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Paint Like Van Gogh
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Message
Posted
Like many people, I am a huge admirer of Van Gogh’s work and today I stumbled on a tutorial on POL by Sarah Wimperis on how to paint like the great man. It didn’t take me long to realise that maybe I could have a go at this.
Within minutes I’d found a gessoed board 40x50cms to paint on and a suitable source image downloaded from t’Internet and began to follow Sarah’s advice and instructions. Although I will be using oils, I differed from the narrative by first setting everything out using acrylics.
Zooming in on the source image, I noticed that very small areas of bare canvas could be seen in places between brushstrokes, so I mixed up some yellow ochre with titanium white and a small amount of cerulean blue to imitate the canvas colour to be used as a ground. Following the steps in the first stage, I divided the board into thirds using a brush with burnt sienna, then sketched the scene in the same manner. Dividing the work area into thirds (as well as the source) really does help to get the proportions correct.
I now have stage two complete and will start with oils in my next painting session. Good or bad, I will post the process and results on here.
Can you guess which of Gogh’s paintings I am attempting to copy?
Can you guess which of Gogh’s paintings I am attempting to copy?
Posted
Can I be a wet blanket...it's going to be a super pic Frank and you are really enjoying it. I love Van Gogh as well but would no more want to copy one of his paintings than fly.
Maybe when you have done this exersise you will be doing a painting of your own as a pastiche ?
I find in a lot of my work I do it then realise where the influence came from. Look forward to where this is going.
If you are ever in Amsterdam there is a fab Van Gogh gallery.
Edited
by Sylvia Evans
Posted
Nice start Frank, your imparting energy into your brush strokes even at this early stage.
I was well impressed with her tutorial of Vincent’s ‘Garden at the Asylum’, she’s an exceptional painter.
No surprise then, to read that she worked on the’Loving Vincent’ film, which we all know consisted of thousands of paintings!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
Thanks Denise - did you guess the painting or look up Van Gogh paintings I wonder? Well done.
Sylvia I absolutely agree it’s better to do a pastiche rather than a copy of someone els’s painting, but for a start, I want to get inside Gogh’s head, copy one of his works so that I can more easily work out how to paint in his style.
Thanks Alan, I don’t usually paint in this way or follow ‘how to’s’ religiously, but Sarah’s article really showed me how to try a different style of painting. It is so easy to just go on painting in a style that you are used to and not realise that you are stuck in a rut while everyone else is moving on.
Posted
There was a great competition on here some years ago now, Sylvia will remember it… Paint a composition in the style of van Gough!
I loved it, and as I recall I submitted two fairly large oils.
I was fortunate enough to be awarded second place and the prize was a rather splendid set of Talents Van Gough oil paints etc, all in a lovely wooden box! I’m still using the box, the paints are long gone!
I enjoyed examining his painting technique in some detail… and trying to replicate them - only because I have the greatest admiration for the man and to learn from him, it was my own subject matter in both my submissions!
Posted
The same thought entered my head as entered Sylvia's, I admit - but I don't think van Gogh's strangeness was necessarily reflected in his paintings; if anything, he was at his most sane when he was painting (I suspect that's true for many of us).
I wouldn't want to do this either - another example of Sylvia's mind and mine working along similar lines! But I can see it's really captured Frank's enthusiasm and imagination, and got him to his brushes - and that has to be a good thing. Whatever gets you working is good in my book. I have seen copies of this painting done in acrylic - which MIGHT be easier than doing it in oil... not having tried, I'm not confident of that... Anyway: let's see where it goes, eh? It's bound to be interesting, whatever happens.
Posted
Frank, your own subjects are great anyway - your prints and your gouache. No, I can see the attraction and as Robert says, anything which inspires….and it’s a different way of working. I went to Arles and St Rémy asylum in September and saw a lot of VG reconstructions, points where he painted his pics from. Loved it! This is a reconstruction of his room at the asylum.
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