Stacy Weitz Minch

I usually spend a few hours working on my Bargue project on Saturdays, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it yesterday. It's like pulling teeth right now, and I need to buckle down and do it so I can move on to casts--but finding the motivation isn't easy. Instead I stayed home and worked on an image that makes me want to paint :) This little Miss Beatrice. And isn't it a wonderful painting? (you can look up a really nice hi-res image of the original on wikiart if you aren't familiar with it). I love Sargent so much. I want to move like him when I paint. He's so fluid and lyrical, yet maddeningly accurate. I don't expect I'll ever paint anything like him, but I sure do wish I could--it doesn't hurt to shoot for the moon, does it? :) I learn a lot about his process by doing these copies--little things that I hope to be able to apply in my own work. He seems to put in the large masses in average values, then lay down darks/lights over and ...

What can I say? I really like Sargent :) I spent a couple more hours working this portrait last night, so I've probably invested 6-8 hours in this painting so far. I think once I get the portrait to a place I'm happy with, the rest of this will go really quickly. I blocked in the entire painting the first night I worked on it, and the original is pretty sketchy so I don't think it will take too much "finishing" work (though the painting did fall off my easel wet a couple weeks ago, so there are a couple areas that need a little tlc ;).

I have a couple little things I want to touch up, but I think I'm actually ready to quit working on this one this time. Not because I think it's a perfect copy, and not because I couldn't go on fixing little things about it for the rest of my life. But because I think there are some major things that could be fixed that would require almost an entire rework of the painting. And I don't think it's worth it. I'd rather start fresh with something new and let this one be what it is--a cooler (color temperature-wise) copy of an incandescent-lit photograph of a painting I've never seen in person ;) The nuance of expression isn't perfect and of course that drives me nuts, but considering my mistake-laden sketchy start (yikes), I think I did just about the best I could without working it to death. The color. I made a deliberate decision at one point to de-yellow the mix. And I've tried a couple times to warm it up after-the-fact because my teacher ...

I felt like throwing some paint around last night, so I decided to start another little Sargent copy (and yes, I must be crazy ;). Still haven't finished that other one yet, but I'm planning on this one being a sketchier copy. I'll definitely go back in and refine the portrait and the hand, and add more paint in the clothing/puppy. But I don't think I'll spend a ton of time on this, and I'm just not really that concerned about it being a perfect likeness. I'm playing around with the limited palette (and gettring a brief break from drawing). This start was about two hours of painting. Sargent wasn't afraid to use black. I like that. I spent some time painting without black because someone told me that that was what I was "supposed" to do. All the "supposed-to's" :P  I decided to grid the drawing in order to simplify the process, and doesn't that make drawing faster? I probably spent 5-10 minutes blocking this in (whi...

I think I'm getting pretty close to saying "done" on this copy. I might make one more pass after this layer dries to soften some transitions and make a few temperature corrections and such. But that's a maybe. I don't know. I'm kind of ready to move on to something else, I think. This has been a really good learning experience. But again, I feel like painting is about 97% drawing. Especially when copying something like this. The drawing has to be pretty close, and that's what I've spent most my time on. But I've been working through some issues with the color on this one too. I was at a drawing session a few weeks back. This was taped up on my board and one of the artists mentioned how much more yellow my print was than the original (he had seen it in person), and that the skin tones in the original seemed to be very simple pinks (I've looked up a few images online, and the one I'm copying from seems much darker than some others too, b...

Well, it was a wild and crazy night here ringing in the new year with my brushes and paints, ha. I don't know about this copy. It's sort of atrocious in my eyes, but I'm going ahead and calling it quits here. I guess I'm glad I did it. It probably wasn't a waste of time. But I would like to have done it better. I expended so much effort trying to correct the drawing (which still isn't great) after that first go, that other aspects of the painting became sort of an afterthought. I'm sure I learned a few things in the process--always start with a good drawing! I should have spent more time really getting the drawing right in a simple way. But all that paint is just so distracting ;) Also, something very small here, but the whites of the eyes are much closer to flesh tone than white. And just spending some time mixing flesh tones and putting them up on canvas is helpful, even if I did a pretty crude job of it. I haven't painted much flesh up to this ...

