rembrandt...and what i learned

[degreene72]

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what i learned.....

1. i'm no rembrandt!

actually, studying his brushstrokes and color is fascinating and also frustrating. he was just too good. it seems to me he started with an underpainting that was to eventually be his major dark shadow value and then built up layers of paint overlapping one another until he got to the final lights and then he laid in a very few sharp darks. has anyone else looked at his portraits in any depth? what do you think?
i'm going to try this in oil, though i doubt i come up with anything fit for public viewing.

diane

8x10 colored pencil.

[beauxman]

Diane: I think you did a fantastic job. An excellent resource for Rembrandt's technique is a recent book called "Rembrandt - A Painter at Work". It's by Ernst Van Wetering who is a member of the Rembrandt Research Project. The book is a very in-depth look at the master's methods and materials. It's very well written, very detailed and there are many wonderful photos.

I still can't figure out how he did some of the stuff he did, the drapery in the "Jewish Bride" looks like it was conjured by a sorcerer instead of painted with a brush, knife or fingers.

The self-portrait in the National Gallery (Washington) is incredible. It looks like he used a lot of palette scrapings in some places and glued 'em on the canvas. The eyes in that painting are very haunting and powerful too.

I love Rembrandt and I am glad to see you persue your interest in him too.

Good luck! http://www.wetcanvas.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[degreene72]

that's exactly the book i've been reading!! like a kid in a candy store. i never realized that the surface of rembrandt's paintings, especially the one you mentioned-the jewish bride-and all the portraits-were quite so magical. the photos in this book are truly wonderful. i could barely make it through the book before i wanted to experiment with imitating those brushstrokes.

i thought sargent painted beautiful jewelry, fabric and portraits. and he does. but these photos of rembrandt painting the same things absolutely blew me away. he doesn't make them real...he makes them magic.

i've never seen one of his paintings in person, but i realize now that i have to make it a priority. i'll have to make the trip alone, though, because probably nobody would let me stand there drooling as many days as i would want to!

thanks for your comments....

diane

[LarrySeiler]

Nice work Diane....and interesting personal interpretation of such. Like one singer/artist doing a slightly different but tasteful rendition of a popular song, you've done very well with this one.

Rembrandt was my initial idol...a mentor. In a hostile anti-art college environment of the later 70's, I was copying images of Rembrandt's from the university library books. I was branded the "black sheep" of the art departments senior show.

When I saw, "The Officer" at Chicago...I near lost it and my wife felt helpless as my eyes welled up with tears. It was more than I could ever imagine.

The darks were the richest darks ever, and felt as though your hand could penetrate the surface and reach into empty space. The velvet clothing of the sitter was unbelievably rich, soft and real.

After having spent painstaking times with the books inadequate images, here I was witnessing how far off I was to the real thing.

At close inspection, Rembrandt had these many many layers of near transparent glazes with paint pigment particles suspending themselves on top of each other so that the eye from a distance would mix the color and see an illusion of penetrating light.

When a layer of paint would be near dry, he would take a clean brush and drag it across the surface to create a rough texture, which then would receive his next glazing.

His process was considered distasteful, crude, and certainly out of line with good academic technique. He was in fact, as contemporary an artist as his day was aware of. A pioneer. A revolutionary. Rejected among his peers.

I credit copying his works...that Baroque obsession with light, to nearly all that my work has evolved to today. Often I hear the drama of my sense of lighting and color, and now you have it. Tutored from the grave centuries later! Astounding painter. Then, my next awakening was to be found in Frans Hals....the Dutch founder of alla prima.


Larry
http://www.artsmentor.org

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"Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do!" Edgar Degas

[This message has been edited by lseiler (edited February 10, 2001).]

[degreene72]

larry...as an admirer of rembrandt, you would also be interested in the book beauxman and i mentioned. there is much new research being done which has resulted in new insights into rembrandt's methods and materials. the photos are remarkable.

here is the passage in the jewish bride painting of the surface done by "sorcery" as beauxman put it:
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the web photos are inadequate, i know...but will have to do, here.

this surface is raised and modeled to mimic the fabric, yet it is smooth and solid with no visible brushstrokes. how did he do this? an astonishing application of paint and a near perfect illusion.

analysis of a great many of rembrandt's painting shows traces of linseed oil and the occasional use of walnut oil. some of the more impasto sections show traces of protein suggesting an emulsion. that is all. no lead traces over the major parts of the dark areas of the paintings. much less glazing than previously believed. the theories of doerner, for example have been proven incorrect. where there are glazes, an emulsion is also suggested from the analysis. a mystery.

diane

[This message has been edited by degreene72 (edited February 10, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by degreene72 (edited February 10, 2001).]

[degreene72]

here's my start on the oil....

16x20 linen canvas

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[LarrySeiler]

I have a video comparing Rembrandt's self portrait to that of Velaquez's portrait of his helper/friend. Very interesting.

What would be cool...after you have done this portrait...would be to stand before a mirror...and in that spirit of Rembrandt, peer into your own eyes and imitate what you have learned with your own image.

Larry

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"Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do!" Edgar Degas

[Suz]

Hi De,
great to see you doing this.


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Suz.

[ldallen]

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Wellll, since there are a few brave ones that submitted their Rembrandt's I guess I will, too. Larry, I actually "touched" a Rembrandt at the Baltimore Museaum of Art - but I was eight years old. I was already in love with him then. I wouldn't dare touch it now, they'd arrest me!! I was going to work the face but since it's a copy I did a take on it like they do on the Mona Lisa. I was really more interested in the gown. I also didn't want to set myself up as I'm apt to do. (If I can do it, I'm good, if not ....)
Les

[This message has been edited by ldallen (edited February 20, 2001).]

[jioRji]

I like your version better than the actual painting. http://www.wetcanvas.com/ubb/smile.gif I like your colouring technique.

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~jioRji~
Whispering Grounds (http://jiorji.cjb.net)

[bbbilly1326]

LES:

Beautiful painting! I'm not familiar with the original, but I don't have to be to appreciate your version. You certainly have an eye for composition too; even copying an original, you couldn't do it with such balance without a good eye.
Bill

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Bill Carroll
"Paintings are never finished, only abandoned" (source unknown)
index.html (http://hamiltoncarroll.homestead.com)

[ldallen]

Alva, your colors are wonderful. I did the same thing when I was photographing some of my work. I discovered that you have to stand pretty much dead in front of it and take several photos by just moving the camera an inch at a time, so that you can get "one" without a glare and the best shots I've gotten have been out of doors. Sadly, I've never had the luxery of working in a gallery. I have to use books and I know the colors are not near as good.

I have Wetering's book on order. Can't wait to get it. When I was a kid I used to pretend that he (Rembrandt) was my great great great grandfather!!

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Les

"It takes two people to do a painting - one to do the painting - the other to kill him before he ruins it!! (source unknown)