Saturday, December 13, 2008

What Not to Do in First Painting

-- use small brushes and blend...
This week I worked on the eye, the forehead and the crown. I was criticized for doing too much blending on the forehead as if I were finishing it. This is something that has to be done anyway in the second painting stage so it's considered a waste of time during first painting. Juan also said my paint layers appear too thin (another danger of blending)... and so he recommended this preferred method:
1. Paint with a larger brush (1/4 inch?) and use differents of it, not just the flat side.
2. Use quick strokes and lay down square panes or blocks of colour without blending into previous squares (although this will be inevitable when painting wet on wet).
If done correctly, the painting looks blended and finished from a distance but choppy when viewed up close...
3. Then in second painting, work up close, blending with smaller brushes for detailed work.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Eye Eye

I worked Monday night on the brow and did a quick pass at the eye. Man, this guy is starting to look mean... Dave and Marco at the school gave some good advice worth writing down and committing to memory: all edges inside the shadows should be kept soft; if necessary, add some French Ultramarine to blue the darkest shadows but Ivory Black and Burnt Umber should be enough to make them purple; work out from the eye, which is the anchor; concentrate on value first, colour second; any colour changes must be made and finalized before second painting, which is really about blending; and stand a long way back to see colour patterns and their relationships.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Now on to First Painting

The picture's becoming a bit clearer now. In this photo, the camera has obscured the range of values in the actual statue.... I finished big form modelling in the lights and am now turning my attention to the shadow shapes, trying to warm them up (and make them less green) and to define the range of values in them. The eye, for example, still needs to be defined.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Working on the skin colour and the cloth...

I think my camera is lying (or is it my laptop) vis-a-vis colours. I worked hard this week on the flesh colour under the neck (left side) and also on a patch of the cloth below the base... In this picture, they don't look they way I see them in nature here.... Still some adjustments to do on the tones and the modelling, but I'll be an optimist and say every session is setting up the next stage of the painting, especially as I get into more and more of the smaller spaces and details...




Sunday, November 30, 2008

Big form modelling continuing in the lights

In this session, I worked more in the lights, particularly around the base of the statue and in the hair. I will need to return to the shadows and get the right colour. Currently, it's too green there and not brown enough (add more burnt ochre). Also be aware of yellow highlights in the white...

Work progresses on Hermes

This past week, I've been concentrating on the shadows -- the cast shadow (now more solid), the edge of the cheek and forehead, and the contained shadow on the shoulder (better shape). The hair in the shadows still needs to be modelled and darkened to give a better sense of turning away from the light. But I'll be working next on the lights in the neck and probably the cloth under the base (darkening it)...


Tuesday, November 25, 2008

While the paint dries, modelling another section

A few days earlier, I applied pure white to some areas of the canvas untouched by paint yet (primarily hair)... So for this session, I worked on the left hand side under the neck, on the part that curves upwards... I'm please with the results for this first go.


Saturday, November 22, 2008

Big Form Modelling Phase

The past two weeks, I've concentrated on starting some big form modelling in the whites, and refining some shapes while I'm at it... On the head, there are four areas in the lights that I'm defining: the forehead/cheeks, the beard, the hair, and hte neck. I've just started on the face/beard. There's still some ways to go but the forms are beginning to take shape. In real life (not this photo), the face values are in fact darker than the top of the beard or the hair, so I'm keeping that in mind.


Sunday, November 9, 2008

4 values, almost

Here's the painting as I left it on Saturday: I nearly have the four basic "values" in place: background and table, cast shadows, contained shadows on the statue and the white of the statue. I made adjustments to the shadow shapes and profiles on the face but see that I still need to shorten the corner of the mouth...

I also need to adjust the colour of the contained shadows: the shadows are warm (on the brown side) because of reflections from the floor. I made them too green (cool) on my first pass.

Once these corrections have been done, I will be checking shapes once last time before moving onto big form modelling in the lights.


Thursday, November 6, 2008

I'm getting the hang of the background green now... The secret I found was to mix ivory black and yellow ochre pale first to get the right balance of green, and then apply white to lighten it. I kept burnt umber and raw umber out of it (for now). Next, I'll apply one value for the contained shadows.



Sunday, November 2, 2008

Making Green

I finished the dry brush drawing on Saturday and laid down the first background colour. The plan is to put down the background wall, then the cast shadow, the table (all sides) and the the contained shadows (one colour -- using the mid-tone value under the neck, not the eye).

What makes green -- ivory black, yellow ochre pale, burnt umber, a bit of raw umber, and white. My result came out one value too dark and also too grey -- not enough yellow ochre to give it the green needed... Oh well, this is a first coat only.