I think I mentioned I was trying out some new paper with this one. I don't know a lot about charcoal, but I do like the way this paper takes the medium. The only trouble is that it's really difficult to lift the charcoal once it's laid on the paper. Seems like the eraser just pushes the charcoal further into the paper fibers, leaving a smudgey looking gray. So that's not the best if you need to erase much. But that could be the soft willow charcoal I was using too... I don't know. Funny enough, working on this portrait was reminding me of working with watercolor--starting with the lights and leaving them on the paper, then slowly building up the darks. I did my best to get an accurate copy, but like I said, erasing was a little tricky with this stuff. So it feels a little off. But mostly I'm working on figuring out this charcoal stuff, so I'm fine with it. It's interesting how something can be really spot on as far as measurements go, but look l...

I'm trying out some new paper (Arches Ingres) with this little Sargent copy. It's getting to the point where the changes feel really nit-picky and subtle. So I'm really going to have to dig in and get serious :P I'm trying to imagine I'm drawing this guy from life and go about it with a similar process (Mr. Sargent has done all the hard stuff for me, so I can just focus on my process). I've been thinking about drawing from life sort of like learning a new language. For a while (from what I've heard) you have to think quite mechanically about how each word translates. But eventually you have command of the language, and you don't even have to think about it (at this point, you start dreaming in the new language, I'm told). So I think eventually I might be able to be fluent in the language of drawing, but at the moment it's still a pretty mechanical process. And sometimes things do get lost in translation. Speaking of lost in transla...

Eventually, I just had to buckle down, quit stressing about the perfect nuance of expression, and finish this thing before it sat there on the easel for the rest of the summer. I was starting to feel a little paralyzed by its presence, and that's never good! So I attacked all those remaining fluid lines with a fervor ;) I like to finish things and get them out of my hair--an unfinished something lying around can really eat at my nerves. So, here. Imperfect, yes, but at a point where I don't want to touch it anymore--finished? Sure.  I think my printer makes things a lot darker than they should be, so that's a problem. The HB pencil doesn't match the blacks that my printer puts out, so that makes it feel a bit different (and no doubt quite different from the original), and there are subtle differences in the portrait. But despite the imperfections, these studies are good practice in drawing, and they fit into my crazy summer schedule right now. So if they're...

about 7x10" Sargent drawings are tricky to copy because so many of the lines are just fluid and lyrical--I don't worry too much about getting those ones terribly exact. On the other hand, I could probably push those facial features around teeny tiny fractions of an inch at a time for the rest of eternity! But I'm stopping here (the paper thanks me).  As I'm doing this, I'm beginning to see the way Sargent set the proportions--and I'm recognizing the method. There are all these little tick-like marks throughout the drawing--tiny straight lines. I'm doing a horrible job of putting into words what I mean. But since starting to do the sight-size stuff, I can recognize the way he's laying this drawing out. And it's really cool. So unbelievably and sickeningly good, though, it's almost maddening. Yay, Sargent :)

8x10, water mixable oil on canvas panel, 2/21/16 (sorry for the glare--just couldn't find an angle that didn't have it) I've been apprehensive to attempt a copy of a Sargent painting. He's so brilliant, and his drawings are hard enough to copy :P But I admire his skill so much, and I guess I was feeling particularly ambitious or fearless or something last night and decided to just go for it.  I don't think I was using quite the right color mix for the skin tones--his seemed more saturated somehow (I'm thinking maybe he was using yellow ochre? versus my cadmium yellow med. It seems like ochre has some serious tinting power). One fun thing about "drawing" with paint versus pencil or charcoal is that you can manipulate the "line" from both sides, if that makes sense...  Anyway, it was a fun experience, and I'm not totally horrified with how it came out (which I thought I probably would be). Of course it doesn't look exactl...

11x8.5, vine charcoal on paper, 2/7/16 We've been taking care of sick babies the past few days (crossing my fingers I don't catch it, but I've been sneezed and slobbered on enough, I figure it's inevitable). I put a copy of this John Singer Sargent charcoal drawing on my easel yesterday, and I've been working on copying it little by little when I have a minute. It's nice that I can just pick it up and do a little bit at a time :) I don't have much experience with charcoal, so I'm really just playing and figuring out how it works. It doesn't erase quite as well as graphite--but then again, that could be the paper, too. I don't know. As usual, I can see from the comparison below that I'm trying to enlarge the features--and everything else. I always, always do that! It's so much easier to see when you take a picture of it. I guess I could avoid the problem by gridding the image out more, but I really just want to figure out how to...

