Bouguereau studies
 

These are studies of Bouguereau faces and hands, in the first stage. Not sure if this is considered an "Old Master" copy, so I put it here.

Richard, I've got nothing constructive to say here -- other than to say that these are beautiful and sensitively done. Looking forward to seeing more!

Richard,

Those are wonderful! Nice fluid contour lines. It sounds like you are planning to go on to paint these in oils? I look forward to seeing them!

One thing you might want to check is the shape of the etude

Anna,

That's a good catch. Thanks.

Richard,

You did a good job on these drawings, please keep on posting.

I believe that this head is not easy to copy because of the asymmetry of the features. It seems like her left eye is far to high up, on the original. If the face had been symmetrical the perspective lines would have met in a vanishing point to the right as we see it.

Allan

Allan, thanks. I hard a time of it, because this one, and a few others I'm doing, aren't aligned quite right. But my goal is to further my understanding of his flesh tones, and I decided not to worry too much over the drawing (his and mine.)

Stage 2
 

Here's the second stage.

This is the second stage of my second Bouguereau study project. I'm looking to get a better understanding of painting skin tones, as well as speeding up my process. Color is more accurate in the second stage.

I'm fascinated!
 

I love Bouguereau's work and plan to do some studies from his paintings myself in the near future.

Would you mind posting a close-up of the hands? Also, can you let me know what pigments you are using? I would love to hear what you have to say about the experience as you go along... what you are learning and what this might cause you to do differently in the future.

:thumbsup:

Thanks Lacey. So far I've used Slate Black, Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna. I've got two of these studies going, and I approached the other one differently, working in a darker mid-tone overall. Right now it looks crappy, but who knows?

I've learned that I can paint really fast and get results I like, and that my paint can be quite thin and still have depth.

Here are the close-ups.