Velasquez - Santa Claus X

[Illustrium]

My first master study painting. Had to go big with Good 'Ol Saint Nick. My favorite Velasquez piece.

Made in photoshop, after blocking - textured brush at 17% flow, 100% opacity. No erasing. 4 color palette. I did a smidge of level adjustment and increased saturation by 10 but the palette was included in that so it is still sortof honest. 4-5 hours?

Was about halfway done when I realized I was copying from a copy (like a stupid hunchback). Started using the original, made some adjustments and came out with about as good as I can do right now. He has a tad of Hugh Laurie in him but that doesn't hurt this Pope.

[AndreasM]

It came out as good as you could do right now, or as good as you can do within 4-5 hours? There's alot of subtle play in the edge variety in that painting that doesn't show in your study. I think you can push that further...think sharp vs. soft, lost and found, etc. Even if the palette was intended to be limited (and not a copy of the original's colours), I see alot of white "mixtures" where they shouldn't be, in the shadows of the drapery and in some places in the background. I looks like you have "glazed" whites over shadow areas...Having too much white in the half tones and shadows will give the picture a "chalky look."

Even if it's digital, try to avoid making any slider based adjustments. You will get soooo much more back from actually trying to make decitions about value and colour relationships all by yourself.

Good start though. If you are up for it, you have a long, slow process of refinement ahead of you :)

[hitnrun]

Hrm, well, if you're going to do an old master copy, why not do it by traditional means - Oils paints? I'm pretty sure Velasquez didn't have an Intuos 3 and Photoshop hehehe.

I also haven't seen the original of this, so I can't offer any crits, but I'll google it and I should find MORE than enough results.

[Illustrium]

True there.. I have since decided to try out oil paints. So I have been messing around with them for a couple weeks now.

TOUGH! Sortof getting the hang of the medium now. Much respect to anyone with oil paint skills:)

This Innocent was just a spur of the moment thing. Just trying to eyeball and try to get the values right with an easy palette. Giggles and shits I guess.