Jun 21 2008
Watercolor Practice: Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
“Vivaldi had a medical problem that he called the tightening of the chest (probably some form of asthma). His medical problem, however, did not prevent him from learning to play the violin, composing, or taking part in many musical activities. However, he could not play wind instruments due to his lack of breath. At the age of 15 (1693), he began studying to become a priest. In 1703, at the age of 25, Vivaldi was ordained a priest and was soon nicknamed il Prete Rosso, “The Red Priest“, probably because of his red hair.”
(Source: Wikipedia)
So, for today watercolor practice, I decided to do that: Vivaldi, il Prete Rosso – I was not sure if I was going to draw him with a wig, or with the natural red hair, but here was the initial quick sketch:
Meh. Not really great. Slightly stiff, but I decided to try and color it anyway. Here was the result:
Then, I realized I should have done a better sketch. The shadow balance is not right, the pose is too awkward and the bow doesn’t have enough highlight. ButI sort of liked the color scheme. So, I think that probably tomorrow, Vivaldi will be redone in a new drawing, and I will try to do a new watercolor of the Red Priest.
Here is the new initial sketch, this time, with a Vivaldi more concentrated on his playing, a more dynamic composition than the boring initial one:
I think I like this one. Let’s see tomorrow how it ends up as a colored version.
The Watercolor Practice: Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741) by Roberto Macedo Alves, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Portugal License.