Artist copy process update

Over the last few weeks, I have been working on an artist copy of "An Angel" by Bartolomeo Passarotti. Let's just say it has been incredibly frustrating and has led me to question my art abilities. There have been many issues, but among them are the following highlights:

• Issues with materials - due to the nature of inks and their respective pens, there are all sorts of struggles with flow, bleeding, and even the color of the ink itself. Much of this has been remedied through trial and error and a nice little trip to OfficeMax, but issues with the medium were an omen for what was to come. To anyone who wishes to try their hand at Passarotti's brown ink, here's the mixture I found works pretty well: 1 mL of water, 8 drops of Higgins brown ink, and just a touch of Higgins black ink (wipe off the ink on the lid's pipette on the edge of the vial and then gently tap the pipette against the brown ink. do NOT squeeze out a full drop, it will look black.)

• Scaling - Passarotti's original work was about 17" x 10," so scaling that up to a full-sized sheet of paper about a third of my height messed with line weight and length. I really struggled to capture his fast, sketchy lines on a large scale, for if I went too slow, the line would be shaky, but if I went too fast, I would not get the correct angle.

• FRUSTRATION !!! The worst emotion I could possibly feel. Worse than overwhelming sadness, frustration is terrible. Not only does it feel like I a

  m being kicked in the stomach, it also exacerbates the above issues.

Overall, however, I must say that despite it all, I am glad I chose Passarotti because he forced me to learn how to work with inks. I may not be stellar at it by any metric, but it's good to have this skill. Good luck to me on my upcoming portrait, and good luck to all on their future projects! :)