When looking at John Singer Sargent’s “effortless” portraits, I often wonder how long he actually spent on each. He wanted the painting to look fresh, with an economy of brush strokes, so a painting that looks like it was done in one sitting could have taken many. He’s said to have scraped off hours, days even months worth of work because there was too much evidence of his struggle. Here’s a painting that Sargent did in a single hour. Aha. This is helpful.
“A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth.” – John Singer Sargent
Thanks to Jennifer Small for sending this in response to yesterday’s post about Degas’ failed historical paintings. This one was painted some time between 1857 and 1862 (dates differ), which was around the same time as he was working on the other historical paintings. Paintings and dates: The Daughter of Jephtha 1860 The Daughter of Jephtha study 1860 Young …
You all have been drawing so many cats, I figure I might as well make it official. Today, draw a cat. If you don’t have a cat, find an unusual photograph of a cat. If you want to draw a dog instead, draw a dog. To get you off on the right paw, I’m including …
Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything you want. See below for today’s creative challenge. Set the timer for 20 minutes and see what happens. ULOTRICHOUS Derived from a Greek word meaning …
Painting above by Fredericka Foster. More by Foster at the end of this post. What makes painted water look like water? Is it the tone of blue, or by the reflective color of the sky? Is it optic magic from glazes and transparent pigments? Or is it indicated by perfect color mixes, sequences of color matches? What about …
JS Sargent: 1 Hour Portrait
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John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Eleanora Duse
When looking at John Singer Sargent’s “effortless” portraits, I often wonder how long he actually spent on each. He wanted the painting to look fresh, with an economy of brush strokes, so a painting that looks like it was done in one sitting could have taken many. He’s said to have scraped off hours, days even months worth of work because there was too much evidence of his struggle. Here’s a painting that Sargent did in a single hour. Aha. This is helpful.
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Degas put an Ibis on it
Thanks to Jennifer Small for sending this in response to yesterday’s post about Degas’ failed historical paintings. This one was painted some time between 1857 and 1862 (dates differ), which was around the same time as he was working on the other historical paintings. Paintings and dates: The Daughter of Jephtha 1860 The Daughter of Jephtha study 1860 Young …
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You all have been drawing so many cats, I figure I might as well make it official. Today, draw a cat. If you don’t have a cat, find an unusual photograph of a cat. If you want to draw a dog instead, draw a dog. To get you off on the right paw, I’m including …
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Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything you want. See below for today’s creative challenge. Set the timer for 20 minutes and see what happens. ULOTRICHOUS Derived from a Greek word meaning …
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Painting above by Fredericka Foster. More by Foster at the end of this post. What makes painted water look like water? Is it the tone of blue, or by the reflective color of the sky? Is it optic magic from glazes and transparent pigments? Or is it indicated by perfect color mixes, sequences of color matches? What about …