Finished...

It's finally done, just over a year after stretching the linen and starting the first drawing. It's home now, drying for the next six months until I can varnish and frame it. In the meantime, at the school, I get to move out of my space in the workshop room shop and into a permanent spot to start the first "still life" in red, white, and green.

Time to put away the big brushes...

I repainted the entire background last night (adding a bit more yellow to the mix) and also the cast shadow to the right of the base. I always find the shadows hard to paint. The nearly solid, dark interior (umbra) is easy but as I move out towards the edges towards the light (the penumbra -- almost a shadow, where some of the light is obscured), there's quite variation of subtle patterns... In some places you see a feathered effect, in others definite lines but no hard edges, and then there are blobs where the shadow is equally transparent, as if generated by Photoshop...



Now onto the smallest brushes for some finishing touches in the interior, softening some edges and pushing up some dark shadoes in the centre of the head to punch out the sides of the face and head (the parts closest to us).

Two more sessions max, and then I'm calling it quits on this one...

The Gaul is nearing the end...

Meanwhile, back at the academy...I've cancelled the summer break that I intended to take in order to get this painting done and move onto my first Red/White/Green still life...

You know it's time to finish when the statue has accumulated so much dust that the values you first painted now need to change. This happened to the top of the cloth upon which the status is resting; it's now so much lighter because of a thickened layer of dust (which wasn't there at the start). I had to lighten up my own copy to match this week while finishing the base. (I raised the painting on my easel so I could reach the bottom easier). There's still some touch up work to do there...



Here's the close up below. Notice the "parallax" effect of my camera; the side of the canvas seems to bend but it's straight of course.



I can now count on one hand the things I need to do to finish up:
-- second paint the stand and all of the background, including the cast shadows in one go.
-- paint the underside of the beard (the part in shadow)
-- paint the eye socket: needs burnt sienna tint
-- second paint the light area of the statue's plate (the bit between the stand and the fur coat collar)
And that's nearly it, until told otherwise, and I'm sure I will be.

Working on the top of the Gaul's head

In my last three sessions, I haven't made significant progress in terms of volume. The forms are so small and complicated, and I have to keep standing back 7 feet or so to make sure that the details I'm painting in at this final stage still make sense. Below is a close-up of the hair on top. It's nearly done. On the left side of the head, you can see how rough the paint and the edges are. They will be smoothed out in this second painting phase once I get there later this week.

And on it goes, little by little (second painting phase)

I'm still working away at small, detailed areas, most recently in the hair that frames the face. I'm finding it more convenient now to tackle the lights and darks in a form simultaneously, dealing with it in one go (say, a wave in the hair). I tried this faster approach today with the hair shape to the left of the eye. It was no good just dealing with the shadow area in isolation; the form just didn't turn the way I expected it do. So I moved up to the lights as well, which made blending easy.



The close up:

Second painting phase continues...

The strategy from the start has been to work from the eye shadow outwards. At this point, the forehead, cheek and nose are finished, so I've been concentrating on the beard and the top of the head. (See second photo below -- red circles mark the spots). The edges that are soft or that I have blended with the background tend push the forms back in space. The edges left hard and with a greater contrats between light and shadow tend to jump the forms forward. When standing back 7 feet, I now experience a visual special effect where parts of the beard appear in sharp focus and much closer than the eye... This doesn't come through in the photos, which tend to flatten the image.

Full view:



Close up:

Second painting underway for the Gaul

The last phase of this painting is now officially underway. After finishing the first painting of the base, I lowered the painting down on the easel to match the level of the statue again (see below).



I'm currently "second painting" the face, with a 2:1 ratio of mineral spirits to linseed oil. The paint on my pallette is thinned with this mixture before being applied to the canvas.

I started with the forehead and went down as far as the brow (I'm leaving the eye untouched until the surrounding areas are done). Some important lessons were relearned:
1. Lay in a couch of middle value first. Look at in on an angle to see where the glaze is reflecting (which tells you where the couch is and isn't).
2. The boarders (where light meet dark) need to be dealt with at this time, otherwise a hard edge will be left.
3. To create a soft edge, there has to be wet paint in the dark area meeting the light area. As you push the wet light paint into the boarder it blends into the dark paint. If the line of the drawing gets lost or distorted, paint out from the dark border into the light area to restore it. The resulting edge should be soft or hazy.

For the forehead, I had to blend into the edge of the background and the top of the brow, both of which had been prepared beforehand. For the nose, there were three edges: the background, the bottom right of the eye shape, and then top of the nostril. The arrows below highlight these spaces.

First painting of the Gaul 99% done

In the last three sessions, I've been busy finishing the base. I raised the canvas on the easel so that I could work directly on the lower half without bending down. The elipse on the base of the statue has been extremely difficult to get. The ends curve up and the bottom part remains flatter than I expected. I started on the table this past Saturday and realize now that it's wider then it should be and that the right edge is too straight.

Because I stand slightly to the right of the statue, I need to portray two-point perspective. The sides of the stand need to be angled in such a way that they'd meet in a vanishing point off in the distant upper right of the picture... Meanwhile, the front and back edge should be nearly parallel but not perfectly so (because their lines would meet at a vanishing point off somewhere in the distant left.) Finally, I will need to finish the cloth on the front and right side (especially the folds).

First painting of the Gaul nearly done...

I finally found the "source" of the sculpture. Various textbooks had described it as "Moses", artist unknown. But I found it in a catalogue from an expo of the Tennenbuam collection at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. The piece is called "Head of a Gaul", sculpted in 1836 by Frenchman Francois Rude (1784-1855). The www.artrenewal.org site also confirms that, alhough they list the name as "Head of an Old Warrior".

This week, I repainted the cast shadow and added the penumbra on the edges of the shadow shapes. I also darkened the shapes in the beard (but going overboard in a few spots). I'm left now with only the base of the scuplture and the table top to finish in the "first painting stage".

Subtle Colour Tints for the Gaul

In the last two sessions, I've concentrated on the area below the beard, particularly the shadows.
The darkest shadows require a subtle tint of red; the lighter shadows need a bit of orange mixed in. I'm supposed to add a small amount of Alizorin Crimson for the red and Burnt Sienna for the orange. I started doing so but more is needed. I also narrowed the overall shape of the neck and chest area before adding more detail in the lights.

To do still: finish modelling the base and then return to the head and make the light areas in the hair more neutral. They're too brown in places.

Nose job and skull surgery

This was a week of major surgery... For a long while in December 2008 my canvas was off-kilter while sitting on the easel. It somehow shifted out of position and I did not check the plumb line with a level... The consequence was distortion that I failed to notice for weeks: a forehead that bulged, an eye shadow that was too wide, and a nose the was elongated and pointed up... So I trimmed them all back and tried to make corrections in the surrounding beard and hair line... I'm moving down to the neck and base next week, hoping to finish first painting ASAP...

-- Juan also recommended using larger brushes for first painting and not blending at all on the canvas --- just lay down blocks or patches of colour. By standing back from a distance, they should blend in... Save the true blending in for second painting when I'll be working up close.

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.

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...

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.

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).