FINISHED-Oil Painting “Novak Djokovic on Alps”

Roland Garros French Open, a major (grand slam) tennis tournament…

Novak Djokovic, Serbian, NO1 tennis player and from “the greatest” white sport tournaments misses only Roland Garros.

Knowing that I’ve decided to paint Novak Djokovic in a combination with a painting by a great French old master Jacques Louis David “Napoleon on Alps” (with some modifications of Malmaison version)

Size: 120x100cm (47.2″x39.4″)

Oil on Stretched Canvas

Before we star with a descriptions… idea to finish painting was “simple” (Drawing, Burnt umber, Umber 2, Nole in neutral layer, color layer/layers)… Or to combine approaches of painting, and it took hours and hours to do that on that scale of canvas and a lot of energy and patience…

It is not only important to have nice and creative idea, and to see finished painting, it is also important to know how to accomplish it… step by step! With a years of practice you gain also a estimated time!

Deadline to finish painting was a finale of Roland Garros! Unfortunately he haven’t won it that year or the next one, or the next one… He won it 2016

1. Drawing with a red chalk on canvas

… as you can see… basic drawing, with a red chalk… sometimes I fix it, not this time knowing in a net layer chalk will partially vanish in a touch with a turpentine and mix it with a next phase.

2. Burnt Umber Layer

one of the painting masters said “complete each layer with idea not to correct mistakes in next layer”… When you know what is next layer, with its abilities and disabilities, you know what you can “miss”

3. Adding imprimatura layer with partially wipe out some areas…

4. Novak as the most important part of the painting in a “neutral layer”

I’ve took a photo of Novak’s head, print it and did it…

… and the head…

5. Now was a time to add some colors… from “top to bottom”… so sky was the first

6. As some of Venetian masters… I’ve added some white to umber layer…

7. Did some research more on Google and realized there are different color versions of the very same painting… that photo I had from the magazine has a sky that is more purple than blue… so I’ve changed it.

Unfortunately I’ve never saw original painting and what we see than depends on color correction of the painting and even color setting of our computer screen!