Wayne's Portrait -- Finished and Drying

Well, it took long enough but I finally wrapped up this picture on this Thanksgiving weekend.  I first added glazes of white and blue to the left backround to give the impression of window panes. Then I concentrated on sharpening some edges and softening others on the shirt. The larger areas I worked in are still very fresh and glossy, which the camera picks up no matter angle or setting I use. Eventually, the linseed oil/mineral spirits mixture will evaporate and the pigment will sink back into a dull matte, like the rest of the background and the chest. As it dries over the next six months, everything should even out -- and then come alive when I varnish. Now on to the next one.

Wayne's Portrait (continued...)

Since posting my last update on this painting (when I described cropping the painting),  I've been concentrating on finishing the shirt and shorts, with the aim of making the folds and edges softer. I also repainted the left arm/hand (the one in shadow) and face, but still need to reshape the eye slightly. After that, repainting the other arm is at the top of my list of things to do. Once that's done, I'll finish the background once and for all: the drapes, the window panes, and the view beyond. Much of the background drapery has now sunk into the canvas, which is OK. The real challenge will be depicting the window panes with their own reflections and streaks on top of the exterior scene.

Surgery -- unfortunate, avoidable, but necessary this time

I've been stuck for a long time on this painting. I thought my challenge was dealing with the large windows but the real issue was one of distorted proportions that I unwittingly made in the figure. Most of the distortion takes place in the legs and it is grows proportionately the farther down you go. In the photo below, the source photo is placed to the right of a photo of the painting. Using the head as a measuring unit, my painted figure ends up being half a head too short. This is something I should have checked at the cartoon stage before transferring the drawing. I didn't leave myself enough room on the bottom of the canvas to fix it so..... off with his legs! (Sorry Wayne)

The revised composition is below. I restretched the canvas over 12x18 stretchers and I like the result. I started painting in a background through the windows and will add details of the deck in the lower 2 pane. I also began reworking the figure's facial features, moving the eye and lips down. Next session, the cheekbone will be moved down as well and widened.

Perspective on Wayne's portrait

Work resumes on Wayne's portrait, which I first began last July. I stopped last fall after completing a "first painting" of the figure, knowing full that I'd be making corrections to the expression and shadows later. What I forgot then was the importance of the background to most portraits, and how the values there determine what range of values are acceptable in the figure. For that reason, backgrounds are normally laid in roughly first.

And in academic painting (my style of realism I've learned to paint in) every area should be treated equally at every step along the way. So I'm catching up on the background before I return to the figure.

Wayne's portrait is unusual for me in a couple of ways. The light pouring through the windows, as shown in the photo, bleaches the clothing and face, flattening them, and making it more difficult to convey form. This is so different from an indoor studio portrait where the light source is at a distance from the figure and doesn't dominate or compete for attention. Colour is much more convincing too.

Perspective is another challenge. There are lines in the windows, walls, and floor that lead the eye into the distance, towards a vanishing point that happens to be a few inches off the right side of the canvas. I ignored these in my preparatory drawing and should have taken more care. The old camera I used last fall badly distorted those perspective lines making it less useful as a reference point. To correct the painting, I decided to figure out the lines myself by using pieces of string. Luckily, I'm working on this portrait at the cottage, where Wayne posed, so I just take my eyes of the canvas, and paint what I see around me.

Below are two photos, the first showing the strings I used for finding perspective, and the second showing the results after I removed the strings. There is still much to do to make the background convincing but at least I'm making progress.

head and shoulders

Latest update: On Thanksgiving weekend, I concentrated on modelling the head and shoulders, as well as the shirt collar. The left eye is placed marginally too high on the figure (based on source photo) and I haven't given the head the same tilt it had, either. But those are minor details that I can choose to sort out later when I return to the head. The blue shirt also needs to be darkened considerably, right to left; and the lightest light of that shirt is currently too bright. The side of the shirt leaning against the curtain also needs a darker grey shadow, which is cast down and across from the window frame. But I will only be able to work these subtlies out once the entire background is in... That's the next task. The painting is now safely at home from the cottage...

Blue shirt and shorts...

I spent some time this past Saturday trying to catch up on other areas... The previous weekend, I worked on the hands, arms and book. Here, I tried to bring the right side of the shirt and shorts up to par, by darkening them to match the value of the arm. Same with the background surrounding the head and torso... Head, and left side need to follow suite. Ideally, once everything in the figure is at the same stage, and it feels like it's one piece, with the light moving from the left to right into darkness, then I'll be read to tackle the background.

I've started to sketch in the window pane on the front left, making the frame narrower than it actually is... And I realized too that the back end of the cottage needs to be very soft and considerably darker than I've left it. The perspective on the back window pane makes it quite grey and hazy...

 

Update on Wayne's Portrait

In the last two sessions, I've worked on modelling the legs, arms and hands, so now there is at least some paint everywhere over the figure. But now the clothing, head, chest and background need to catch up in order for the overall lighting on the figure to make sense. Wayne's left arm, for example, is the correct value (if not the right colour), and now the surrounding shirt and shorts need to darken on the right side considerably with a mixture of ultramarine, black, and some burnt umber... Once I get the values everywhere in sync, I'll take the picture in to the school for a critique before going further.

