Same camera, different light, different results

Second painting continues on the Patroclus painting and I hope to finish it in the next few weeks. I'm considering the background and foreground done (except for the arrows in the front). Small areas still need to be rendered on the figure, particularly the hand, and the feet. Some edges need to be softened still (half-tones on the thigh and the upper shoulder. Finally, I'll redo the strands of hair...)

Two weeks ago, I took the pictures below at home, at virtually the same time, in different lights.

Reds and Greens

A few weeks ago, I took the Patroclus painting into the school and picked up a few tips from David Gluck, including:

• Using Cadmium Red for the red blanket rather than Indian Red (too dull and cool)


• Building up the contained shadows on the blanket with darker values of Cadmium Red (mixed with Ivory Black). Previous shadows were too muddy and grey.


• Cooling the brightest areas of the figure with Green Umber and Yellow Ochre to enhance the 3D effect. This led to new concepts for me about using colours to suggest form the same way I've been using values to model forms (lights, shadows, half-tones, bedbug lines, etc).
  
  

I have yet to work again on the figure, but over the Victoria Holiday weekend, I managed to finish the first painting of the red blanket and the surrounding area. I forgot my Winsor and Newton Artist oil paints at home but bought some replacements at a local store. These were from the Winsor and Newton "Winton" line of oil paints, which are cheaper than the professional line I'm used to because they contain less pigment and more vehicle (linseed oil)--making them good to apply in large spaces. I used them to finish the first layer of the foreground.



In the original painting, David added an archer's bow and a scattering of arrows around the edge of the blanket. Because my canvas is larger than the original, with more space around the figure, I've decided to add only a limited number of the original arrows. I've marked their place on the right side but have yet to add any detail.

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.

Good progress until the power cut out

Up north in cottage country this weekend, I managed to complete the "first painting" stage of the left leg. Without the glare from the window, as seen below, it looks right.

(One bad note: The thick oil-based gesso I applied as a ground marred the smoothness of the painting surface and unfortunately that does matter on small forms. The Achilles tendon gets pinched. It's noticeable from 6 feet away. Up close I can see a vertical "trough" left by the gesso brush. When light hits the trough it breaks up the swatch of skin colour I had laid down for that part of the foot. Ironically, the subject "Patroclus" was Achilles' lover and of course Achilles dies of a wound to his heel...)

I started working on the shorter, right leg when a storm hit us and the power was knocked out for the remainder of the weekend. I didn't have time to smooth out my initial paint layers but fortunately the ball of the right foot is quite wrinkled...

Painting on Easter Weekend

This entry was made from the cottage while working on the Patroclus painting hanging from a chair (spare easel left at home). My good intentions were not realized: I wanted to redraw the feet and hand, restoring the details and proportions that have been lost. Instead I reworked the shoulder and started modelling the back and arm.

Some notes to self:
-- Some charcoal I used to transfer the drawing is still showing through (near left am pit, for example), so I'll need to redo those areas with some calcium carbonate (plaster) mixed into the pigment to mask the charcoal
-- Minor corrections are needed to the shadow on the spine (widen shadow on left shoulder blade).
-- More half tones are needed alongside the shadow on the spine to make the transition from dark to light smoother. Indian Red and Burnt Sienna are proving good for those values.
-- The chroma in the carpet needs to be dulled with grey/green
-- background needs a glaze of burnt sienna to warm it up and darken slightly.
-- hair still needs to be modelled (and it goes further down the left side of the neck than currently shown). Soften the edges into the background.

Inspiration: Lenny's still life

I was inspired today looking at Lenny's still life in progress (second painting phase). He allowed me to take this photo (and unfortunaely, the glare on the canvas takes away from it). Some things I really liked: first, the composition. The darks are kept as a group at the back. And the lights are together in the front, joined by a triangle made up of the 3 primary colours, blue, red, and yellow. It's hard to tell this from the photo, but the sherry glass really stands out, front and center. He accomplished this by a) using a rich chroma for the sherry (actually coloured water because real wine is TOO dark to be translucent in these conditions) b) casting the shadow of the glass on the page and using soft shapes and fuzzy edges to contrast with the hard shapes of the glass itself. Finally, I admired the fact that none of his lines or shapes ever line up and so your eye travels in a pleasant way. To see what I mean, look at the books (not straight) and their top edges--different heights and on angles. Plus the globe offers circular shapes to contrast with the triangles and rectangles. A feast for the eye. And something for me to keep in mind for the future.

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).