DRAWING WORKSHOP 001: Copying the Work of Rubens

#21

I havent really ever done a copy of a master before, but I am having real fun with this!:smiley: Definately going to go on and paint itā€¦ may take me some timeā€¦

Hereā€™s the line work:

#22

Just wanted to toss in my version. Itā€™s coming along slowly. Davidā€™s head is driving me insane!!
It is too small and the features are not ā€˜just rightā€™.

:cry:
Iā€™m being very careful about this. Picking out colors ā€˜by eyeā€™. They are rather different from the original but hopefully not TOO MUCH.

Obviously, itā€™s not much more than a sketch and is unfinished. Will keep it up, though.

#23

the proportions in my first sketch were bothering me too much, so i went back and fixed them as much as possible. thereā€™s still some off, but itā€™s as close as iā€™m going to get i think.

the legs on the figure are unbelievable, i barely even dared to try and copy them.

#24

WOW!!! Everyoneā€™s posts are looking great!!! :thumbsup: Itā€™s AWESOME to see this many posts this early! Keep up the great work, guys!!! :bounce: Also, feel free to post updates! :slight_smile:

Yay! I finally got paperclip to post!!! :bounce:

 ~Rebeccak
#25

I think this ā€œRubenā€™sā€ guy needs to be joining the regular threads for anatomy and gesture practice - I think his proportion is nowhere!:scream:

Iā€™ve made a start three times now, but I just dont buy Davidā€™s pose. The top half of his left arm seems far too short and his torso seems too long. The direction of his left leg vā€™s his right seems really odd also - or is this all in my head?:shrug:

Going to try again after some food. Perhaps that will help me resolve this. Will try to have something on-line later tonight.

EDIT: If I could ā€œtop the Sandwich guyā€ <JOKE> RebeccaK, then I will let you keep the $50 - because Iā€™ll be off around the famous courts of Europe, selling my skills to famous Kings, Queens and Nobles etc for vast sums of money like he no doubt did! :smiley:

#26

default.rol,

"Reuben"? Like the sandwich? :scream: Hahaha! How DARE you question the Master Draughtsman???!!!  Lol, that's pretty funny! :)

Just, er...go with it ;) ~ you're guaranteed to get something out of copying this, even if it is "flawed". :) And, if you can improve on the Master drawing, I will personally give you $50. :)

Iā€™ll post some comments later, but I do want to keep this focused on GROUP critique ~ so PLEASE offer your advice and crits for other peoplesā€™ work.

ALSO ~ I noticed that people are posting updates, which is GREAT!!! I think that the second, third, and fourth times that you copy the SAME image, is when you REALLY start to see things. The first go is almost always a throw-away attempt for me ~ Iā€™ve copied the same images MULTIPLE times oā€™er the years. 'Course, back then we didnā€™t have tvā€¦ :scream:

EDIT: hahaha! The only ā€œnoblesā€ these days are the likes of Britney Spears. I dunno if sheā€™s interested in classical artā€¦:shrug: :smiley:

Thanks!!! :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak
#27

Rubens:

You need to work more on your proportions, davidā€™s right arm seems like it is only consisting of biceps, you forgot the shoulder again how many times do i have to tell you this? Work on deltoids more and remember that they exist. I know you can do better, and please for artā€™s sake stop painting fabric you canā€™t do it right. Also you can not do portraits good, make them wear a gas mask or something and save us the trouble of seeing those ugly faces.

