N.C. Wyeth Master-Study - My Journey for Art Mastery

Greetings denizens of mavelous kingdom of steemia!

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It has been a little while since I last posted, and for my return I wanted to share a piece that marked my real begining with serious study of the craft.

Here is my value based master-study of N.C. Wyeth's "The Giant"

For those of you that are new to art, or are unfamiliar with the terms "master-study" or "master-copy", sit back and relax as I take you down the studious corners of the artistic tradition.

Throughout the years of art, there have been few who have claimed the title "Master" or "Old Master". These masters of art, are akin to greek gods to many artists, their unrelenting devotion to their craft, and unique vision have left such an impact that they transform the medium forever.

These artists stand as tests of time to all those who question their ability in the modern age. They relied only upon themselves, and cultivated their skills slowly through time. No google for reference images, no infinite level of artistic knowledge provided to us through the internet. Just the artist, their pencil, their pad, and canvas.

Which in todays age, is positively mindblowing.

Now master-studys, are where a student focuses on recreating a painting or drawing an old master once accomplished. It allows the artist to learn from these timeless sages of art, each stroke, intentional, telling a story, and the studious and clever student can decipher their wisdom through careful of analysis. This is one of the best exercises for a growing artist, as you can begin to pickup on, and understand how these old masters solved complex visual problems.

Here are the two side by side, both greyscale, to get an idea of how much I worked to understand how he was rendering his forms. At the time, (~2014) I had no real painting experience, and this piece taught me almost all of my rendering knowledge, and use of value.

Here is the completed painting by Wyeth, full color. Isn't it wonderful? His use of value underlying all of this, mixed with his incredible understanding of color, and his iconic composition. This painting gives me chills to this day, it brings me back to my childhood, where wonder lay around every corner.

I hope you all enjoyed my breakdown of master studies, and my attempt at replicating the marvelous work of the legend N.C. Wyeth.

Thank you all, and if you enjoy my work, please feel free to support me through following me here on steemit, as well as tumblr, twitter, and instagram.

Ill see you where the roads meet