Things to remember for next time: bring a fan brush to smooth out the background strokes (mine is gone!)... the line of the mouth is too long (especially the corner).

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Hermes -- First Painting Continues

I'm still working on the "first painting" stage, concentrating now mostly in the shadows on the right side of the head... The head looks too large at the moment and not angled correctly -- this should be fixed by: correcting the line of the left cheek, defining the the hair line/ear better, and by articulating the rivulets in the hair and on the contour.

My camera distorts -- the canvas is brighter than it seems here, although I haven't added my yellow ochre to the whites yet so it does seem on the white side... I'll try using a tripod next time. My easel is also a foot closer to the camera than the statue, which adds further distortion I find.


Patroclus Copy in Progress

Jacques Louis David created this life painting while a 15 year old student! I've made a copy as a drawing, and have since transferred it to watercolour paper for a quick study (below). The values are hard to replicate in watercolour paints. I will eventually do a full study of this painting in oils on linen, starting in a couple of weeks.

Second Cast Painting -- Dry Brush Stage

Two years ago, I drew a cartoon of this cast for a charcoal cast drawing (bottom of photo). I've returned to it for a second cast painting. I transferred the drawing to linen that had already been given a ground of gesso. The easel used to be on the left, but now it's on the right. This has created some changes in shadows and shapes, even though the light is similar and the statue at the same level and position as before. So I find myself redrawing the image in dry brush, taking longer than I'd hoped.

The source of the sculpture is unclear. I've heard it called both Moses and the Gaul (from l'arc de triomphe in Paris)...

Sunday, August 10, 2008

DONE: Belvedere Torso in Red Chalk

While on vacation two weeks ago, during a long spell of lousy north Ontario weather, I finally sat down and finished the Belvedere Torso I started last Christmas and worked on in Mexico. Red chalk is a pleasure to work in. I quickly rendered the neck and base in a day. The photo doesn't pick up the red and orange tinting of the watercolour paper, for some reason...

More works nearing completion will be illustrated here by the end of the summer!


Thursday, July 17, 2008

A new layout for the Hermes painting

I've draped a maroon clothe around the side and base of the Hermes caste to provide more balance with the cast shadow, a deeper contrast along the lit side of the face, and some diagonals... Below is the new design, cropped in the exact ratio width/height of my canvas. I'm still applying local colour to the new background and will upload an image of the Hermes painting soon.

Juliano is finished 20080628

The monochrome of Juliano is now complete and drying in my studio. In six months time, I'll learn the art of varnishing!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Silverpoint: Da Vinci's study for Lena

I've started a silverpoint copy of Da Vinci's Lena drawing. The original has bad watermarks that obscure the woman's cheek, making it difficult for me to see how the form turns. I'm slowly building up the values and hope to achieve a better sense of turning. Still very faint at the moment.


Second and first painting of Juliano

I'm working hard to finish Juliano by the end of June. At this time, I have only applied a "second painting" layer to the forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, and both sides of the face. This week, I've been concentrating on "edges", and going back to "first painting" (direct pigment, no oil) in different places where second painting would not work. I softened the edges of the hair so they disappear into the background, making the foreground curls jump forward.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Couches and Second Painting

I picked up a new second painting expression this week: Laying a Couch. As I understand it, this means applying the tinted oil/spirits mix over the area of the painting you intend to cover on top of the first painting.

I tried this out on the area above the statue's right eyelid. I put down two couches, one for the brow in the light, and one for the brow's contained shadows. I painted over the light one first to the edges of the shadows and to the place where the brow meets the forehead. I did my best to keep the edges soft and to blend where appropriate. I still need to do the upper eyelid before I move over to the other eye. In the close up, you can compare the differences between the first painting of the sculptures left eye and the near complete second painting of the right eye (which is much smoother)...

I took a break from Juliano Saturday to open up the cottage. While there, I worked on the charcoal drawing of John and the silverpoint copy of Da Vinci's Lena.



Sunday, April 13, 2008

Fat over Lean or from Lean to Fat

This week I redid the background to show a gradient from dark to light by one value (it doesn't show in the photo below though). Fernando used the painting for a school demo on the "second painting" process and begin working on a small area: the lower lid of the left eye.

