The Art of Copying

For the bulk of one of my workshops "17th, 18th and 19th Century Painting Methods", I'm doing a copy of Dali's Christ of Saint John of the Cross. From the 6 pieces I could choose from, this one had the most anatomy.  Here's posting a work in progress.  Can't wait for the new week to begin so I can continue with this piece.  :)

Getting the sketch down with burnt umber on the Campitura. I chose to use the grid-method as oppose to the tracing method. 

Blocking off the entire dark area with a dead black. Already, the painting begins to pop right of the canvas.

After working on the bottom scene a little, I started to adjust the anatomy of the figure as accurately as possible.