Artist copy final

5x5 Acrylic on hotpress Illustration Board

Here is the result of the artist copy. I had to work fast because of acrylics speedy drying time. I did some slow building but then decided to be a little more brave and go opaque immediately. Lyendecker and Rockwell would have done these paintings in oil so they wouldn't have had to worry about them drying to fast. I am happy with the turn out and it feels good to know that i can work with acrylic in such a manor. I think the most difficult part of the assignment was trying to achieve what C.F. Payne calls the "crisp" quality of Lyendeckers paintings. I really don't know how else to describe it. His paintings have a "realistic" feel but when you look closely the shapes and strokes are very simple. the study of his that i chose to copy was actualy just a sketch! and not a finished painting. which is why you will see much of the underpainting showing in areas like the hat in my copy.

Artist Copy assignment

Above is an assignment that i got in my "Illustration Styles and Concepts" class. Taught by C.F. Payne. We had to choose two artists from a list of classic painters and illustrators and do a copy of a head from one of their pieces. As shown below, i chose head studies by J.C. Lyendecker (top) and Norman Rockwell (bottom). I chose them because they are both pure painters and much of there were has a very illustrative quality. Other artist on the list included Dean Cornwell, John Singer Sargent, Haddon Sunblum and many more.



Here i've got my drawing in and fixed. I'm just getting the value structure figured out with this underpainting, and then doing light washes of color to block in the areas. I always get really excited to paint at this stage. I am working with acrylic.