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.

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.

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.

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...

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)...

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.

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.

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.

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.