Albrecht Dürer - The Great Master

Don´t all pupils of great master try to emulate them? But do they get it right, that is the vital question? Most don´t. I will be shooting to fit into the group that gets it right. Not right to the extent of being able to forge art work, but rather get the techniques right. I think that I have a long way to go, because understanding the techniques is not the same as being able to use them successfully. However, practice makes perfect. Having completed only a little over 1 month, and with still 11 months ahead, I have become to wonder if there will be enough copies of the masters out there to copy. Take a look at the oeuvre of Michelangelo, he destroyed a lot of his own work, and of that that remains, many educated professionals don´t agree as to which is his or not. There are only about 600 works that the Pros more or less agree upon. Jokes aside: there is more than enough to keep me copying for the rest of my life. To all those out in the big wide world - have a jolly good weekend.

Recycled paper

The problem of doing sketches on recycled paper is that sometimes, actually more times than not, at the very end of doing the drawing, one notices a small mark one can not rub out, only to find that it is embedded in the damn paper. No matter how careful I have been in examining the paper before hand, it still seems to creep upon me and bite me in the ass.

Copy, Copy, Copy and Copy the work of the masters

No, this is not a self portrait, it is a copy of one of my favorite artists works: Albrecht Dürer. The idea of copying so much of his works, is that I hope that some of his techniques and knowledge will rub off onto me.

Gentile Bellini

I don´t know much about this artist, basically nothing so I had to look him up, and this is what I found: Gentile was born into a family of renowned painters: his father Jacopo Bellini, was a Venetian pioneer in the use of oil paint as an artistic medium; his acclaimed brother was Giovanni Bellini, and his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna. He was christened Gentile after Jacopo's master, Gentile da Fabriano. Gentile was taught painting in the workshop of his father. Although today Gentile is often seen in the shadow of his more famous family members, in his own time he was considered among the greatest living painters in Venice and had no shortage of commissions; his talent as a portraitist revealed itself at an early age.

Copy of Albrecht Dürer

Another day, another copy. This is the work of Albrecht Durer, and if you ask me on very ugly portrait. But credit has to be given when due: he did a damn fine job of the drawing. In this copy the yellow background is dry pastel, the rest is normal pencil on recycled paper.

No models

The experts tell me that this drawing was originally done purely by the artists knowledge of the human body. They knew that when a person stood in that way, which muscles were evident and visible. No models were used for these poses, apparently. I added in the flourishing around the drawing. Done with a traditional dip pen on almost white paper.

Leonardo da Vinci

This original was not done by Leonardo da Vinci, but one of his pupils. I spent a lot of time on the face only to find out later that I had not left room on the paper for the rest of the head. Not planning out the position of everything before doing the details, was not a good idea. I should have known better, but one can becomes so engrossed with what you are doing, and at the same time knowing that I should have paid more attention to the layout first. Still, at the same time thinking that I do not need to worry about it, it will work out in the end - then CRASH - Not enough room. Lesson taught again - follow the procedures!

Summer - Pieter Bruegel

Every artist has what he considers to be the best drawing he/she has done, and this one, to date, I think is my best. It is a copy a section of Pieter Bruegel drawing called "Summer". Originally it was done with pen and brown ink, but I coloured a few sections with some pencils. What do you think about the man´s shorts, they were designed with a ball-bag? Imagine if you saw someone today wearing pants like that?

Michelangelo copy and interpretation

A copy of none other than Michelangelo' work, with a blue pencil background. At least this drawing was better than yesterday's.

Copy & alteration

When Michelangelo drew this originally he did not pencil in the background with a coloured pencil, or what?