Painting the brush marks (Van Gogh Master Study)

 

Well, I didn't expect it to turn out quite so well.  I didn't know my skill level had gotten that far along.  I really had expected it to look like all the pretty ice-cream had melted and got mixed with chocolate fudge.

mmm, ice-cream.

Although I'm not sure if it's good enough to frame and put on my wall.  

But I want to take a second to dwell on how nice this is.

The thing I didn't enjoy was copying.  It's a Master Copy, which is a common way to learn, well, How They Did It!  One can learn a lot from these.  And yet...

... I feel like it fell flat.  

While painting, I didn't think about what I was painting, I was just following Vincent's brush strokes.  And because of that, I feel like my copy is missing the feeling of being a painting of almond blossoms and is instead a painting of a painting.

It's harder to explain than I expected.

But I have a fix.

step 1. put the painting to one side to dry and be happy I did it.  I am happy.  It took a lot of courage to try my first master study.

step 2. Wait (this was painted in August 2024).  I shall wait for spring and cut a branch of blossom off my own almond tree.  In the mean time, seek out a glass of a similar shape at a thrift shop.

step 3. When the time is right, set up my own almond branch and gather up the information I learned from my master study.  And paint a ... I don't even know if this has a word.  It's like a master study, but it's also very much not.  It's more than inspiration as I'm copying the set up and hopefully the lighting.  But using my own props.  

I think I'll learn a lot more doing it that way than just copying his brush strokes.