Artist Copy Process

No, I did not spawn into this assignment with the image on the left. Rather, it was a long (and grueling) process which involved a good handful of eraser shavings and several hours of doubling over the floor in the last stretch. This is Annibale Carracci's Naaktstudie van een zittende man, op de rug gezien.

Here's that semi-interesting journey articulated into a blog post:

Final Copy

Here's the contour. Nothing extraodinary, but since it was pretty accurate to the actual proportions of the orginial figure, I felt I had accomplished what I set out to do. The biggest challenge was getting the arm to look "right." I spent much of the studio time obsessively revising the forearm, but I think this is as close as I'm getting this time around.

Contour

Started on actually copying the artist's mark. So far so good!

Day 2

Finishing the upper arm. I began to notice Carracci's mark tends to follow the curvature of the muscles, appearing as either very fine lines or as wider strokes (visible on the back of the figure). Where the artist mark is more thin, I've the easiest time, as it's closest to my personal mark.

Day 3

Went home and finished what I could. The back done (sort of)! Zoom in and you can really see my attempt at imitating Carracci's mark. Overall, this assignment was a really good exercise, and I'm looking forward to what my portrait will look like...!

Day 4, Final