Updated John Singer Sargent Master Copy attempt

Christina Brown · 27 Feb 2016, 17:24

wow, awesome job!

lmrush · 27 Feb 2016, 18:43

Very nice!

anthemsweet · 27 Feb 2016, 19:21

@Charlie-Eve-Ryan I see a big difference between this and your first attempt. You're definitely getting there, in my opinion. As I look at the eyes, one difference I see is that on Sargent's painting, the angle describing the top and bottom eyelid is wider than on yours, the slant of his eyebrow is steeper. Maybe making some changes there might help get this to an even higher level?

Anyway, I am impressed with your work!

Charlie Eve Ryan · 27 Feb 2016, 20:54

@anthemsweet Thank you!! I see what you mean, my top lid is a bit closed. I can try to fiddle with that...thanks!

Charlie Eve Ryan · 27 Feb 2016, 23:48

@Christina-Taylor-Brown and @imrush thank you!!

Charlie Eve Ryan · 28 Feb 2016, 15:47

I adjusted the angle on the eye a bit and added some more details to the neckline plus added more yellow tones. At this point since I basically painted a different guy in the style of John Singer Sargent, now if I adjust the features too much it is all thrown off balance. So I'm not sure how to fix it without starting from scratch. I've never done one of these to this extent so I think this was a pretty good run through and I learned a lot for next time and painting all on one layer etc was a good challenge. Thanks all and thanks @lee-white for the advice.

Lee White · 28 Feb 2016, 21:37

really great! so happy you did this assignment.

If you wanted to mess around with it some more, this is where I would recommend two layers on top of your base layer. The first is a "glazing" layer and should be set to multiply (so it's transparent). This layer is for DARKENING and altering color.

The other layer (if needed) is an regular layer and should be done with the opacity control setting on. This layer is used for slightly lightening areas that need it (your image does not need this step).

Both these techniques are used in traditional painting and that is why I encourage it digitally as well.

Charlie Eve Ryan · 28 Feb 2016, 22:21

@Lee-White Ohhh, that's nice! I'll try it out..thank you!!

Carrie · 28 Feb 2016, 22:29

You did a great job! This is not an easy thing to do.

lmrush · 29 Feb 2016, 01:18

Nice, thank you for sharing!

Charlie Eve Ryan · 29 Feb 2016, 14:18

@Lee-White I adjusted the nose a bit and added glazing on mostly the face, neck and lower half of the image, but I wonder if I should have done a fill over the whole image? Either way I think it looks much warmer than before and the nose adjustment helps.

Lee White · 29 Feb 2016, 16:24

I think it looks great! : )

Charlie Eve Ryan · 29 Feb 2016, 16:56

@Lee-White Thanks Lee!! It was a sweet kind of creative torture working on this painting and very eye-opening.

NoWayMe · 1 Mar 2016, 02:41

Wow! Great job!

I started mine this weekend, it takes a lot longer than I expected, but I am sure it's worth it!

linna · 1 Mar 2016, 03:39

Great. you're a painter

Rob Smith · 1 Mar 2016, 13:28

@Charlie-Eve-Ryan Wow! You are doing an awesome job. Your last post is so improved as compared with your first post.

Michael Regina · 1 Mar 2016, 14:37

I've done a couple of these as well! So much fun and you learn a lot. Great progress on these.

If I were to critique at all it would be to build brushes that have more of a bristle look so you can get the chunky impasto that he gets with his brush work. I have a few I've built that I can share.

Charlie Eve Ryan · 1 Mar 2016, 17:25

@linna Thanks Linna and @NoWayMe...thanks, can't wait to see it!

@Rob-Smith thanks so much!

@thirdeyeh Thanks, that would be awesome. I created three custome brushes but none had that chunky impasto look. Great suggestion!

Dulcie · 1 Mar 2016, 19:56

@Charlie-Eve-Ryan Well done you on completing this - great job! I agree with @thirdeyeh that if you were trying to improve on this, I would have a real go at trying to mimic the oil brush strokes and the way the colours smoosh into one another...if I look closely at your piece, I can see a distinctive little grain that repeats a lot. This is nitpicky though (has to be, at this level!) and it's very inspiring - so much so, I've started a master copy of one of my favourite illustrators too

By the way.. I know you can make your own brushes, but in case you feel like treating yourself, Kyle brought out an impasto brush set a couple of months or so ago...haven't got them but they look good. https://www.kylebrush.com/#brushes ...I've tried a couple of the oil ones from the Megapack which were nice too. But yeah of course you could save the cash and make your own unique bristle type brush. Or experiment with blenders/smudging and so on (something I'd like to try more of too..) Anyway it's been great to see your process here