Copying Velazquez

Continuing the atelier approach, but accelerating the pace, I jumped right into color.  Who could wait to squeeze out all that luscious pigment from unopened tubes?  And besides, I needed to refresh my mixing skills.  I started with the primary color wheel using Maimeri Puro primary blue and yellow, Maimeri Classico vermilion light and  Gamblin's Flake White Replacement from which I created the following palette sample on the left.  The color samples on the right in the photo came straight from the tube with the addition of white.   Maimeri colors are in the left column and Gamblin's in the right.  

Choosing a master artist to copy was not hard for me.  I had always delighted in portraiture.  Even my past botanical watercolors were done from life and treated as if each plant was "sitting" for me.  It was natural that I chose Velazquez's portrait of a Needlewoman to copy.  I had been a fiber artist as well, raising sheep, spinning and weaving wool, creating hand painted silk scarves (again all lost to the fire).


Furthermore, Velazquez represented a true innovator of his day.  The Spanish painter who died in 1660 at the age of 61 was not only the royal court painter at the palace in Madrid for most of his life but traveled extensively through out Italy strengthening his training in classical Venice, Rome and Naples.  As his personal style developed his "brush strokes grew freer...letting each hue stand by itself in individual dots of color."  He was, in fact, discovering impressionism!  What appealed to me about his "Needlewoman" was the rendering of her sewing hands captured as if in motion.  This was truly a revolutionary art form in 1640.


Step One, prepared a value toned pencil study

Step Two, executed underpainting using wash of mineral spirits, burnt sienna and terre verte. 
Step Three, applied more opaque layers experimenting with Gamblin Galkyd Lite and Neo Megilp  medium.

Final copy of "The Needlewoman" by Diego Velazques

My painting Oil on Panel 9"x16"

You can see my little horse head bookend (previous painting see post) to the left on the table and to the right is a still life arranged for my next study as I prepare to examine the technique Chardin used in painting still life.