Some important principles:
  • We've been working from lean to fat. Lean at one extreme is pigment thinned with a solvent like mineral spirits. Fat at the other extreme is pure oil, no pigment. In the middle is the "meat of the sandwich" -- the pure pigment of first painting.
  • We want "fat over lean" so that a foundation exists before applying the oil. Thin pigment painting over oil will crack and oil takes so long to dry.
  • In second painting, you begin "thin" and work towards "fat". Thin means 1 part linseed oil, 2 parts mineral spirits. Then when you do another layer, you reduce the reduce the mineral spirits (equal parts)... And finally you mix 2 parts oil, 1 part spirits.
  • The Stand oil (thicker than linseed) can be used for the shadows. It dries quicker.

The technique:

  • Mix the medium in a cap (e.g., 6 drops to 12 drops)
  • Put some on the pallete and tint it the value of the lightest value in the area selected for second painting.
  • Apply it as a glaze over the area.
  • The "second paint" the area with pure pigment, blending as necessary.
  • Let it dry before going back.

Below: Juliano as completed first painting, ready for second painting.




Starting the Dry Brush for Hermes

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been busy making preparations for Hermes. After the cartoon was finished, I coated 2 available stretched canvases (one actually canvas and the other linen) with 3 coats of Golden Ground & Gesso and sanded after the last coat with 600 wet/dry silicon carbide sandpaper. I decided to work with the canvas because it's slightly wider than the linen, at 20X24 instead of 18X24.

The next step was to transfer the cartoon onto the canvas. I tried putting a sheet of carbon paper underneath the cartoon but the carbon wasn't transferring well and I feared slashing the canvas with the pencil tip if I pressed too hard... So then I resorted to the old fashioned way:
I made a tracing of the cartoon on mylar paper. Then I used a push pin to retrace Hermes on the mylar paper, poking holes large enough so that grains of charcoal would fall through. Once I place the mylar paper over the canvas, I brushed charcoal dust over it to transfer the drawing to the canvas.

The advantages:
-- I still have the original drawing that I can reuse
-- In the later stages of the painting, if I feel I've lost the "drawing", I can place the mylar paper over top again and see how the painting compares with the lines and shapes from the original drawing.

Then came the dry brush. I thinned out Raw Umber and followed the transferred drawing.

Shown below: the canvas with the transferred drawing, gone over roughly dry brush; and below it the completed cartoon and the mylar coated in charcoal.

Now that this is done, I will be able to paint in the "dead colour" --the background, cast shadows, contained shadows -- before beginning big form modelling in the first painting.


Saturday, March 22, 2008

Juliano: chin and neck tuck

Small spaces are harder in many ways than the larger ones. I recently reworked the chin and neck, and have continued building up the smaller areas of hair in the left, both in and out of the light.


Hermes and his Goulish Cartoon

Over the winter in my home studio, I've been working on Hermes, on loan from a friend. I recently finished his cartoon and happened to capture the daytime shadows on his face at noon. In the photo below, taken early on the morning of Sat Mar 22, the shadows have not yet moved into the place where I've fixed them... He looks goulish in the drawing, but the anatomy is basically right. I will be transferring him to good paper and to linen canvas soon. On the canvas, I'll do a quick drybrush in raw umber to bring out the correct values again. Hermes has been patient.

Monday, March 17, 2008

More hair, less vegetable oil

I've been concentrating on the left side of the head, trying to take the hair up to the same level of "first painting" as the forehead. The construct of the hair also needed to be trimmed to make the shapes smaller on the left... Fernando noticed the open jar of vegetable oil I had on my stand. I had been using it to wipe brushes clean before switching to another value -- but this was putting the oil on the canvas! The vegetable oil should only be used when ending the session, and be rinsed out of the brushes with soap and water.



I'm also trying to construct my own neutral value scale, matching the Munsell example Juan posted on a pillar near my easel. His example matches true neutrality. It places pure black at 0 and pure white at 10. My own black paint (Ivory) appears somewhat bluish and all of my first attempts up to 5 were too blue (cool) and needed more brown.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Hair on the Head

This week, I started blocking out sections of the hair and loosely working the shapes, both in the shadows and the lights. I'm holding several brushes in my hand at once -- light/dark tones, wide and small -- so I can push forwards and backwards in colour and stroke as needed. Some spots are more finished than others. I've barely touched the far left side.

I've been told not to leave any hard edges that aren't necessary or final (especially between black and white extremes because they will be hard to soften during "second painting"). Another warning: not to "blend" during first painting (because it's a waste of time) and instead it's OK to leave the paint blotchy, as I did on the face and neck. When I started today the chin was too wide and not angled correctly; I've moved the points of the chin down to correct them but haven't finished setting the edges correctly. Next week.





