Home Forums Explore Media Oil Painting Painting from the Masters September 2013: Peter Paul Rubens: Master of the oil sketch

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  • #448525
    Evelyn
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        Hi folks! I’m proud to post my very first Painting with the Masters thread. For this month I have chosen Sir Peter Paul Rubens; the Flemish Baroque painter.

        Of course he was known for his many hundreds of large scale paintings completed by himself and his workshop, however, I find his oil sketches equally fascinating and will make several copies myself this month on pasteboard and canvas (I’d use masonite however I don’t have any on hand at the moment, maybe later).

        I think oil sketches are important because they are invaluable for drafting larger works. Composition and colour can be trialed and they allow the artist to familiarize themselves with all the tonal and linear relationships within the painting.

        They are also important as a genre. When I see Rubens oil sketches I see him thinking, abbreviating, toning down the less important details and bringing forth the main figures into the light, in order for him and the audience to see some form of hierarchy in the picture. His colouring is so lively in the sketches, it almost seems as if the paintings are still wet.

        I recently returned from London where I saw the Rubens room in the National Gallery for a second time. After letting it all sink in, the lines between an oil sketch and a grisaille have blurred in my mind, and I feel like I’m ready to do some serious experimentation.

        Here are some of the master’s works that you can choose from, it’s a mix of sketches and more finished paintings, with some showing characteristics of both. I got the pics from wikipaintings if you want to see larger versions for your studies.

        #1. Alexander and Roxana, 15¾ x 13 7/8 in. (40 x 35.3 cm.)

        #2. Amor and Psyche, dimensions unknown.

        #3. Old Woman, 49 x 32 cm

        #4. Portrait of a Woman, dimensions unknown.

        #5. The Judgement of Paris, 144.8 cm × 193.7 cm (57.0 in × 76.3 in)

        #6. Portrait of Helena Fourment, canvas

        #7. Cupid Riding A Dolphin, 14.5 x 13.5 cm

        I hope this is enough to choose from! Please feel free to join in for the fun! You can also choose from other sketches/paintings if you wish. I will post as many pics as I can in the coming weeks.

        Insta @alvarezvisualart

        #526220
        Evelyn
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            My first copy is a cropped version of the Old Woman, I toned a 25 x 35 cm linen with a semi dark earthy tone and left it to dry for two weeks (it had titanium white in it. Oops!) My approach here was to hone in on the likeness with thin paint, rather than to strive for a carbon copy straight up.

            The palette I used was Lead White mixed with Titanium/Zinc 50/50, Burnt Sienna, Prussian Blue and Ivory Black.

            I make a rough sketch with thinned out burnt sienna. The light areas of the face are laid on opaquely

            Then scumbled with a synthetic brush

            Slight corrections are made with a mix of prussian blue and black

            The cheekbones and contours becoming more defined then scumbled again

            Bringing in the darks now. Notice how the picture loses vitality when scumbling is overdone.

            To counter this I give the picture immediate relief with white impasto in the lightest areas.

            Repeat but try not to overdo it, when you start getting too fiddly take a 15 minute break. Then view it from afar, looks fine? Leave it. Left it to dry for a week and a half then came back with colour.

            This part was relatively easy, using only permanent rose, prussian blue and black, I’ve knocked back the chroma of the white and changed it’s hue without effecting the impasto, which is rock hard now.

            More to come!

            Insta @alvarezvisualart

            #526235
            ArtyRolina
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                I like your interpretation of the portrait, it is good to see the progress so far and I look forward to seeing you work on it further.

                I may have a go with Amor and Psyche, (or a crop) in the next week or so.

                Rolina x

                https://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/16-Aug-2013/959592-bottombanner_resized.jpg

                #526206

                Ed this looks fantastic! Thanks so much for hosting!

                Lady Mars Orange Marmalade Stapleford
                Moderator: OIls, Pastels, Plein Air

                Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. -Oscar Wilde

                #526218
                lovin art
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                    Wonderful !!

                    #526205
                    moscatel
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                        Oh, wonderful! Edgar, plenty to choose from. :) I find very interesting: #1, #4, #5, #6 and #7 so I hope I find time to start one of these!

                        #526219
                        NancyMP
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                            Ed, is this open for all Rubens’ paintings, or just the ones you’ve shown? You did a lovely job on The Old Woman!

                            Nancy http://nancyparkfineart.com
                            All human beings are dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together. - Jack Kerouac

                            #526221
                            Evelyn
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                                Hi nancy, yes please dont feel limited by my choices. Please choose from any of his works, the same goes for anybody willing to join. They are just examples :)

                                Insta @alvarezvisualart

                                #526207
                                blarkin
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                                    Looks great Edgah. Thanks for the WIP.

                                    --Beth (C/C always welcome)

                                    #526222
                                    Evelyn
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                                        For my copy of The Judgement of Paris, I’ve cropped the main figures and will be working on a support 1/6th of the original size. I’ve primed a 28″ x 20″ canvas with raw sienna and left it to dry for a week.

                                        Then I roughly sketched in the edges of a grid which corresponded to the one I held up to the projected image. It’s a 7 x 5 square grid. I found that this made it easy to get everything in their right place without painfully shuffling figures over later on.

