Scumbling along!

[Elizabeth Schott]

I decided to post this here instead of the "old masters copies" area to discuss the benefits of scumbling.

After the workshops I have attended, this has been a surprise. I guess it was a matter of time constraints, but other than a touch of demonstration or a quick mentioning, no one has really told me about the true benefits of Scumbling.

Carl has been helping me with a few studies using Bouguereau for reference. Please note the color has actually changed in the images from just my computers, so I will just post and see what we get here. Just think of how great it would be to work from an original.

The image on the left is how this looked after I finished adjusting the drawing and values, pretty much ready to be scrapped so I could move onto a better reference image. But the one on the right shows how much it has changed after 4 hours of scumbling, and more drawing adjustment. I personally think it is amazing how much more subtle the transitions of the values are and the softness of the skin tones are portrayed.

My medium was a mix of double mastic, black walnut oil, stand oil and a touch of English Turp. The colors varied based on the background.

I think a lot of people hold back on working off of the masters paintings; but I have learned so much from this exercise - mainly how subtle the changes are from darks to light, but how much the "change line" is still notable.

Sorry, I have not figured out how to get my attachments in the order I want them; the first is my canvas, the second is the actual Bouguereau and the third shows the scumbling vs the paint only.