The head is from one of 6 statues Michaelango made for the Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici. There are many references to this on the web.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Back to Juliano

We had a series of lectures by Juan Martinez over the weekend on painting materials, the Munsell Colour System, and the French academic tradition (and where we fit in). I'll be posting the list of recommended materials later. Here though is the latest Juliano. I have been modelling the cheeks and the neck. Now the hair is standing out like a clown's wig. I'll be getting to that next.


Sunday, February 17, 2008

Silverpoint Workshop Feb 11-14

I took a break from painting this week to take a workshop in Silverpoint at the Academy of Realist Art (with instructor Ryan Gauvin).

Silverpoint (or metalpoint) is an old method of drawing using a stick of silver sharpened to a point and held in a lead holder. A Renaissance technique, it was used as a drawing medium for studies. By the 17th century, its use became increasingly rare as graphite become more readily available.

Below is a sample from my first piece, a copy of a Raphael drawing. The intention was to follow build up the drawiing slowly, following the lines of the artist. Unlike graphite, you cannot erase the silverpoint markings (although apparently you can sand the surface down to make them disappear, but this harms the paper). Here is the process we followed:
  1. Ryan prepared watercolour paper for us that had been coated several times with Golden Acrylic Gesso. It was sanded down to make a smooth finish. The idea is to prepare a surface that the silverpoint can scratch a line onto. This will work with gold too.

  2. We traced a few lines of an existing drawing with Mylar tracing paper with a thin graphite pencil and then went over them again with a black marker so they would show up.

  3. On a light table, I placed the treated paper over the tracing paper and re-traced the outline with a graphite pencil. You can use the silverpoint but if you're not careful, you can cut too deeply and not be able to erase later.

  4. Back on the stool, I got to work using a series of long strokes to build up values and follow the direction of the lines (bottom left to top right for a right-handed person; bottom right to top left for a left-handed person).

  5. I turned the board constantly to get the right angle. The lines have to be drawn in parallel. You also can't stop in the middle of a line and pick up later...

  6. The last step, which I haven't done yet, is to tint the paper.... Normally, Ryan would tint the paper with acrylic before starting the drawing. But there are advantages of doing it later. If you go too dark with the silverpoint, then a tint after the fact will take some of the excess value away.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Continue Modelling the Face



This week, I concentrated on shaping the cheeks and chin, trying to lighten things up where required and keep the values neutral.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Changing Brushes

-- Apologies in Advance -- my camera lens was smudged when I took this picture.
This week, I picked up a few more tips:
  1. I was advised to exchange my bristle brushes for softer brushes to get a smoother finish (the bristles brushes were scraping the paint as I applied it). Today I bought some soft synthetics -- filberts and rounds.
  2. I also learned to stop using the mineral spirits to dilute the paint. Apparently at the First Painting stage it's important to lay down a strong foundation.
  3. Hair Conditioner can be applied to brush tips at the end of a session to preserve their shape!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

First Painting > Correcting the eyes

I spent this week immersed in first painting, and trying to recapture the drawing lost during big form modelling. The cast's right eye was beginning to drift away from the centre. At first the best solution seemed to be to paint over the entire eye and then repaint it again rather than trying to move tiny shapes one at a time. However, after measuring against the other eye, the fix required was in the smaller shapes, beginning with the lower lid. I just had to rotate downward from the right corner of the eye to put it more on a slant and make the eyeball itself narrow. It's now in a better position relative to the left eye of the cast (or the right eye in the photograph).

Other things to work on: temperature correction. I haven't been mixing enough raw umber into the mix. The face is looking bluish. The neck is the right neutral value.... Here's the lesson to be learned. As a tint, ivory black is more powerful than raw umber. To keep a value neutral, there has to be more raw umber in it than black, otherwise the black dominates and gives the colour a cool temperature.

I also must work on the forms on the face and not sculpt before first putting in the planes of the form (see nose). I will remember that the chin itself has about 5 planes. These should be placed first...



Tuesday, January 15, 2008

On Saturday Jan 13, I started the first painting stage. I'm trying hard to get back the accuracy I think I achieved in the dry brush stage. I started with the eyes and began working down and out. I left off with the nose. The camera is distorting things here--it makes the canvas seem closer and the painted image larger, and yet, they are on the same plane...

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Belvedere Torso

Work continues on the red chalk version of the Belvedere Torso. I took the drawing with me to Mexico for the holidays and worked on it at the beach! I still need to finish the neck and base area, and then return to drawing with a fine brush to smooth over the transitions from light to dark. I might apply a darker red chalk to highlight the darkest darks.
Information about the Belvedere Torso statue can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belvedere_Torso