We are doing full colour master studies every day/weekend on our journey to get better at art. Join us and continue to Level Up!
Here is today's image for the day – Jacques Louis David, The Death of Marat
1. Begin the master study from the image above. Studies are to be in full colour. Be faithful to the master study. Do not use the colour picker. Do not trace. This is an exercise that over time will pump up your skills very quickly.
2. Make your study and the master work the same size. This makes it easier for you and others to critique. Do not make it hard for yourself
3. Upload your finished study directly in a reply to today's thread. Every day or weekend will have it's own thread with the image of the day.
4. Time limit - 1 Hour minimum at least. This is the minimum to get the full benefit, but you're welcome to put a lot more time into it. The longer you can spend on it, the better you will get.
5. Try to see how the artist worked and bring this into your study. Match the colour and the shapes in broad strokes, leave details out unless you have the time later. Go from the largest shapes of colour first. Fingernails and eyelashes should be ignored to the end.
6. Work on a small format, this stops you making those details and enables you to capture the essence. You can make it bigger later.
Please post your image side by side with the original, either next to each other or on top of each other. This makes it easier for people to see and critique.
You may not wish to do a study everyday, but work on one over several days. This can make you push yourself harder.
Critique from yourself and others is always welcomed here, as we are here to improve. Comment on what you think you've learnt from doing the study, where it failed, worked and what you will take forward to the next one.
We will try to include an informative link with each study as learning art history is equally important. Please read these and expand your knowledge.
Painted by Jaques-Louis David, in the style called neo-classical. David was a successful artist in the French revolution, and managed to survive and be successful under Napoleon as well. Neo-classical painting was both realistic and heavily posed. Marat was a leader of the revolution, and was stabbed by Charlotte Corday, a royalist, while in his bath. Why he had sheets and blankets in his bath I don't know. Marat is depicted peacefully dead, without much blood, holding the petition Corday had used to get see him. His brightly lit face is on the left side of the picture, balanced on the right by the white petition he holds in his outstretched left hand, and by the box/table on the right. The background is dark behind him, but light to the top right of the picture. The light source is behind and above to the left, and looks theatrical in its brightness.