Week 5: Vase of Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem

Hello,

I just completed week five this Tuesday and feel the progress is just humming along. This week when I arrived to the gallery the easel was missing so I had to call and request it to be delivered. While waiting I worked out a game plan for the day.

The cabbage leaf above the carnation and pea pods was the next big thing to tackle because it is so large and determines the location for its neighboring flowers.

{status at the beginning of the day}

{detail of what was completed by the end of the day}

I mainly focused on the details of the leaf, only basically blocking in the value shapes of the roses. Next week I will start to refine them some and begin to block in other flowers, like the morning glory that I covered up as the day went by.

{status of the entire painting}

A few weeks ago when I decided to break up the painting into bite sized chunks I began centrally with the glass vase and later moved down to the table and to the left. So far I like this direction and plan on working through the painting in a somewhat clockwise manner. This will leave the red tulip on lower the right {which is now a red mass} to the end. I think the red tulip may be the most difficult flower on this painting, second to the white fluffy tulip on the top and having a lot of practice time learning to work out the minute details of this painting will be in my favor.

Below is the original painting to see how much more ther is to go... While at the museum a docent came up and asked me how long it will take me till I am finished with the copy, I replied somewhere between 30-36 weeks. I hope that is all as I would like to start another painting before my year anniversary of being a copyist :)

{The original painting}

Jan Davidsz de Heem

Dutch, 1606 - 1683/1684

Vase of Flowers, c. 1660