Not having kissing shapes adds more visual clarity, which is always a good thing.Ĭan you tell the subtle difference between the two examples? Can you see more visual clarity in the redesigned shapes on the right?Ģ. It’s understandable to get a few kissing shapes when working fast and not wanting to ruin the spontaneity of the brushstrokes (see #585 & #586), but avoid them when you can. In the comparison below, you can see Van Gogh’s kissing shapes, then the master copy where they were corrected. When wanting to accurately copy a painting while also making adjustments takes some patience and knowledge of design. It was mostly difficult because there are tons of shapes to organize.Įach petal, sunflower, and stem is a shape, which means things can become very complex. I spent a lot of extra time as to not create kissing edges (see Day 48) or bad overlaps (see #564). The first difference between the paintings you may not have noticed. Organizing this many shapes is difficult. The composition is similar, but things have been refined just to be linear with what is taught on this site.ġ. Van Gogh’s may have been this bright in his time (1888), but over the years it has aged.

You can see how the colors are similar, but much brighter. Here’s a comparison of the original Sunflowers painting by Van Gogh and my master copy. Now that you’ve seen the beginning process of the master copy, let’s get into the 12 things that were discovered as it was made. A projector was used to transfer the drawing to the canvas (left) (see #662), then oil paints were used to finish the color (right). Here are a couple of behind the scenes photos of the transfer and painting process. Notice how things are locking in and paralleling nicely. We can see the 4/3 MAD grid overlaid here, which was also used in the original Sunflowers painting by Van Gogh. Of course, dynamic symmetry always plays its part to help organize the composition and promote design techniques.

The final rendered drawing can be seen on the right. You can see some of the early design process below-left, like the arabesques (see Day 17), triangular enclosure (see Day 32), and ellipses (see Day 34). Van Gogh’s design process was also something I wanted to learn about, so I analyzed his Sunflowers painting (see #669), then recreated the techniques in a drawing. The original by Van Gogh is only about half that size (36×28 inches). You can see how big it is in the photo below (48×36 inches). It was finished in November, 2021, and given to my amazing mom for Christmas. A master copy is different than a master copy remake (see #583), because you’re trying to replicate it rather than infuse your own style and change the subject matter. I wanted to learn more about Van Gogh’s colors and brushwork, and “ Sunflowers” looked like it could provide these lessons. A great way to do that is to create a master copy (see #382), so that’s what I did.

We have to dig deep and discover what we can on our own. There’s a lot master painters can teach us, but unfortunately they’re not here to guide us through the process.

Master copyclip