Being John Singer Sargent

I’m working on paintings (finishing them up, actually) for a story about a cat who lives in Venice circa 1890.  Since the publisher refused to send me to la Serenissima to gather visual research (hey, you can’t blame a boy for asking!), I was forced to make do with the beautiful paintings of John Singer Sargent, who lived in Venice at the same time our cat did.

To help me get a feel for the color scheme, or palette, I did small color studies of some of Sargent’s Venetian paintings.  Here’s his painting of the Rialto:

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…and my study of it.

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I recommend this kind of exercise.  I learned so much about color from Sargent by mimicking his paintings.  Here are more:

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churchcolor397

watercarrierscolor394

A piu tardi—

Later—

0 replies
  1. pghpicturebook
    pghpicturebook says:

    Thanks, John, this is awesome!

    We can never be too busy to learn more and practice our craft…thanks for the encouragement.

    Reply
  2. Leda Miller
    Leda Miller says:

    How inventive! This exercise can be applied to those using Painter or Photoshop to create their illustrations! Can’t wait to try it out.

    Your sharing is making all your readers’ art better! Thanks!

    Reply

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