Thursday, October 25, 2007

Peter Vischer The Elder



I haven't worked with watercolors much lately, so I've been experimenting a bit. This is a study based loosely on Peter Vischer the Elder's Self-Portrait made out of brass in 1510. I like his helmet.

Peter Vischer The Elder
6.5x12
watercolor

9 comments:

DAD said...

Bruce,his helmet seems to me ridiculous.;) But I think that he is close to the historical truth.
Your paper does not seem to me good quality for a watercolor.
Have mark you:"Arches" in USA?
It is necessary to take stronger grains of paper!
You know I am specialized in this domain...
(see "classical" rubric on my blog....)
Continue working as well....

Bruce said...

Dad: C'est un autre helmut ridicule juste pour vous, ha, ha ! Apparemment, il était un sculpteur et ceci a pu avoir été la taille de la mode pour lui. Par des "voûtes" voulez-vous dire archivistique ? Si oui, oui, nous avons cela et je dois en obtenir. Comme I dit avant, c'était juste un croquis et il a été fait sur la pression froide de Strathmore, 140 livres. (300 g/m2), tellement probablement pas le meilleur.

DAD said...

No, Bruce. Do not translate "Arches". It is a mark. You should not translate;)
As Cadillac or Renault or Ford or ....... Toyota!!!!^^

lol....
Fucking translator !

Anonymous said...

Bruce: It has been a long time since I have made any comments on your work. I just want to say I am sorry, and I miss it. I guess I have been too preoccupied. I will try harder. But! Your work just keeps getting better and better all the time. I love looking at it and (I hope you don't come after me) I use your "4 Prisoners" as a wallpaper on my puter. Keep up the good work!

Unkle Chuck

Bruce said...

Dad: Ha, vous avez raison au sujet de ce traducteur foutu ! Je pense que je sais de ce que vous parlez maintenant

Unkle Chuck: Yes, it has been awhile, so how have you been? And of course I don't mind that you are using one of my pieces! I'm glad that someone likes it and is getting some use out of it, lol.

singinghawk said...

LOL! Bruce! I see DAD has visited you! You might need a suit of armor yourself to withstand his sardonic sense of humor!

This is a good portrait...not your best, but I think that is mostly due to the medium. Watercolor is very difficult to use well. And although I think the drawing is good and I like the colors that you've used, I think there are areas where the watercolor is looking a little forced, for instance, the background. From my experience with watercolor, the flow of water is important. It is the difficulty of this medium to capture a natural movement of color flowing within water! I've never mastered it myself!

Kudos to you for challenging yourself with a difficult medium. Keep trying!

Bruce said...

Yeah Dad has left his mark here, he's quite a character that one.

This here watercolor one was a tricky one, but it was just a quick sketch that I thought was ok enough to show. I'm always torn between letting the water take the color or trying to tighten up the colors like I've seen others do so well and well, I usually get a muddy piece of crap. But, it's fun to try. Thanks for the honest feedback, Ana.

Anonymous said...

Hi Bruce!
Oh, when I saw this watercolor, the first thing I thought of was "helmet of foible"! :)

I really like the watercolor of Peter Vischer because of the simplicity. Overly detailed watercolors are not as appealing to me. I also like your use of color harmony on the figure. The background is the only weak aspect of it. I think that if you added some more of the warmth of the figure into the background it would be more powerful.


Your technique is good. I agree with Dad though in your use of watercolor paper. Arches watercolor paper is by far the best. When I was a student, the instructor insisted that I use this brand.

Bruce said...

Hey Anajo!
ha, ha, little did I suspect that I was creating another "foibled" helmet!

I really was trying to keep this simple, but maybe too simple with the background. I may go back and put some of the browns from the figure into the blues, but that might mud it up too much. I'll tinker.

If I'm to continue with the watercolors, I'll definitely get some Arches watercolor paper. thanks for the link.