Vendangeuse after Bouguereau

[Jeremiah White]

This isn't all that great but it was a good practice piece. I shall do more Bouguereau copies because I think it's one of the best ways to learn how he did some of the amazing stuff he did.

[Steven Sweeney]

Hi, Jeremiah,

In the "Old Master Copies" area, it's especially useful to be able to see the reference you used. Are you able to post an image of that?

The point, of course, isn't to "compare" in terms of whether the original has been duplicated, but just to help viewers see what the objectives and challenges were.

You have a nice touch with the subtleties of value gradation. There might be a few areas where some variation in edge sharpness would contribute to the drawing, but I'd like to see the reference if possible.

[Jeremiah White]

Thanks.
Here is the reference image for you. As you can see, the accuracy isn't as good as it could be but in the future it will be.


http://jeremiahwhite.com/images/Vendangeuse.jpg

[Steven Sweeney]

Jeremiah,

This is a pretty fair go, for translating a highly finished oil painting into a graphite rendering. The fact that so much of the form-defining work in the painting is done through variations in color temperatures of similar value, rather than simply a chiaroscuro type of value design, complicates this a little, but it also provides a good exercise in assessing the relation between color and value. More about that in a moment.

The most notable difference is, to my eye, the tilt of the head

[Jeremiah White]

Thank you very much for your detailed observations. It will definitely give me more to look for in future work.

I've gained even more respect for Bouguereau with this drawing. I learned a lot with it so doing more is definitely planned for the future.

Thanks again.

[Jeremiah White]

Oh yeah, Steven, one more question. Do you have any good resources on Bouguereau's technique or teachings? I've read a lot of info on him on ARC (which seems quite informative) but do you know of any other resources that could help me?

Any information you have would be greatly appreciated.

[Steven Sweeney]

Marvin Mattelson could likely cite some resources for us . . .

[Marvin Mattelson]

I wish I could offer up some suggestions here but unfortunately Bouguereau was pretty tight lipped because most of what is written seems to be based on conjecture. No one even knows with any certainty which colors he had on his palette. The only one of his students that was able to closely replicate the quality of his work was his second wife, Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau. So I wouldn't bet the farm on what is written on ARC.

I have read that Bouguereau used glazes, an opinion which I never agreed with. I've probably seen close to one hundred originals and always felt he scumbled and this was how he arrived at the translucency in the skin tones.

Several months ago I had the opportunity to see a badly cleaned Bouguereau which had the top layer removed by a heavy handed restorer. This was bad for the painting but a great opportunity for me to learn about my hero's secrets. The color intensity in his under layer was overstated. It was obviously Bouguereau's finishing technique to scumble over and reduce contrast and intensity.

That very same day I had the opportunity to meet Damian Bartoli who is authoring Bouguereau's catalog raisonne, rumored to be released next year. At any rate, we discussed the aforementioned damaged painting and he agreed with my assessment. It seems the French use the same word to describe both glazing and scumbling and apparently that is the source of much confusion.

With regards to your drawing, there are a lot of nice things going on. The main thing you are missing is the cohesiveness that distinguishes his genius from the works of all others. You are not alone.The problem that most artists have to overcome is keeping the smaller aspects relative to the large planes. You have rendered the smaller areas without considering their location on the ball of the head with relationship to the light source. For example, compare the values on the chin in your drawing with the example posted by Steven.

Unity must always be the goal. I am constantly striving to make my students aware of this very fact.

I hope this helps.

[Marvin Mattelson]

It occurred to me that some people may not understand exactly what scumbling is. On my website I have posted a step by step demo I painted in my Atlanta workshop in August 2003. This August I'll be doing a two week long workshop there so I'll have a demo to post that is much more finished.

The right hand image on the next to bottom row shows the result of scumbling over the light areas. The result is a unification both in color and modeling. The scumble is created by thinly applying opaque paint over an area. Depending on how thinly it is applied and how light or dark it is, the scumble will alter the values accordingly and move them closer together. Had I the time to continue the demo I would have scumbled over the last step as well.

[Geary Wootten]

Hi Marvin,

I guess I'm a little confused on the whole scumbling/glazing thing. Mainly because I picked up on stuff 'here and there' and then just push things around until I get what I want. (that sounds like a bad description of me....I'm really a very nice guy) I was taught in school and by reading a book by Ken Davies that glazing was actually a part of scumbling......or is it the other way around?

I actually use a version whereby I "scumble" on transparent layers in the finishing touches of my work. I do this with degrees of glazing medium. I find that I use variants of this as well, ie., different grades of opacities, if you please.

Would you, in your wonderful mentoring mode, please explain exactly what glazing is and where it came from. Oh, and scumbling..... what is the origin of that technique?

Your students await with Liquin in one hand and "dry" paint in the other........

Geary