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RE: Drawing Rembrandt - A study in 4 colour chalk - Original content for Steemit

in #art7 years ago (edited)

Excellent work @groundcontrol! This portrait Rembandt did of himself, to me, always looks a bit sad, wistful, tired. It says much. I think you have done a good job of conveying the same feeling as the original.
I noticed your bottle of Art Spectrum Colourfix Primer. I was going to ask, but then noticed you are #teamaustralia. Art Spectrum was always a favourite brand of mine. I bought a few more tubes of oils when I was back in 2015.
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Thanks @leoplaw - As Rembrandt got older and his eyes got worse, his style become a lot more loose and rough but he never lost the ability to make his paintings glow. This one feels like he's trying to push it even further with the way he raised his eyebrows. He's old, he's tired but he still pushes himself.
I only recently discovered Colourfix primer. I was actually watching some old Bob Ross and he uses the clear gesso and it made me think there must be something like that at the art store. I figured a clear gesso would work well for securing a transfer drawing before painting - never really felt comfortable using fixative spray for that as some painters do. Colourfix have a clear which works really well - but then i saw they had colours as well so got a few tubs to try out. #teamaustralia
Thank you for the re-steem!

Monet's eyesight deteriorated markedly in his old age. But this water lily period is the one he is most famous for. But I guess it was also fortunate for him that this coincided with the Impressionist period. So, we as visual artists are indeed very fortunate that our careers can continue right up until we drop. Heck, I even saw a video about blind painter. He became legally blind in his 30's and then at some point was totally blind. Now in his 70's he's still busy and selling.
How do you apply the clear gesso to pastels? Won't you disturb/smudge them?

Oh, i meant the clear works well for sealing transfer drawings prior to oil painting. I don't know if you start with a drawing or fix it before you paint but some oil artists will draw their transfer drawing with charcoal and then spray it down with fixative. Not sure from a conservation perspective if that will be seen as having been a good idea a 100 years from now?
The pastel on the other hand needs a spray after the fact, i haven't sprayed this one yet because i reckon it'll compress it a bit and lose colour. Suppose i could touch it up thou.
I have to remind myself to squit to 'spoil' my eye sight in order to not get lost in detail, i guess at some point as i get old it will do it naturally, then i'll be squiting to try and improve it!