Studying Rubens: Painting Flesh with old master painting techniques

I've always admired Old Master painting techniques and especially the way Rubens' was able to move around paint to imitate flesh with light falling on it as well as his ability to paint flesh shifting from warm areas to cool then back to warm. I thought this portrait a good one to copy as an exercise in painting these kind of flesh tones. I tried to use Rubens' materials as closely as I could but at times I had to make some substitutes for safety and price.

TOOLS:

1. Easel

2. Palette

3. 1 Palette knife

4. Palette Dipper

5. Hog's hair brushes 

6. Soft Sable brushes - I used soft synthetic brushes which seemed to have a similar effect.

For information on a basic oil painting kit, see my blog post on Oil Painting Materials to get you Started.

MATERIALS:

1. Turpentine (Sansodor is an odourless equivalent)

2. Canvas

3. Linseed oil

3. Oil Paints  a) Lead white (I replaced this with 'zinc white' for safety) b) Lead-tin Yellow (I replaced with with a less expensive cadmium yellow) c) Rose Madder d) Vermilion e) Red Ochre  f) Ultramarine Blue g) Cobalt oxide (I replaced with with Viridian Green) h) Burnt Sienna I) Raw Umber J) Ivory Black

STUDIO REQUIREMENTS:

Ideally a studio with a north facing window to allow the sunlight to be constant with no changing direct sun beaming into the room (with the first few photos I only had a very warm indoor light and no natural light).

PROCEDURE:

1) I started by applying a ground (a layer of paint mixed with a palette knife on the palette and applied to the canvas with a large hog's hair brush) of mixed white and raw umber over a medium weave linen canvas with a layer of gesso. This slightly warm grey ground is something I've seen in some of Rubens' and Van Dyck's unfinished works. Forgive the photo quality, I painted this while I was locked down in Italy in a flat with poor lighting. Blog posts to come on how to light you studio!

2) I then used some ivory black and burnt sienna thinned down with Sansodor with a soft synthetic round brush number 5 to begin drawing the outline of the hair, collar and facial features. I also applied some zinc white directly from the tue with a hog's hair brush. If you're wondering how I decided where to place my lines, or in other words how I measured, I used the sight size method outlined in my blog post 'Drawing from a 2d reference'.

3) While continuing to draw out some of the darker parts of the hair, I scrubbed in with the ivory black and burnt sienna mix the shadowed part of the face and the large collar. I then scrubbed in some burnt sienna with a hog's hair brush into the face and neck, over which I mixed some zinc white with burnt sienna on the palette and painted into the scrubbed in burnt sienna on the neck. I applied some areas of mid toned cadmium yellow, zinc white and a small amount of burnt sienna to the hair. After this stage was completed I left it to dry for around 4 days. 

4) Once dry, I proceeded to mix on the palette some zinc white and burnt sienna and apply with a hog's hair brush over the scrubbed in burnt sienna face to begin to model the light laying on the face. I mixed some rose madder, vermillion and zinc white with a different hog's hair brush and applied this mix to the cheeks, then with the same brush I added more vermilion to the mix for lower lip and applied that. With a different brush I mixed some zinc white and cadmium yellow to begin to apply highlights to the hair to show form. After this I left it to dry for 2 days.

5) I now had a good base of the flesh upon which to model more subtle planes. I added more form to the hair by thinning ivory black and burnt sienna with a mixture of 3 parts sansodor to 1 part linseed oil. I mixed zinc white and cadmium yellow and some burnt sienna and applied it to most of the face in light to make it appear more solid. I applied a 3 parts sansodor 1 part linseed oil thinned burnt sienna and ivory lack to the shadowed area of the hair on the right and the shadowed area around the mouth.

6) I pushed the background away a little by applying a 3 parts sansodor to 1 part linseed oil thinned ivory black and ultramarine blue behind her head and under her ruff. At this point I started to work into cool tones on the face around the forehead area as the light goes to shade, around her left eye and around the nose and chin with a mixture of zinc white and viridian green.

7) I continued adding layers of zinc white and red ochre and cadmium yellow to the warm parts of flesh, vermilion and zinc white to cheeks and lips and viridian green and zinc white to areas of cool.

8) Until this stage of completion. I will leave it at this stage until I get a chance to visit and compare my copy with the original in the Lichtenstein Museum.

Copying a Rubens portrait was both humbling and instructive. What I found surprising when copying this picture was how warm he makes the shadows, and how cool he makes some of the flesh in light.

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