American Watercolorist 1869-1955. I had never heard of her. Our class project was to copy one of her paintings. The teacher brought in a book about her. Lots of info about her on the internet.
Alice’s painting:
My copy…I should have masked the ladder and pier. Gotta fix the boat reflection
The main difference between her painting and yours is that she is a lot more hard edged, which suits her well in highlighting the sunshine. Yours is softer, a little more dreamy. And I have to say that I can see painting from the same image, but I just cannot see copying another painting. Of course I might be wrong about that.
ReplyDeleteYes I did not get her definite lines. I might go in now with a fine line marker.
DeleteI like these master copies. You learn a lot. I agree that she's more into contrast and value than you are; yours is softer and more colorful. And that's fine--it's the whole point of copies. You try to feel what they were thinking and doing when they did the painting, and it comes out through your eye and hand when you put down your marks. Which is the very reason I have to disagree with Ken about copying other paintings.
ReplyDeleteYes, it looks like Alice draws first with her brush, which gives a little more definition to objects. Your interpretation is more watercolory, which is unusual for you, because usually in your paintings the objects are well defined by fairly intense color. Yes, copying other paintings is a tried and true method of learning how to see and how to paint. I’ve seen people in the AIC sketching from paintings. And I have to laugh at Ken’s comments because he’s been painting from Seurat’s drawings for at least six months!
ReplyDeleteI am using Seurat's drawings as I do with almost all my images, as just a place to start from. Once the painting gets rolling it has its own demands and the image is left behind. For me the beginning of the fun part is when I set the image aside. This is just telling the way I do it and I am certainly not saying it is the best way for others.
DeleteI know copying paintings has been a staple of art education for centuries, and really any art experience you do you learn something. It's not my cup of tea, but then I am just Ken.
Oh, please don't add black marker lines to your painting, Greeta. It looks like a very colorful, lively rendition. And that's the point of using another artist's work for inspiration. Not to get an exact replica, but to gain an understanding of what the artist was interested in and how they worked and then, in the end, making it your own as only you can do.
ReplyDeleteMy art teacher agreed with you. I settled for going in with a tiny brush loaded with dark paint and establishing the structure that got lost. An improvement for sure.
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