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).

Skin Colours and Organizing the Palette

A recent lesson I learned is to organize the palette by colours and values before you begin a session. Below is a sample for skin colours (for the Patroclus painting). I take one colour out of the tube (Burnt Sienna, for example) and create a range of values down to 9 (white). Then I line up additional colours and do the same thing, trying to create rows of matching values. My first attempt is shown below.



When you begin painting, you first pick the value you need and then determine the most suitable colour. By laying things out beforehand, some guess work is taken out of mixing. If I need a value that combines colours, I can choose from the appropriate row on my pallete, perhaps blending two squares or blobs. The paint that I apply should then be accurate for value and be cleaner.

Below is detail from the Patroclus painting. I painted the lower calf in a session before I began organizing my palette and the paint is streaky. A few weeks later I painted the thigh using the organized pallete (in which Burnt Sienna was my dominant shade).

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".

A Good Start on the copy of Patroclus

In several consecutive evenings this past week, I've laid in the background and some basic starting tones in the shadows and lights of the skin. One thing I need to do is big form modelling on the body. The light source hits the shoulder first, and so this should remain the brightest... The extended hand and feet should be the darkest tones of skin, so I'll have to work on "greying down" the areas farthest from the shoulder... The balls of the feet will be difficult -- many variations of red and orange and brown in very small forms.

First Painting of Hermes is now Complete!

In one session last week, I added more paint to the hair layers and then revised the overall shadow area on the face, making it darker and browner in more areas. I think the values are correct now. I unintentionally enlarged the dimple in the chin, so that will have to be revised.

Note: I didn't take this photo from the correct position (too far to the right) and so the curtain seems out of alignment.

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.

First painting of Hermes is nearly done...

The first painting stage is nearly done for Hermes. I built up the paint layer on the left forehead tonight. But, unless the camera is playing tricks, the shape of the head isn't quite right. The top right side slopes down more than it should.
To be corrected on Friday night.

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.