#28

vikkie,

Lol!!! Hahahahaha!!! Poor Rubensā€¦now Iā€™ve put him on a pedestal, you guys are turning him into a pinata!!! Yargh! Is nothing sacred? Cradles book of Rubens in arms protectively. :scream:

~Rebeccak

#29

are we going to the more masters copies? albrecht durer(he has to learn how to draw fabric too) norman rockwell(everything but portraits, he sucks at portraits):smiley: ok iā€™m not going to flood this topic anymore, good work everyone, if i can find more time iā€™ll give it a shot too.

edit: norman rockwellā€™s ā€œgossipā€ would be a great portrait study for everyone i guess

#30

vikkie,

Yup, I think it will be great to have two concurrently running continuous threads: one for Master Copies, and the other for Life Drawings. Next week, Iā€™m going to see what I can do regarding the latter and getting models (weā€™ll seeā€¦) :slight_smile:

Look forward to seeing your work! :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#31

Guys, I think you are doing a great job! I just wanted to add a few tips about figuring out a complicated (and apparently flawed!) Master Drawing:


[left]
Obviously, for this Demo I have traced the image. I actually encourage people to trace images this way, to get used to the Lay-In concept, and to figure things out in their own way. For your final drawings however, do not trace (as I know people are not doing, which is good :))

~Hope this helps! :slight_smile:

Let me know if you guys have difficulties seeing the gif.

Thanks!

~Rebeccak
[/left]

#32

Great tips rebecca! Thanks! You are so helpful in this forumā€¦ where do you find the time to do anything else?!

I might go back and correct areas of my preliminary sketch, but i started blocking in already so iā€™ll just try and correct it at this stage instead. Heres where Iā€™m at nowā€¦ found it hard, as usual, to get nice skin tones.:hmm: Also will shrink the battle in the bg.

#33

Heres my first couple of hours at it. (After food and some TV:))

I know he looks a bit lonely on that white sheet all by himself - but I promise in the next day or so I will give him some friends. :smiley: Crits always welcome of course, (unless its about spelling the name R(e)ubenā€™sā€¦)

#34

yAdam,

Thanks a lot! Yep, I spend a lot of time on the forum, but I greatly enjoy every minute of it! Seeing everyone working hard to improve and contributing their work is just an incredible reward! So thanks to you and everyone for doing such a great job! :slight_smile:

I have said this before and I will say it a million times again :) ~ [b]the main thing in a painting is not [color=Orange][color=PaleGreen]COLOR [/color]but VALUE. [/b][/color]Rubens, as a painter, used VERY thin washes over his Drawings ~ the order of importance in his, as well as any great master painter is (excluding Composition): 

[b]1. Drawing[/b]
[b]2. Value[/b]
3.Color 

Oh, look! Color is in a 1 point type,  it must not be very important!!! Heh! :)

Anyhoo, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Great to see your work!! Thank you for posting! :)

default.rol,

Looking nice so far! And I see that you have a good sense of priorities:

1. Food 
2. TV
3. Drawing
4. Value

:)

My #1 suggestion is to immediately, before ingesting any more food, watching any more tv, walking the dog, or swimming, is to FILL the background with a mid-gray. Since Values are all RELATIVE, they need to have a background to which they can be relative.

But other than that, it looks like you're doing a great job, and it will be cool to see your final results! :)

This thread is shaping up [i]really [/i]nicely!!! :)

~Rebeccak
#35

On the back of RebeccaKā€™s comments I have added a mid grey background + somemore basic ā€œvalue.ā€ Its as rough as sticks at the moment, but it will get better as the days go on. Really it willā€¦ at least I think it willā€¦ :slight_smile:

 [img]http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/9577/wip2dg2807052rv.jpg[/img]
#36

default.rol,

Keep going, we believe in you! :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#37

Hi Rebecca :slight_smile:
Nice idea this virtual Workshop. Iā€™ll try and do some copies this weekend, free time permitting.

Hey, that David guy looks a lot like the Frodo character in the LOTR movie. LOL! :eek:

Cheers.

#38

lol that is true hehe

Edit: Oh now that I posted. I so want to be around to doing these things but I just seemed to enter a few good painting times since the last few projects and I want to keep that going.

Great works so far very impressive.

#39

drawing update:

#40

thetrianglekid,

Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! :scream: Lol, thatā€™s hilarious. Only tonight, the phrase, Oh, dear dear Samā€¦went randomly through my brain ~ ha!

And here I thought I was the only wacko on the block. Good to meet you! :wink:

~Rebeccak