Pumpkin Work

In the last week, I've been concentrating on the pumpkin. It's now showing signs of collapse, but fortunately the colour hasn't changed much. In these lighting conditions, I can see the following on the real thing:

• cool highlights in the upper left of the pumpkin's face which appear to me as a pale yellow-white.
• warm reflections in the contained shadows on the bottom part and right side. The base has picked up some of the warm ochres in the wood. The right side is warmed by the deep reds from the adjacent red cloth. And on the top, I can see modest browns reflected from the basket above.  For all of these areas, I mixed cadmium orange with red madder (for warmth) or mars orange (for a muted brown-orange).
• a band of cool orange-greys just above bottom shadow. These are half-tones that have been cooled with grey. The challenge for me is that they also reveal the texture of the pumpkin, especially its pits, gouges, lines, and pimples in a variety of a oranges, some warm, some cool.
• variations of a warm and intense cadmium orange on the face of the pumpkin. The area below and above the highlight seems to show the strongest orange. 

This colour pattern of cool, warm, cool and warm is not unlike what you'd see in a human face or figure. My model isn't moving but it is beginning to rot... 

Below is a closeup of this week's work, followed by another photo of the full setup.

These photos unfortunately don't capture the range of colours and values, especially in the shadows...
Nature deserves better.

Butterfly in the Home Studio

Here's a new still life set up that I created at home this summer.  The subject is a blue morpho butterfly that I bought in New York from the American Museum of Natural History. It's the amazing  iridescence and sheen of the wings that appeal to me. I want to see how close to the real thing I can get by using an indirect method of painting.

That's where I will first paint the blues as they appear. Then I'll cover them with a layer of white -- the brighter the blue on the wings, the thicker the layer of white that goes on top. Once the white dries, I'll start glazing over the white again with the original blues, using multiple thin and transluscent layers. This should make the blues glow brighter than if I simply mixed blue and white directly. I'm going to try out a few other subtle tricks to help give the illusion of light and a sheeny, slick surface.

In front of the butterfly are three other elements: a pile of powder blue pigment (a souvenir from Rome), a small jar which will be filled partly with linseed oil, and a fan brush dipped in the power and oil. It's the powdered pigment and the oil that are combined to make the paint that we squeeze out in tubes. This manufactured blue itself will never match the magnificence of the butterfly's wing's and perhaps that's the theme to the piece.

My point of observation is about 7 feet from the stand and from the easel. In that spot, I'm facing neither the stand nor the easel directly, and for that reason the cutting board is not perfectly horizontal. In fact, it appears to rise up on one side. I did this deliberately to create more dynamic shadows and angles, to mimic the angles found in the wings.

Below is the quick "dead colour" state of the painting so far whereby paint and mineral spirits combined provide the first thin, "matte" or flat layer of paint.  I'll start on the wings properly next.

A New Still Life -- and the perils of perishables

The challenge in this new painting is to paint organic objects before they perish. For this exercise--the last required still life in the Academy of Realist Art's program--students normally choose something that is common, available year-round and easily replaceable like a cherry tomato, a lemon, or a wedge of garlic. More daring students have chosen fresh flowers and fish from the St. Lawrence Market and then painted them rapidly in one sitting. (With fish, you can understand why).

I wanted to use some autumn vegetables, especially ones with unusual colours and shapes like the gourds that start appearing in the supermarkets markets in September.

The composition I ended up with consists of one pumpkin, a yellow gourd, and an apple, placed near an overturned basket with pine cones scattered about. The more I stare at the setup, the more it seems to me like the vegetables are assuming personalities. Here the apple is on trial. The pumpkin is the judge. The gourd is the prosecutor. And the pinecones are security guards.

My biggest concern was that the pumpkin would spoil before I had a chance to finish it. I started painting it first. As insurance, I have 2 substitutes in our fridge at home, waiting to stand in when needed. But it turns out that the gourd was the first to spoil, with a green mould appearing practically overnight a few weeks after setting up thie scene... The apple is doing just fine and I'm not worried about replacing it.

Below: the painting and the setup as of November 14th.

 

 

Here's a close up: 

 

 

This is the best reference photo I have of the gourd in its current position. I painted it fully this week and just need to add highlights later. 

 

In an earlier vision of this painting, I used a larger green apple, but it was too distracting.

My first gourds were elongated and more colourful but the setup didn't work.

 

Figure Painting of Chol -- Finished, Framed but not yet Varnished

Over the summer of 2012, I reworked my figure painting of Chol.

In our original setting over the winter, Chol was posing on our piano bench in front of a black screen, with a single light source on his left and our gas fireplace on his right.

I decided to give the background more atmosphere by brightening one side and suggesting planks on the floor receding into the distance in the direction of the sitter. I made the figure warmer and the background cooler.

Below are two views of the painting on my easel finished but not varnished.

And here is the picture framed and hung under the track lights in our hallway.  It has a temporary varnish on it called Retouching Varnish. I will be giving it the final, proper varnish next summer once it is completely dry.

A return to blogging with a finished Thomas More portrait

My last post was in March 2012. It's time to update my painting adventures in the last seven months.

I'll begin with my copy of Holbein's Thomas More. I finally called it quits on September 3. My idea to lighten his mood by putting a role of Lifesavers in his hands does not go over as well with the peanut gallery as I hoped, so he remains true to his 1527 incarnation. The dark colours have begin to sink in so I'm looking forward to Varnishing Day in summer 2013.

The first two images below were taken on Labour Day on the deck at the cottage.

For this painting, I decided to have a custom handcrafted frame made from a company in Chicago -- Husar Picture Frames (www.husarpictureframe.com). I sent them several photos and measurements and together we choose the perfect frame from their extensive catalog of corner frames and finishes. 

Below is a picture of the painting sitting on our mantel, unframed. 

And here is the painting hung with its new frame. Once it is varnished next summer, it will be truly finished.