The Premise
This college art project pays homage to Henri Matisse, renowned artist of the Fauvism art movement. This mimics "Woman with a Hat" by Henri Matisse.
The Process
I obtained the original dimensions of the work and derived the dimensional ratio to apply it to proportional frames. After applying gesso to the wooden frame that arrived from the woodshop, I drew an outline of the painting. The reference image was imported into Adobe Photoshop where I used the color picker to assemble my color palette. The color palette was printed out and acrylic color mixing to match the printed swatches commenced.
The mixtures were put into small airtight capsules that could be scooped out later with a palette knife (never underestimate how much paint you'll need, or else you may have to mix another batch--hopefully the color recipe remains intact somewhere).
Large regions of color were covered with heavy wet brush strokes while smaller regions with merging colors used light dry brush strokes (allows strokes to be partially opaque). Given the disparity between acrylic paint and oil based paints, canvas color mixing required more finesse. Acrylic paints cure significantly faster than oil paints, so time was of the essence.
After multiple color revisions and the imminent project deadline approaching, I submitted the project.
Nathaniel Yannikos. Man with a Woman's Hat. 2019. Wood with Acrylic Paint. 24" X 32" X 1/2"
