we are having a fabulous time in the February Masterclass, and I thought I would encourage our class to share our takes on this Mughal princes in progress:
Tagging @Anastasia Doran @Mary Yaeger @Susan Dobrian @Vaishali Prazmari
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Lovely - thanks for the written instructions and what a great nose! I just lost two overlong comments - what is the word limit?
Wowsa, Vaishali! Your man is delicious!!!!
@Sara , seems I'm not able to move your 'Mughal Face' post over to here so I'll leave it where it is. We've all been replying as comments to this thread which @Nadia T. Madden kindly created. So if you feel inclined (no pressure), you can do some pruning by copying that post over here as a comment and delete the original one. I'm not a good gardener, I like a bit of weedy mess, but it's also good practice to keep this forum neat and for those who like their shrubbery tidy!
'That man'! Around the edges in the margins I've experimented with various skin colours. Not all of them are suitable for this deeply onion-skinned paper ground! It makes a difference. So I went with a skin colour that looked human. I've been as faithful as possible to the original to the extent that actually I've repeated some things I think the original painter may have overlooked - on a small scale it's not seen nor felt but on this supersize scale... I don't like the way his skull sticks out of his turban at the back of his head. I'll stay faithful to the original but cover it all with hair. Something I REALLY dislike is the bland faded looking colour of his robes - which again is faithful to the original when blown up to this scale (remember, everything is blown up so the colours are too!) - I much prefer your beautiful pinks or vibrant red. I will stick to the vibrant red I also originally painted. We can change things, we don't have to be bound to the original colours etc!
Also @Nadia T. Madden forces me to finish it hehe ;-) I will, but maybe not next month. However when I do I'll post it also as a reply.
Baldie
&
The various skin tones this guy underwent! Because my ground is so rich, colours appear different.
A Krishna blue noble skin - blue blood ;-)
More human.
The original tracing - always keep these as especially for faces we may need to re-use and re-trace on top of the colour fill, especially if is as large a scale as this! I used my large Ether brush for the transfer and an English red pigment for the back.
On the top left I diagrammed the eyeball just to show how it worked and also I did notice some of the eyes were looking up... then again it's a great personality trait to always be looking up, to be looking at the bright side of life!
And here is my final Mughal man. I absolutely love this faces course!
Such wonderful work you guys did!!!
Thanks Nadia for helping me find my way in & the very lovely compliment 😉 I shall try & add my under construction Mughal bronzed for the Gods face in.
He turned out great! Thanks for sharing him. Your paper looks textured. Is it coldpress, or is that just an illusion of the photo?
@Sara , please share your work as well when you have a chance. @Vaishali Prazmari too (may as well see the master in action!)
The final class, he still needs some work but I’m quite happy with how he turned out (And I think I’ve fallen a little bit in love!)
Looks great, Anastasia!
This is where I’m up to, the colour fill isn’t as flat as I’d like it to be but it’s okay to work with. I’m going to carry on rendering with the walnut ink - I need to get more of his moustache in and that curl!
Here is my prince:
Today in class I identified one of my biggest struggles, which is that I use flooding techniques almost as an eraser every time I think I make a mistake in shading. It’s overkill and I end up turning a perfectly good surface into something that’s a little more blotchy, so I need to learn about letting go and accepting that I make mistakes in order to get better.
Here is my prince who is a bit green, but I think it will turn out
A very pink robe colorfill, but I think it will work out all right. After burnishing I am okay with the colorfill 2. It is one shade too dark in my opinion, but it is fairly smooth and a bit of shadow remains on the side of the face where the hair and beard would be, so I actually like that.
Looking forward to any comments.
I decided to make the second colorfill titanitum white, yellow ochre and a little Cad Yw Dp. And I made the paint thicker. But this time I could barely fill the area before the paint started to dry. And I was being pretty sloppy - I missed the lower lip (makes him look a little like Homer Simpson!). I tried to restrain myself from touching up, but gave him a bump on the cheek or two before I stopped myself:
Oh vey! Look at that pockmarked cheek! And I forgot to separate hair showing on the turban!
After first colorfill, face and turbin, almost dry: So blotchy! The paint must be too thin. And why does he look purple? I used titanium white, terre verte, ochre, vermillion, and a little Naples yellow deep (but it was gouache!). Is too much terre verte the reason? FYI, I think I did burnish before trying again on the colorfill.