Master copy/study - Van Dyck

[*Violet*]

fantastic !! ... and i'd imagine that if you gathered 100 images of the original there'd be discrepancies between them, too ... i think the values in the ruffle and the modelling of the ear are the only major touchups required ... it's awesome !!

[Marigold]

Hello Joseph,

I guess you are your own worst critic ...

The one item of your list that I had seen when I did the comparison last week was the highlight on the nose. I will also agree on the eyebrow/forehead transition and to slightly strenghtening some of the shadow areas. But you are not really thinking about changing the entire skintones at this point, are you? Wouldn't that amout to repainting the entire portrait?

It is already a very good copy!
(Better stop before you get annoyed with it... )

Susanne

[Josef Sy]

THanks Violet.

Thanks Susanne. Yes, I am my worst nightmare. lol. Yes, you are right about the highlight on the nose. Its too light.

I will do another pass (2nd painting) and going over the entire portrait is normal. Adjustments in color values can be done at this stage. The next layer is still opaque but I could play with the transparency. It is still better to do it opaquely at this stage. After 2nd painting, I will be doing scumbles and glazes but very minimal since they tend to yellow more in time.

I will post some updates soon.

[Josef Sy]

Hey! James gurney, award winning illustrator & creator of Dinotopia has written an article about Van Dyck's portrait of Cornelis Van Der Geest. He explains why this is a masterpiece and also about the impasto and the technique behind it. I will have to try this!
Here is the link:
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/20...sterpiece.html

[Josef Sy]

Hi everyone,
If you are in the greater Montreal area, I am giving a workshop on Classical portrait painting. I am in the North shore of Montreal. (Terrebonne) There is 8 classes of 3 hrs which will concentrate on copying a master work of art like Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest. Some other ones are self portrait of William Bouguereau (which is in Montreal Museum) and a study of a girl's head also by Bouguereau. Depending on the number of people signed up, It will be Thursdays or on Saturdays. IF you are interested please contact me.
English Poster.

[Painting Bas]

Hi Josef, very nice work. You probably finished it already, but in the stage you showed here I suspect you would come closer to the original by glazing a shadow color over the whole thing lightly and then, with cooler colors do the lights of the flesh again. What do you think about it?

[Josef Sy]

Thanks Painting Bas. In the picture, It is not color corrected so it seems more yellowish compared to the reference photo. And Yes, I could glaze over. But I like not to glaze if possible since those glazes tend to yellow more over time. I like to mix just a bit of medium on the final or later stages to bind the pigment more and also it will not have the 'sink in' look. I made a comparison between the color correction, raw and jpg files. http://www.josefsy.blogspot.com/2011...jpg-files.html