A few months ago, I got this idea in my head that I should aim to exercise for 30 minutes a day, and do some type of art for an hour a day. I've found that the days go a lot better when both of these things get done, but it's so hard to find the time. I feel like it shouldn't be, but it really, really, really is. It seems if I make time for one, the other gets neglected, and the past few days, well, neither one has happened much. Thankfully, I did find some time on Sunday night to take another shot at this Sargent sketch. I'm finding this one to be really difficult--maybe because it's all line, and I can't lay in some big masses to see if they're correct. It's really helpful to be able to visualize those large areas.  The last time I tried this one, I definitely made the width of the head (from the back to the tip of the nose) too narrow. And this time, I think I overcompensated and made it too wide (not that you can tell very well from the...

12 5/8 x 8 1/4", pencil on paper, 12/20/15 Another infamous Madame X sketch. I'm not usually much of a perfectionist, but doing these Sargent copies definitely brings it out in me. I could probably make corrections forever! I guess I don't know how hard I should try to be absolutely exact with my copying, but I do know that doing these copies has really helped me learn how to approach a drawing and become more effective and accurate from the start. I got dark with my pencil lines a little prematurely here, and if I try to erase it will look a mess. So I'm going to call this one done, even though I can see (especially looking at this side-by-side on the computer screen) that there are plenty of errors I'm just itching to fix. I'm tempted to try again tomorrow (maybe make a copy the same size as my intended finished drawing--I think that would help a lot).

9 5/8 x 10 1/16, pencil on paper, 10/26/15 I loved this drawing the first time I saw it. It has such a spontaneous quality, and you can really see how Sargent broke up complex subjects (like shiny black fabric and hands) so simply and effectively. Doing these copies is helping me realize a lot of things. One, I always make heads and facial features too big. Including in this drawing. If you compare it to the real one, it's very obvious (also the tilt of the head is a bit off. see below). It's strange because I think I measure everything out and get it in the right place, and then it's not. Two, capturing a likeness takes ultimate precision. It is not easily done. Three, the details make a huge difference--type of paper (mine was too rough in this instance), sharpness and hardness/softness of the pencil, etc.  I almost want to try this one again to see if I can get the head/face more in proportion... but I probably won't, at least not right this second. Dr...

This copy is super tricky. I'm noticing more problems every time I look at this side-by-side. Work in progress!

I'm getting a little addicted to copying these Sargent drawings. Apart from being an excellent exercise for eye training, doing copies like this allows me to produce something that looks nice (all thanks to the master artist I'm copying).  And that's refreshing. Struggling with creating on my own artwork can be a frustrating and disappointing endeavor at times. My vision always outpaces my ability. I wonder if that ever changes? I hope so :)

Approx 24x18", 10/1-3/2015 , charcoal on paper I think this one is finished now... Gosh, I love Sargent. I really love staring at his artwork, studying the strokes, colors, etc. But trying to reproduce it in some form brings the study of his style to a whole new level. I can see why aspiring art students copy master works--such a wealth of information.  I don't know much about charcoal, so this is all very experimental. I definitely didn't capture the particular quality of all the lines (especially in the background--I was using vine charcoal on its side, whereas he appears to have used the end of a larger piece of charcoal).  However, I was a lot more careful about accuracy with this one (as opposed to my first couple charcoal copies). I started out with a very light under drawing in pencil to map out the proportions (it erases so much better than charcoal!), which really helped when I started laying on the charcoal, even though I still needed to make som...

12x9", pencil on paper, 9/28/15 "Greenough" after John Singer Sargent Another portrait copy (I have a book of 42 reproductions, so this could go for a while!). This time I was much more careful to measure all the dimensions over and over (measure twice, cut (or draw) once!). I think it came out more accurate for all the effort, and it was nice to be working a familiar medium :) I love Sargent's combination of detail and looseness and variety of line.

Lady Randolph Churchill, after John Singer Sargent, 12x9", charcoal on paper, 9/26/15 Another drawing copy--I try to finish these pretty quickly, because I'm trying to capture the spontaneous quality of Sargent's hand, but then the accuracy of the drawing suffers--I exaggerated the size of the eyes--again! Next time I'm going to have to carefully plot out those dimensions. I seem to be blind to that error when I'm in the thick of it. But I'm enjoying the process of learning how to use charcoal, and who better to learn from than Sargent?