Recreating an old Dutch masterpiece

Doug Armand · Post by **Doug Armand** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:43 am

I intend to use this thread to chart my attempts at recreating this painting by Wilhelm Kalf. This is mainly to force myself to become a better modeller in Blender.
Any comments or advice is most welcome as I progress, or bumble, along.

: ©Wilhelm Kalf 1619 –1693 :)

and my first attempt at trying to work out the lighting. I'm assuming he would have used some form of sky or window light in a small room or studio so I am trying a square emitter as the light source. Gonna need a lot more testing I reckon.

Hardest parts will be the little figurines holding up the horn and the lobster. Hmmm I may have to have a few lobster dinners just for some reference

Oh and as this is personal and just for fun it may take me a while to make progress......

CTZn · Post by **CTZn** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:19 am

Oh wow that's an awesome challenge Doug, I love the idea about the reference.

Mhm... century XVII ? XD

Soup · Post by **Soup** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 1:24 pm

That's a great idea Doug, I look forward to the results

zeitmeister · Post by **zeitmeister** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:55 pm

Fantastic idea, Doug!

Looking forward to this!

Doug Armand · Post by **Doug Armand** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:11 pm

OK I've made a proper start with the lighting. Using an light emitter didn't give what I wanted so I went back to using a Sky lamp and built a crude box with a hole cutout to act as studio with a skylight. This seems to be working better.

I have textured the table and am sort of happy with it. I copied the original table texture from the painting and extended it along the front and created a new one for the top that i thinks sort of works. Will be mostly covered anyway

All the props and textures are temporary placeholders whilst I tweak the lighting and scale. All except the wine glass. I consider that as a finished model - it might need some tweaking on the materials though - atm they are pretty basic. The wine material has no SSS so may add that later.

Anyway thats all for this update - tell me how you think its going so far?

: blender scene

: Full size render of wine glass

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 8:52 pm

Hi doug! this work of yours remember me of an italian user that some time ago posted a similar study: he was trying to recreate an old, very difficult oil by Caravaggio ("Saint Girolamo writing", don't know what's the english translation..). I am sad to say that his project had an unfortunate ending..
BTW! Your work seems really promising, judging from the only finished thing

The cup is really sick, the metal "bushes" are just perfect.
You know, the most difficult thing to represent, while doing this kind of work, is the light, according to me. The thing you have to bare in mind is that at those times there were no light umbrellas, no spotlights nor floodlights.. Only candles and sunlight! So in reproducing that, I'd consider simulating those specific conditions. Indeed, you realized it by yourself, abandoning the emitter..

The last thing is the background: in the final image it will need to be highly contrasted, almost black. That helps to focus on the real subject of the scene/painting. But it's a matter of postpro, I guess..

Great work! keep it up!

dakiru · Post by **dakiru** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:22 am

That's a real challenge with a nice start, Doug! Can't wait to see the final render(s) and the process. A masterpiece of a masterpiece

Doug Armand · Post by **Doug Armand** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 3:22 pm

Pibuz wrote:Hi doug! this work of yours remember me of an italian user that some time ago posted a similar study: he was trying to recreate an old, very difficult oil by Caravaggio ("Saint Girolamo writing", don't know what's the english translation..). I am sad to say that his project had an unfortunate ending..
BTW! Your work seems really promising, judging from the only finished thing The cup is really sick, the metal "bushes" are just perfect.
You know, the most difficult thing to represent, while doing this kind of work, is the light, according to me. The thing you have to bare in mind is that at those times there were no light umbrellas, no spotlights nor floodlights.. Only candles and sunlight! So in reproducing that, I'd consider simulating those specific conditions. Indeed, you realized it by yourself, abandoning the emitter..

The last thing is the background: in the final image it will need to be highly contrasted, almost black. That helps to focus on the real subject of the scene/painting. But it's a matter of postpro, I guess..

Great work! keep it up!

Thanks

What was the unfortunate ending? I'm intrigued, and worried, now...

I've worked on the background - like you say its an important part of the image.

I'm intending to do the whole image in Indigo only - NO Photoshop. I think using PSHop would be a bit of a copout as contrast, highlights etc can be tweaked easily in it.

I've also completed the silver tray that the wine glass is on. Used the sculpt tool in Blender to do all the curly bits - never used it before and its a damn fine tool. All those knobbly bits are real polygons - no fake bump maps!

Trying to match the lighting is a real pain - the shadows in the painting are softer than Indigos sun will give me and I am seeing some perspective issues that I think are the result of 'artistic licence' on behalf of the painter

anyway this is where I am atm. Bear in mind that all textures and objects are still really only placeholders as I need to get the lighting right first.

Post by **OnoSendai** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 8:56 pm

Fascinating project Doug. I'm looking forward to seeing more results.
I think the lobster by itself will be a tough challenge

Doug Armand · Post by **Doug Armand** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 8:59 pm

OnoSendai wrote:I think the lobster by itself will be a tough challenge

But that is the finished lobster - what wrong with it?

Headroom · Post by **Headroom** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 1:45 am

Hmmm..It looks more like you took some creative freedoms with a few chili peppers

dag · Post by **dag** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:42 am

I'ts a lobster phone. I want one.

djegoo · Post by **djegoo** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:38 am

Hey

This is an outstanding idea ! recreating a painting ! never thought of that ! really impatient to see the progress !!

PS : i want a lobsterphone too

Doug Armand · Post by **Doug Armand** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:18 pm

Thanks for the encouragement everyone - much appreciated.

Think Ono is right that the lobster will be one of the hardest parts so I've started to model it to get it out of the way

. Early days but this is the start of modelling the head or carapace.

: Box modelling the carapace in Blender

its in the very early stages. mainly trying to get overall shape first before I add any detail. I'm basically box modelling, well it really started as half a UV sphere!, it from a real lobster I have bought - and eaten

. Was also going to photograph the parts and use those for textures but they are really quite different from the one in the painting I think I may hand paint the textures instead.

This is how it looks so far in the painting setup.

CTZn · Post by **CTZn** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:52 am

It's taking shape bit by bit, nice Doug. Take care with the placements tho, the lobster body is entirely on the right hand of the painting.

Maybe the silver plate is too big, if you have got trouble placing it then maybe it's not circular but elliptical...

Recreating an old Dutch masterpiece

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