Thaddeus Kosciuszko was a Polish engineer and military officer who help America during the Revolutionary War. I located a painting of him which I will copy.
I began by doing a sketch with gray oil paint using the original painting as a guide.
Once the paint totally dries I will start to define the eyes and facial features. This is the end of session 1.
I began by defining facial features with gray paint with a little burnt umber added.
I scrubbed in the hair with burnt sienna and burnt umber in the shadows to establish form. I added light gray to plains of the face that will be in shadow. Making an effort to set eye position detail will be added later. I added yellow ochre and gray to the background darker on the left side. This is the end of session 2.
The purpose of this session was to block in the various tones in the uniform while letting the face and background dry. For the lapels I mixed burnt sienna, cadmium orange with a little cadmium red. Epaulets were painted with yellow ochre, burnt umber, and Naples yellow. Buttons were roughed in with yellow ochre. The tunic was painted with ultramarine blue with a little burnt umber. The belt across his shoulder and detail on the medals with be added later. The neck ascot will also be detailed later. The painting so far will be allowed to thoroughly dry before proceeding. This is the end of session 3.
I spent this whole session on facial features attempting to define them. I find that an old masters mix of Yellow Ochre, Red Vermillion, and white gives good flesh tones…….much preferred by me over a commercially prepared flesh tone directly from a tube. In shadow areas I added gray to soften some of the edges, redefined the eyes, mouth, nose, and chin. Finally I added dark shadows for tones in the hair leaving some of the burnt sienna base to show through where hair highlights will be added. I will leave the face to thoroughly dry and work on other areas of the painting in the next session. This is the end of session 4.
This was a long session as I worked on the painting most of the day. I gave attention to the background using burnt umber, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, and Naples yellow. Like in the original I painted the viewer’s right side a little lighter than the left side. The old masters often handled background that way since it creates a feeling of depth in lieu of a solid background. Next I darkened the collar and lapels a bit painting over the dry paint with a glaze (thin layer) of burnt umber. I then added basic details to the medals and shoulder belt that will be refined later. I refined the neck wrapping and ascot which will also be refined later. I gave the tunic another layer of ultramarine blue with a little black and burnt umber. Lastly I added a little more detail to the hair especially around his ear. This is the end of session 5.
For this session I spent time on some details: the neck wrap and ascot, the belt across his shoulder, the epaulets, and buttons. I added a little flesh tone in the forehead, cheeks, and chin. Once this dries I will work the flesh tone more as well as add slight highlights to the hair. This is the end of session 6.
During this session I added additional flesh tint, touched up the lace and added slight shadow under the lace on the right side. I also added small highlights to the medals and buttons. Lastly, I added dark shadows to the hair and the collar. This is the end of session and this art project.
