Juliano: chin and neck tuck

Small spaces are harder in many ways than the larger ones. I recently reworked the chin and neck, and have continued building up the smaller areas of hair in the left, both in and out of the light.

Hermes and his Goulish Cartoon

Over the winter in my home studio, I've been working on Hermes, on loan from a friend. I recently finished his cartoon and happened to capture the daytime shadows on his face at noon. In the photo below, taken early on the morning of Sat Mar 22, the shadows have not yet moved into the place where I've fixed them... He looks goulish in the drawing, but the anatomy is basically right. I will be transferring him to good paper and to linen canvas soon. On the canvas, I'll do a quick drybrush in raw umber to bring out the correct values again. Hermes has been patient.

More hair, less vegetable oil

I've been concentrating on the left side of the head, trying to take the hair up to the same level of "first painting" as the forehead. The construct of the hair also needed to be trimmed to make the shapes smaller on the left... Fernando noticed the open jar of vegetable oil I had on my stand. I had been using it to wipe brushes clean before switching to another value -- but this was putting the oil on the canvas! The vegetable oil should only be used when ending the session, and be rinsed out of the brushes with soap and water.



I'm also trying to construct my own neutral value scale, matching the Munsell example Juan posted on a pillar near my easel. His example matches true neutrality. It places pure black at 0 and pure white at 10. My own black paint (Ivory) appears somewhat bluish and all of my first attempts up to 5 were too blue (cool) and needed more brown.

Hair on the Head

This week, I started blocking out sections of the hair and loosely working the shapes, both in the shadows and the lights. I'm holding several brushes in my hand at once -- light/dark tones, wide and small -- so I can push forwards and backwards in colour and stroke as needed. Some spots are more finished than others. I've barely touched the far left side.

I've been told not to leave any hard edges that aren't necessary or final (especially between black and white extremes because they will be hard to soften during "second painting"). Another warning: not to "blend" during first painting (because it's a waste of time) and instead it's OK to leave the paint blotchy, as I did on the face and neck. When I started today the chin was too wide and not angled correctly; I've moved the points of the chin down to correct them but haven't finished setting the edges correctly. Next week.

The head is from one of 6 statues Michaelango made for the Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici. There are many references to this on the web.

Back to Juliano

We had a series of lectures by Juan Martinez over the weekend on painting materials, the Munsell Colour System, and the French academic tradition (and where we fit in). I'll be posting the list of recommended materials later. Here though is the latest Juliano. I have been modelling the cheeks and the neck. Now the hair is standing out like a clown's wig. I'll be getting to that next.

Silverpoint Workshop Feb 11-14

I took a break from painting this week to take a workshop in Silverpoint at the Academy of Realist Art (with instructor Ryan Gauvin).

Silverpoint (or metalpoint) is an old method of drawing using a stick of silver sharpened to a point and held in a lead holder. A Renaissance technique, it was used as a drawing medium for studies. By the 17th century, its use became increasingly rare as graphite become more readily available.

Below is a sample from my first piece, a copy of a Raphael drawing. The intention was to follow build up the drawiing slowly, following the lines of the artist. Unlike graphite, you cannot erase the silverpoint markings (although apparently you can sand the surface down to make them disappear, but this harms the paper). Here is the process we followed:

1. Ryan prepared watercolour paper for us that had been coated several times with Golden Acrylic Gesso. It was sanded down to make a smooth finish. The idea is to prepare a surface that the silverpoint can scratch a line onto. This will work with gold too.


2. We traced a few lines of an existing drawing with Mylar tracing paper with a thin graphite pencil and then went over them again with a black marker so they would show up.


3. On a light table, I placed the treated paper over the tracing paper and re-traced the outline with a graphite pencil. You can use the silverpoint but if you're not careful, you can cut too deeply and not be able to erase later.


4. Back on the stool, I got to work using a series of long strokes to build up values and follow the direction of the lines (bottom left to top right for a right-handed person; bottom right to top left for a left-handed person).


5. I turned the board constantly to get the right angle. The lines have to be drawn in parallel. You also can't stop in the middle of a line and pick up later...


6. The last step, which I haven't done yet, is to tint the paper.... Normally, Ryan would tint the paper with acrylic before starting the drawing. But there are advantages of doing it later. If you go too dark with the silverpoint, then a tint after the fact will take some of the excess value away.

Continue Modelling the Face

This week, I concentrated on shaping the cheeks and chin, trying to lighten things up where required and keep the values neutral.

Changing Brushes

-- Apologies in Advance -- my camera lens was smudged when I took this picture.
This week, I picked up a few more tips:

1. I was advised to exchange my bristle brushes for softer brushes to get a smoother finish (the bristles brushes were scraping the paint as I applied it). Today I bought some soft synthetics -- filberts and rounds.
2. I also learned to stop using the mineral spirits to dilute the paint. Apparently at the First Painting stage it's important to lay down a strong foundation.
3. Hair Conditioner can be applied to brush tips at the end of a session to preserve their shape!

First Painting > Correcting the eyes

I spent this week immersed in first painting, and trying to recapture the drawing lost during big form modelling. The cast's right eye was beginning to drift away from the centre. At first the best solution seemed to be to paint over the entire eye and then repaint it again rather than trying to move tiny shapes one at a time. However, after measuring against the other eye, the fix required was in the smaller shapes, beginning with the lower lid. I just had to rotate downward from the right corner of the eye to put it more on a slant and make the eyeball itself narrow. It's now in a better position relative to the left eye of the cast (or the right eye in the photograph).

Other things to work on: temperature correction. I haven't been mixing enough raw umber into the mix. The face is looking bluish. The neck is the right neutral value.... Here's the lesson to be learned. As a tint, ivory black is more powerful than raw umber. To keep a value neutral, there has to be more raw umber in it than black, otherwise the black dominates and gives the colour a cool temperature.

I also must work on the forms on the face and not sculpt before first putting in the planes of the form (see nose). I will remember that the chin itself has about 5 planes. These should be placed first...

On Saturday Jan 13, I started the first painting stage. I'm trying hard to get back the accuracy I think I achieved in the dry brush stage. I started with the eyes and began working down and out. I left off with the nose. The camera is distorting things here--it makes the canvas seem closer and the painted image larger, and yet, they are on the same plane...