Francesco Totti- Rangoli

Rangoli of Francesco Totti, that I just finished for Bleacher Report, UK.

Andrey

It's been a year since I took the test at the Loving Vincent studios in Gdansk, to work as a painter, animator on the film. I remember my first week in Poland, I was a bit nervous, and dint know anyone.. On my first day I spoke with a few people, I was thinking about the test and the work to finish..Ate my lunch alone.. And then on the second day, I was a bit more comfortable. Ate my lunch in the kitchen where I got to meet and talk to a few people. Andrey is one of the friends I made from the studio in the initial days. He is a painter, musician and likes doing film photography. He is my first Ukrainian friend. I wanted to draw a portrait of him in the style of Hans Holbein's studies, with architecture from the city of Gdansk.  It is very different than what I thought I'd make.

Copy of Julien Dupre

I first saw Julien Dupre's original in Rehs Gallery in NewYork. I love his works and his technique of painting figures with thin paint and the backgrounds with heavy texture, like impasto. Was so happy to see an original Julien Dupre first time, I asked a friend to take pictures of me with the painting and seeing the excitement the owner even showed us his diary and sketchbook, even let us go through what he had written and doodled. This was in February 2016. I was really very happy that day.

So last year when I got a commission to do a master copy of my choice, I chose to do the one below. Here's the process to my attempt at copying a Julien Dupre's painting. I started out very loose and not very organized.. May be next time if I attempt a master copy, I will do it differently.

 

As I progress, I fix shapes and pay attention to the shifts in chroma, how form is created with changes in the value, How grey the color is. And fix shapes continuously.

A beautiful gift

And this is what arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. They are plein-air studies by Kadin, a dear friend and an amazing artist. I always saw his drawings and paintings in the photos and admired, now having them and seeing them up close, is so special.
A couple of months ago I saw his recent studies from the mountains in his hometown. They were beautiful and made me very happy to see such good work he was doing. I asked him if he could send a small study sketch to me, so I can look at it and get motivated to go outdoors and paint.
After that I went to Israel for about a month and when I was back, I saw an envelope with my name on it and it was from Montana :) and I was like.. really? He sent them so quick! I opened the envelope and there were two paintings! He couldn’t decide which one to send, so sent both :D
I was expecting just a tiny sketch, study- so this was a surprise and made me happier. It is the first time I received painting in a courier as a gift. Thank you Kadin, It is so very special. I feel lucky and thankful. And motivated to pick up the brush again.