03-10-2009, 08:42 PM
Working on my painter's impression, the first real project I tackled was my very own Severan Tondo, which I wanted to paint after the original allegedly in the Berlin Museum of Antiquities (I even managed to visit the museum and questioned every single guard and clerk with a postcard I bought at its very own shop, but they denied knowing anything about it). Here's the Wiki entry for it, anyway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severan_Tondo
Before I went to put color on wood, I took what I had as "originals" - several scans and pics from the net - and looked for traces of anything not visible on first sight, torturing the pics with what contrast and sharpen filters photoshop could muster. Then I aquired a wooden disk of roughly a roman foot in diameter, scrubbed it with brimstone and washed it carefully with gypsum-diluted water. The outlines I drew with red chalk - careful not to apply too much pigment but rather leave colored scratches in the surface. Then the good old hour-long procedure of mixing and remixing the colors with egg white, linseed oil and natural pigments began (the powdered ones by Claré, mainly ochre, siena, green earth, pozzuoli red - as I don't want to die of lead poisoning I chose off-the-peg gouache white for white).
After that, it was fairly easy, painting from light to dark layers with some white accents added at last. Obviously, the antique artist focused on the eyes and primarily on Septimius; as I did not want to "copy" the picture but wanted to do it my-way-had-I-had-it-then, I gave a bit more attention to Iulia Domna's eyes and, of course, did not scratch off Geta after I finished.
Of course, there are some details I missed when I compared my Tondo again with the pics of the one in Berlin. Septimius has a third layer of laurel on his head, there are lots more of white streaks on the dark elements of clothing indicating light reflections on silk or something, and the parents' heads are way larger, almost filling the upper half of the Tondo completely.
But anyway, it's the first picture I made, and I want to share it with you.
Before I went to put color on wood, I took what I had as "originals" - several scans and pics from the net - and looked for traces of anything not visible on first sight, torturing the pics with what contrast and sharpen filters photoshop could muster. Then I aquired a wooden disk of roughly a roman foot in diameter, scrubbed it with brimstone and washed it carefully with gypsum-diluted water. The outlines I drew with red chalk - careful not to apply too much pigment but rather leave colored scratches in the surface. Then the good old hour-long procedure of mixing and remixing the colors with egg white, linseed oil and natural pigments began (the powdered ones by Claré, mainly ochre, siena, green earth, pozzuoli red - as I don't want to die of lead poisoning I chose off-the-peg gouache white for white).
After that, it was fairly easy, painting from light to dark layers with some white accents added at last. Obviously, the antique artist focused on the eyes and primarily on Septimius; as I did not want to "copy" the picture but wanted to do it my-way-had-I-had-it-then, I gave a bit more attention to Iulia Domna's eyes and, of course, did not scratch off Geta after I finished.
Of course, there are some details I missed when I compared my Tondo again with the pics of the one in Berlin. Septimius has a third layer of laurel on his head, there are lots more of white streaks on the dark elements of clothing indicating light reflections on silk or something, and the parents' heads are way larger, almost filling the upper half of the Tondo completely.
But anyway, it's the first picture I made, and I want to share it with you.
Tertius Mummius
(Jan Hochbruck)
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.flavii.de">www.flavii.de
(Jan Hochbruck)
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.flavii.de">www.flavii.de