                                        I start painting a loose grisaille using lead/titanium white 50/50, raw sienna and ivory black. The figures are sketched in with brown paint first. Usually I’ll use raw umber for the earth but I’ve opted for a more lively earth to mix with the black.

                                        My medium is 4 parts turpentine with 1 drop of Walnut Oil and 2 drops of Linseed Oil, there is enough body to it that it doesn’t feel like a wash.

                                        The lightest lights are indicated and I begin to feel the forms with the brush, losing form, regaining form, and repeating. Much like the way you would draw a long pose with charcoal.

                                        The darks are indicated with a dark grey mix, careful not to make anything stark black at this point. The background is blocked in, scumbling lightly, trying to find the right balance between visible and softened brushstrokes.

                                        I’ve knocked back some of the whites in the second figure using sparingly little medium on a sponge, painting away just enough, following the forms of the body.

                                        At this point I introduce some yellow ochre to mix in with the ivory black to make a neutral green. It’s introduced only where necessary. Namely in the background, in the trees and the around the sheep. I’m bouncing all over the picture, nothing is brought to completion in isolation. I keep reminding myself to keep loose, then view from a distance.

                                        Here’s where I’m at now, maybe one more session and then it can sit for a while before I add colour.

                                        Insta @alvarezvisualart

                                        #526223
                                        Evelyn
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                                            Here’s the latest on the Judgement copy. Everything’s pretty much established now, though there’s still no definition in the faces, or the dog. I’ll be leaving these parts for the colour layer.

                                            The darks of the drapery are more defined and the contours of the bodies are redrawn with a brown outline, which is evident in many of Rubens’ paintings.

                                            I’ve introduced Red Oxide onto my palette for this update. Sorry for the glare and blurriness, I need a real camera

                                            EDIT: Took a better photo in another room.

                                            Insta @alvarezvisualart

                                            #526214
                                            OK
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                                                Thanks for setting up this “painting with the masters” and getting it started Edgar.

                                                Here is my effort at the “Portrait of a Woman”
                                                First a scrub in with some old palette scrapings to cover up the white cardboard.

                                                Then worked in to wet on wet.

                                                It looks like the original has suffered badly through the ages and has had all the subtlety of tone scrubbed off with Brillo Pads. Just enough left to hint at what it once would have been.

                                                :wave: Dave

                                                “What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?”
                                                — Allen Ginsberg
                                                Are you ready for a Journey?
                                                PS Critiques always welcome but no plaudits or emoting, please don’t press the like button.

                                                #526215
                                                OK
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                                                    Hi Edgar, Thanks for responding, this copy is just painted on a piece of thin card that came as packing, I gave it a coat of acrylic primer undercoat and then a cote or two of Acrylic Gesso, I had to clip it to a board to stop it flopping around while I painted.

                                                    As you can see this copy that I’ve done is more of an example of what not to do than anything else. It’s main shortcoming is the dreadful drawing which has lost all the subtle refinement of the woman’s grace turning her into a grotesque.
                                                    Rubens was the greatest religious painter of his time and it his sense of piety and innocence comes over in the (his) design of the face. His drawings and paintings draw from the Antique the ideals of formal completeness, he subordinating the observed facts to the patterns found in his imagination. Of cause we can still see all that in this painting even if I don’t have the skill or knowledge to reproduce it.

                                                    His colours he drew from his studies of Titian and the Venetians, that’s why I think this painting has suffered from over zealous cleansing, surely Rubens would never have let it out of the studio with the colouring and lack of tonal unity we see in it now? The varnishing of paintings was more than a way of protecting the painting from dirt, it was part of the finishing touches, just look at what the restorers have done to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling to see how important that varnish was to the look of the finished work which is now lost.

                                                    :wave: Dave

                                                    “What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?”
                                                    — Allen Ginsberg
                                                    Are you ready for a Journey?
                                                    PS Critiques always welcome but no plaudits or emoting, please don’t press the like button.

                                                    #526225
                                                    Evelyn
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                                                        I don’t think your interpretation of the woman is grotesque. Maybe the drawing was a bit rushed but the wet in wet effort is great, the tones are good. I too suffer from colouring too much from the yellowed masterpieces, but they serve well in providing a solid underpainting which can be glazed with one or two layers using a palette of blue, yellow and red, tinted with black and white.

                                                        Insta @alvarezvisualart

                                                        #526216
                                                        OK
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                                                            Well she certainly looks like a grotesque to me Edgar :) Leonardo drew grotesques but he intended them to be so, mine was unintentional!
                                                            I wasn’t talking about the yellowing of the old masters when I said “the subtlety of tone (had been) scrubbed off with Brillo Pads”, we can peer through that yellow haze and still see what the master intended in their completing of the picture, their light touches, final details and general effects of tone were often mixed in the final layers of varnish this has all gone in this Rubens. Rubens work of art was mortally wounded by the restorers, in my attempt to copy it I finally killed it by butchering even the drawing!

                                                            :wave: Dave

                                                            “What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?”
                                                            — Allen Ginsberg
                                                            Are you ready for a Journey?
                                                            PS Critiques always welcome but no plaudits or emoting, please don’t press the like button.

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