Master Copies of Van Gogh

 

3/10/26 Master copy of Vincent Van Gogh

A website called Draw Paint Academy recently crossed my radar; in particular, an article about the lesser-known works of Vincent Van Gogh. Since I have no formal education in art history, I appreciate learning from writers who can talk about masterworks in a layperson’s language without getting all academic-y.

Two paintings caught my attention: Trees in the Asylum Garden and Saint-Paul Hospital Park (both from 1889). Especially struck by the vibrant color contrasts and dynamic brush strokes (the paintings seem to shimmer and vibrate), I felt inspired to make master copies.

I wasn’t going to use oil paints, of course, but I thought about what dry medium at my disposal might be able to emulate those hatchmark-like brush strokes. Although I hadn’t used them in a long time, Prismacolor Art Stix had come up in a recent conversation with Roy and Mary Jean, so they were out on my desk. Basically block-shaped colored pencils on steroids, they could make flat, broad strokes, and my set includes a good range of colors. Why not? (Related geeky afterthought: Imagine if Derwent made their Drawing Pencil cores in a block form! Be still my heart!)

It’s always instructive and illuminating to copy a masterwork. For one thing, the palettes of these two paintings look so cohesive that I thought the range of hues would be fairly limited, but once I started trying to match them all, I was surprised by how many colors are in them. You know me and my limited palettes; these were boldly outside my comfort zone!

3/12/26 Master copy of Vincent Van Gogh

I noticed that Van Gogh liked to outline shapes with a dark color. Did he “draw” the shapes first and then fill them in? Or did he paint the shapes, and outline later? I’ve seen this in his other works too, but it wasn’t until I copied these myself that I studied the paintings with those questions in mind. The technique caught my attention because it flies in the face of the traditional painting instruction we read in books or hear from instructors: Objects in reality never have lines around them; avoid drawing them (or avoid letting them show in the painting).

One thing I had difficulty with, especially using a dry medium, was covering the entire “canvas” with color as he did (and as most painters do). Sometimes I think this is one of the biggest differences between a sketcher (at least this sketcher) and a painter: I never feel compelled to cover the entire page, and, in fact, I prefer to leave white space. That’s just my style, but it’s also a limitation of my chosen media. It would be impractical and time consuming to cover every speck of paper surface with colored pencils or even crayons. With none of the grace but maybe at least some of the energy, I tried my best to emulate the spirit of Van Gogh’s gestures.

There’s plenty more to study and learn from copying Van Gogh (or any master). I’ll put this in my doomscrolling prevention tool kit. It seems like master copying might be too mentally taxing for late-evening work, and it was certainly not relaxing as, for example, sketching from my own reference photos with Derwent Drawing pencils. But trying to emulate another work takes away the need to be expressive in my own way. In any case, I recommend it.

No limited palette for Vincent!

Emulating Vincent

4/28/15 India ink, Zebra Comic G dip pen, Bristol board (from image of
Van Gogh drawing, below)

Unlike wood cut prints or the fine hatch marks of some of the other masters we’ve been copying, Van Gogh’s lines are more organic and irregular – a huge bonus for me in this week’s class. Although copying his drawings is just as labor-intensive and time-consuming as the previous assignments, I find it somewhat easier to make his curvy line strokes rather than straight ones. It is fascinating to study the originals and see the wide variety of strokes he used to convey light/dark or foreground/distance.

As my classmates and I silently scratched away with our dip pens trying to emulate the master, our instructor Eric Elliott read a bit to us from a book containing a large collection of Van Gogh’s drawings. Apparently Van Gogh used a reed quill – essentially a finer version of the twig I use when I emulate KK! – to do his drawings, which makes me appreciate his drawings all the more; he probably had to re-dip his reed with every stroke (unlike my delightful Zebra Comic G nib, which holds a fair amount of ink per dip).

Ink sketch by Vincent Van Gogh

I haven’t studied Van Gogh much, so I was surprised to see how many drawings he had produced (as opposed to paintings). When I said this to Eric, he told me that Van Gogh had periods when he made drawings because he couldn’t afford paint. I thought about how easily I place an order at JetPens.com or DickBlick.com whenever I “need” an art supply (or just feel like I want something new), and it broke my heart.

P.S. Speaking of JetPens, I just got a Tachikawa nib holder for my G nib, and it’s terrific! The rubbery grip makes it so much easier and more comfortable to hold for long periods, hatching away. I’d give one to Vincent if I could.

Raphael Redux, This Time with Fountain Pens

4/8/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink,
Pilot FA and Metropolitan pens,
Bristol paper

Sketch of the David by Raphael 

While I enjoy the meditative quality of pen hatching, dipping into the ink bottle every few strokes is the part that annoys me. Talk about tedious! The whole time I was working on the copy of Raphael’s David this morning, I longed for my fountain pens. This afternoon I gave it another shot, this time with my Pilot Falcon (FA) nib (plus some lines with a Pilot Metropolitan fine nib, which is finer than the FA). Although dip pens have an expressive flexiness that’s hard to beat, I think my Pilot FA is nearly as flexy – and certainly more convenient and more fun to use.

Ahhh – I do love fountain pens!

Once Again, it’s All About Values

4/8/15 India ink, dip pen, Bristol paper

Value, value, value: Just about every art class I’ve taken or technique book I’ve read has emphasized the importance of seeing and accurately conveying values. Yesterday afternoon I took a three-hour “Drawing in Ink” class at Gage Academy, and its focus was no different.

Mixing varying dilutions of India ink, we first used a medium-sized sumi brush to apply washes of ink to the paper, attempting to reproduce the values in photocopied works by masters. Instructor Eric Elliott advised us to squint and look only at the large shapes – not the details. (That’s advice I’ve heard in every watercolor sketching class I’ve taken!) Once all the values were sufficiently reproduced, we used a dip pen with India ink to draw in details. The point of the fine ink work was to help define the forms – not to outline the shapes already put in with washes.

Sketch of the David by Raphael

My first exercise was a Rembrandt painting, which I found relatively easy to reproduce because it had only a few values. The second was a portion of another painting (by some other long-dead master whom I’ve now forgotten. . . sorry) that I found more challenging because it had a wider range of values.

The third exercise was practicing hatching techniques by copying a sketch of Michelangelo’s David by Raphael (I started the exercise in class and finished today at home). Examining Raphael’s work, it was fascinating to see how the hatch marks were not random scratches; to the contrary, the lengths and curvature of the marks identified and shaped the forms. Eric warned us that if we got carried away with hatching, David’s smooth form would end up looking too hairy! (Unfortunately, he did start getting a bit hairy in my rendition, so I quickly decided it was time to stop.)

Some students seemed to find the hatching exercise tedious and tiring, but it was my favorite. Although I’m not a huge fan of traditional dip pens (gimme a fountain pen over a dip pen any day!), I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the class – both the ink washes to create values and the tedious pen hatching.

Although I can’t see myself using dip pens with bottled ink while sketching on location, I’ve heard the value-value-value mantra often enough to know that whatever I learn from these sink techniques can be applied to any medium, and my sketches will be better for it.

Gage offers a variety of three-hour “quick start” classes like this one to give students an opportunity to try a small tasting of a particular medium or technique before committing to a full course. (Another one I took was “The Quick Sketch” in January.) I guess the strategy works: I immediately signed up for the full 10-week course, which begins next week!

4/7/15 India ink, dip pen, sumi brush, Bristol

Original painting by Rembrandt

4/7/15 India ink, dip pen, sumi brush, Bristol

Original painting