Here’s a Jan Matejko master copy I finished today.

Greetings fellow Steemians!

In today’s post I thought I’d share and discuss this Jan Matejko master copy I finished.

I have to admit that this one was really fun to do. I just jumped right in with very little preparation. I decided to take a more direct/all prima approach with this one.

Once again I began with a loose drawing with thinned burnt umber. As you can see from above, some of the imprimatura and drawing is still showing. Usually I would’ve chosen raw umber, but I wanted in particular to keep the shadows and background especially warm.

After I finished the drawing I started massing in the background and the shadows (the eyes,under the nose, and under the beard). Not too long ago I discovered this little “trick” for keeping shadows dark, warm and luminous by premixing batches of cadmium red or orange and ivory black from a couple of painters from The Grand Central Academy that I follow. So far I have been pleased with its use as compared to just using an umber. As umbers are iron oxide (basically rust) earthen based paints, they have more often produced instances (sinking in) where I would have to oil out before beginning to rework.

So after I finished the shadows and background, I then began to simultaneously work all over the painting as a whole. Usually I am accustomed to working on a particular section and branching out from those spots until they’re completely finished (window shading), but this work demanded more of a unified and collective attention.

On this master copy, in some instances I would start at the top and work my way down, other times I would begin on the center of a form and work my way outside, and other times I would work outside to inside; constantly comparing adjacent forms to all others.

This painting I wasn’t too concerned with achieving a high level of refinement. I also actively chosen to paint a heck of a lot thicker than I’m normally accustomed to, saving the impasto lights for last.

The palette I used for this work was titanium white, cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre, cadmium red, burnt umber, and ivory black.

Please feel free to let me know what you think?

Thanks for reading Everyone!

-James Hansen
https://jameszenartist.weebly.com/