Rembrandt with Rags

"Rembrandt" oil rag reduction by Judy Burgarella

Well, it's been some time since I uploaded any artwork, and there has been some things done, but this one is interesting.  It was a brief demonstration (45 minutes) at the Sebastian River Art Club (Sebastian, FL) February 21st, 2013, and was the first time I tried this.  I let the class pick which picture I would try out and they picked a Rembrandt.  Trouble was, there were two self-portraits in that book which was opened to facing pages of his image, and I kept going back and forth by mistake, so this one is truly original.

How I did it: 
First I squeezed directly onto the canvas from the tubes, sap green and alizarin crimson, placing globs here and there.
Then with a big brush I scumbled a thick layer all over the canvas, mixing the two together to make a rich, dark brown - almost a black.
Immediately I took a rag (T-shirt material), wrapped it around my index finger and began wiping the light spots out, lightly at first, then heavier when I was confident the wiping was in the right place.
Using a Q-tip, I pulled the lightest spots out, and pulled lightly some detail not possible with the finger.
With cadmium red I added light under his chin, nose and bottom of the ear, and scumbled a bit lightly wherever it was too green.
Used alizarin on lips
With the Q-tip I pulled detail out of the eye, and lightly painted a gray-white for the white of the eye.
Painted the iris with ultramarine blue, the pupil with prussian blue, and pulled out the glow in the bottom of the eye and replaced it with a little lavender at the 5:00 o'clock position.
Put a crisp glisten on the eye at the 10:00 o'clock position.

It was such fun, and certainly immediate gratification.  My students loved the demo and will probably try it themselves.

Hope to have time to post more soon.  In the meantime, PLEASE VISIT MY BOOTH #44 THIS FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, MARCH 8-9-10 AT UNDER THE OAKS FINE ART AND CRAFTS SHOW.  Over 200 of the finest artists in the USA and beyond.  Proud to be a part of it.  And be sure to fill out a raffle ticket - I'll be painting still life's on palettes all weekend and several people will be lucky winners of this free raffle.

Judy Burgarella
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