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Paint Like Van Gogh
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Message
Posted
Today I managed to get another session in on this project, and started painting in earnest. In the back off my mind, I can hear what some of you have said about paint flowing freely and have tried to keep this style going.
As I am working on a different painting to the one in Sarah's tutorial, I couldn't follow a lot of the next few parts of the tutorial, but I've taken note of her tips and descriptions on how to apply paint. She says let your brushstrokes follow the path of how things grow or describe the shape of things. Sarah also says to lay the paint strokes down only once to avoid smudging the colour underneath - both very good tips.
I am determined not to overwork this and have now called the sky and distant hills done and I don't think finishing the painting is going to take that long. Fingers crossed.
Posted
Don't wish to intervene here - and really don't know V V G's method. And yet - I suspect it's all well and good to apply paint in fluid strokes, but it's probable that Van Gogh carefully mixed the paints available to him before applying them. I would be wary of applying colour straight from the tube, however tempting it may be, because the end result will be far more crude than his pigments would allow, even if some of them were fugitive (which indeed they were: but not ALL of them were).
It's important to study his method, but just as important to be aware of the properties of the colours he used: in the case of this painting, I don't KNOW for sure, but suspect, that his pigments allowed him greater freedom than was permitted by, eg, the Chrome Yellow of his sunflowers, which has faded so badly. The reason why copies .... not so much copies, as updated versions ..... so often seem crude by comparison with the originals is a) that grubby varnish gets in the way, and b) that not only "old master" pigments, but also those available to the Impressionists, can be a world away (for better and for worse) from those available to us today.
So I'll risk a hint - don't avoid Viridian and Burnt Sienna in favour of phtalocyanine pigments: or Prussian Blue in favour of pthalo blue; Vincent wouldn't have had pthalo/monestrial/monestial blue or green: and if he had, I doubt that he'd have used them. Those who know better, please challenge me on this.
Posted
Sylvia, the 'ear' is a reference to Gogh's mental problems causing him to cut off his ear when it troubled him so much.
Robert, I am sure that I can't exactly match Gogh's colours precisely. I have used more traditional colours so far - burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow, with titanium white and a touch of black, non straight from the tube. The best I can hope for is to get a somewhere close.
Posted
Here's the finished work. I have really enjoyed working on this and it has given me new insights of how to paint in oils. My next task is to create a pastiche of Gogh using the skills that I've learned here.
OK, this isn't perfect, but it was never going to be that.
Here is Gogh's work with my copy underneath for comparison.
OK, this isn't perfect, but it was never going to be that.
Here is Gogh's work with my copy underneath for comparison.
Posted
And no pthalo colours in sight!
Yes, a good job. Of course you won't get the full Van Gogh flavour, because (well, unless you were a forger) you won't get the flair of the original - the way v G explored and experimented with shapes, pulled the paint about, did what Paul Klee described as "taking a line for a walk": such things can be forged, but not honestly reproduced. This is a good, honest homage to a great artist, and very well done: I'm sure you learned greatly from it, and will apply what you've learned to your own original work.
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