Early start on Wayne M. Portrait

I've started laying down some "local" colour in the figure and background, but know I have a long way to go. I'm not sure yet how I'll deal with the bulky window frame or the furniture behind the figure, so I'm setting them aside for now. My goal is to colour in the clothing and body, getting the correct values in the lights and shadows, and the immediate background of the curtain. In fact, I'll know when I'm ready to move on when I have 4 distinct values: the background, the cast shadows inside the figure and on the floor, the contained shadows in the figure (like the neck area) and the areas in direct light... I know appreciate why some old masters worked first in grisaille (monochrome) before adding colour...

Preliminary Drawing for Wayne M. Portrait

(Posted from the cottage)

I made a quick drawing based on the photograph of Wayne at the cottage and transferred it to the canvas by colouring the back of the drawing with charcoal and then tracing over the drawing. I didn't have enough vine charcoal with me so I used compressed charcoal, which is very dark. More of it transferred onto the canvas than I wanted. I could wipe it off or wash it over, so I ended up applying a thin layer of Titanium White over the charcoal, leaving only the outline. Two days later, that thin layer hasn't yet dried, which makes me wonder if there's something in the charcoal that is causing the delay... (and yet Ivory Black, which I use as my black paint, is basically charcoal). Guess I'm impatient. I've sketched in some of the lines for the windows, wall and floor shadows, but will need to fix a vanishing point off to the right beyond the canvas to get the perspective lines accurate. The canvas turned out to be smaller than the 30" by 24" size it was supposed to be so my "centre" point changed slightly.

Below is the initial drawing with the figure at 60 cm tall.



Here is the drawing transferred onto canvas:



Now while waiting for the paint to dry, and the rain to stop, I'm getting back to some other unfinishedp projects...

Harmonic Proportions and Ancient Design Systems

Old masters made use of classical geometry to find the best way to arrange figures and objects within a given space. The composition scheme based on harmonic proportions is the most common one (and it derives from Pythagorus's discovery of harmonic proportions -- musical root harmonies -- that explain order and beauty in sound).

I created two samples below, the first on what's called the "armature of the rectangle" and the second on the "root 2 rectangle system" (a rectangle whose dimensions are based on the ratio of the square root of the number 2)

Example 1: Composition Based on the Rectangle's Armature.
I first created a rectangle based on the proportion of my chosen canvas ("30 x 24"). Then I sketched a series of diagonals from the corners and the middle of the sides. Where they intersect, the natural harmonies are created. I've highlighted these with circles. They represent where the eye of the viewer naturally moves to. The goal is to frame subjects or objects at certain harmonic divisions, to rest or place parts of a figure along a diagonal, or to run a harmonic division through key places in the design (typically an eye of a figure).

How did I do? Pretty well, considering I didn't think of the compositon of the surroundings when taking the reference photo. The dots on the photo below represent the natural "eyes" of my rectangle, situated in the natural centre (half point), thirds, and quarters. On my computer, I arranged the photo under the rectangle's armatures diagonals so that the bottom of the book's spine would meet the absolute centre. The remaining eyes are in unusual places but at least I can see some parts of the figure lining up with the diagonals, and Wayne is centered. (If I had asked Wayne to lower and close the book slightly, it would have been perfectly placed)... The grey strip on the far left represents how far I will have to extend the window in the painting to keep Wayne in the centre.



Example 2: Composition Based on the Root 2 Rectangle.

Here, I've taken a Root 2 Rectangle (height 1.41 x width) and imposed it on the image again. This rectangle is sitting over the larger grey rectangle which represnts my 30z24 canvas. The crossing of the main diagonals with the secondary diagonals creates four 90 degree angles and divides the rectangle into thirds. These crossings become 4 "eyes" (the equivalent of the green eyes in the previous picture).



Again, after centering the figure, I see it's not a perfect fit. BUT now I know how big to make the figure and where to position it on the canvas... With this Root 2 rectangle, my figure would be smaller (59.62 cm tall) than with the Rectangle Armature design (66.98 cm tall) -- my preference is the first.

New Project: Portrait of Wayne M.

Here's a new project I initiated July 11th at the cottage. Wayne kindly posed for me in our living room, looking out over the deck towards the lake. The winning photo, chosen from among fifty or so, is shown below. We decided to go for the full figure and include more space around the figure for light and depth.



I bought a 30" x 24" pre-stretched canvas today, to which I'll add another layer of gesso and sand it down for a smoother surface. Curry's art store did not have linen in the size I wanted and I don't have time to acquire the best linen from the school -- I want to get started on this next week. I considered canvas board and masonite as the surface, but decided against it--better wait for a smaller project to experiment with a new surface.

The next challenge is deciding on the actual size and relative position of the figure on the canvas. Experimental images to follow in the next posting.