Making of Black Bashi - Bazoukby George Patsouras, USA



Introduction

In this tutorial, I will go about how I painted a Master Copy of Gerome Jean Leon’s “Black Bashi-Bazouk”. As an artist, I feel like I can learn a lot by doing studies of the works of Old Masters, especially in terms of color. It’s important to note that when you’re doing Master studies, you shouldn’t just mindlessly copy a painting; Put thought into what you’re doing - ask yourself why did this artist choose this color as opposed to another, and so forth.

Initial Sketch

Since we are doing a Master Copy, it’s essential we nail the proportions of the image we’re trying to recreate. To do this, I use a grid to get the proportions as accurate as possible. To do this, create a grid over the reference image. Then re open the file, fill the canvas with a fairly light gray color, and begin sketching box to box. Try to make it as accurate as possible, as this step is crucial. Depending on how you draw, you should get a fairly clean result. If not, lower the opacity of the sketch layer (around 40% should be good), create a new layer, and trace over it for a cleaner look. Here is my result:


Working in Values

Once that’s done, the next step should be to establish a strong value composition. Working in grayscale allows us to concentrate strictly on values, without worrying about colors.

In my opinion, a successful painting needs to have a good value composition. You can use any color scheme you want, but if the values aren’t working, the painting won’t be successful. The first thing we must do is go to Image > Mode > Grayscale. At this point, you should also have your grayscale slider turned on under the ‘colors’ menu (Window > Color). Do all your value work using this slider. Do not sample values from the reference, as you won’t learn anything from this, and could lead to an unwanted crutch as well.



Start off simple first - use relatively large brushes for the early stages to avoid getting caught up in details. Work in the darker values before making your way to the lighter ones. Make sure everything is treated with the same amount of detail at the early stages. Have the Size Jitter turned off under ‘Pen Pressure’ during the initial phase to avoid getting caught up in details. In other words, don’t overwork the face and keep the rest of the image loose, you’re just going to end up struggling at later stages.