues in his grays--I want to make everything more warm. But I'm learning so much copying this. There's something very different about gazing at a painting with the intent of recreating the effect and then actually trying to do it, versus just gazing at a painting.

He is very careful about the temperature of each brushstroke--it's a constant play between warm and cool, muted and more saturated (though really, almost everything is so beautifully muted to a degree). Also, there are very few flat color shapes. It's as though each brush of paint is half-mixed, creating so much variety within what would appear to be very small, simple shapes. I also love how he uses the warmth of the toned canvas and block-in drawing as a vibration against the cooler grays laid over the top (I used raw umber to tone my linen, which seems to be a pretty close match). And it helps that I can troll his Instagram feed to get a little insight into his process (don't you wish you could do that with Sargent?). I'm going about it a little more piece-by-piece, just because I don't know when my next painting session will be, and I think the way he works is more direct, so I want to have time to almost finish one part with each session. Anyway, the way this guy paints is unbelievably lovely in its finesse, which makes it unbelievably difficult to imitate. But I do try to imitate what I perceive to be the manner of painting (or drawing), as well as the actual image when I do a copy. Such a fun way to learn, because if you do your job well, you end up with something that looks halfway decent when you're done--someone's done all the hard work already ;) I think I've heard or read that an art student imitates reality, while an artist interprets reality, and this scene is so beautifully interpreted.

Okay, here's my current figure drawing. I tried to correct the feet a little bit, and worked on refining the portrait yesterday, also brought down the value of the shadow shapes and added a light value to some of the lighter areas. We've been strongly encouraged to give first priority to the head, hands, and feet for this drawing, so I'm trying to get those out of the way. Still not quite happy with the portrait--it'll need some more refining. I'm not terribly happy with my handling of the charcoal, either--I just want it to look softer, cleaner, lovelier ;) But I guess I'll figure it out eventually.