How to Paint a Modern Conquistador

This is someone I know posing as Francisco Pizarro, who conquered the Incas in Peru in the 16th century. Everything but the face is copied from a painting of Pizarro by Amable-Paul Coutan. 16" x 20" oil on canvas board.

How to Paint Like Caravaggio, Part II

This is the second post about Caravaggio and I've lost track of how many times I've painted in his style. In the other post I reproduced Youth With Ram and David With Head of Goliath. This time I painted my usual model as Boy With a Basket of Fruit; not copying the original but painting to look similar to it.

Cupid Painting Reproduction, Detail of Titian's Sacred and Profane Love

Cupid oil painting reproduction, detail of Sacred and Profane Love by Titian. 6”x6” canvas board.

How to Paint Like Michelangelo, Creation of Adam

Technically, to paint the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo Buonarroti you'd have to paint with tempera paints onto wet plaster. If this plaster is part of a ceiling, as is the case of the Sistene Chapel, you'd paint it much larger than life so the people 70 feet below could see it without squinting. My reproduction painting is done in oil paints on a small piece of canvas sheet measuring about 5 inches by 8 inches, meaning you still might need to squint if it was right in front of you, and I didn't really paint like Michelangelo painted. But I still liked to reproduce the famous fresco in my own way.

Van Gogh Reproductions: Starry Night and Sunflowers

I did two painting reproductions in one session: one of Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers (8x10" canvas sheet, 1.5 hours), and van Gogh's famous Starry Night (8x10" canvas board, 1 hour speed painting).

This is the first time I painted van Gogh sunflowers. One of his sunflower paintings is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It is an impressively large canvas that catches your eye as soon as you walk into the room with its vivid colors, stark contrasts, complementary colors, and the thick impasto forming all the parts of the flowers that jut out toward you. The first time I reproduced the Starry Night was on a 16 by 20 canvas for my sister, this little one is for me. I could have perfected the details and added more of his signature brushstrokes but the goal was to finish it in one hour.

A Friend as a Frans Hals Portrait

This is my friend Steve as a Frans Hals portrait. There are many smiling Hals portraits in this exact pose but the one I was inspired by was a portrait of Pieter Van den Broecke. I've painted Hals paintings before, most recently a friend as Malle Babbe.

How to Paint the Mona Lisa

This is my friend Anika as Mona Lisa, painted on an 8" by 10" canvas, a size I've been using for most of my portraits. I can't say I've copied the techniques used to paint Lisa as there is no sfumato smile or glazed subtlety like in Leonardo's original, but I have been using under-paintings more, which is something they did in the Renaissance. This is the third time I've copied Leonardo da Vinci works, the first being a Last Supper from a decade ago, and the second being a tiny Lady With an Ermine.

American Gothic, or How to Paint Like Grant Wood

This is my version of American Gothic by Grant Wood, a tried and true subject of imitation and parody since 1930.