Figure Painting of Chol -- updated

This painting is evolving each week, as it should. Previously, I added a running shoe on the bottom right side to add a bit more balance to the composition. To keep the viewer's eye in the painting, I decided to point the shoe towards Chol's right foot, rather the outwards towards the painting's edge.  Colour continues to be a bit of a struggle. In the setup, much of what I see is a cool grey, with only shades of warmth appearing to me in the deepest shadows, especially on the left side, closest to a gas fireplace I keep going.  This week, I brightened up the background in the top left, which seems to help the figure pop forward more. I also concentrated on modelling the hands and feet for the first time and when those areas are dry next week, I'll continue until they're done.


From Saturday Feb 18:

From the previous week,  Feb 11:

Cold-Warm Figure Painting -- Updated

The image below is from my sixth session Feb 15th.  In this exercise, the skin tones are primarily warm (Venetian Red + Flake White) with grey added in areas to cool them down. I just finished the stomach/chest area last Wednesday, which followed the previous week's attempt to get the temperature of the legs right. The legs are relatively "cooler" than the stomach because they're picking up reflections of the (cool green) platform the model is sitting on.  The shadow area in the chest/stomach is more isolated (or in other words less influenced by the environment)  and so it has the warmest, most intense red.  I still have to model the feet and hands but in general I'm moving up, focussing on the warm vs. cool relationships. 

A different Figure Painting

At home, I have another figure painting underway.  Our friend Chol is posing for me on Saturday mornings in our living room in front of a black backdrop. Below is my progress after the 3rd session yesterday.  There are still some drawing issues to correct, but overall I'm pleased at how it's going.  The basic palette I'm working with is ivory black, flake white, burnt umber, burnt sienna and raw sienna.  I'll be adding some green to the white for highlights, but I still have to figure out the best mix for his skin in the shadows. The classic pattern of cool highlights, warm skin tone, cool half-tones, and warm shadows doesn't seem to apply to the same degree here.  In this last session I was concentrating more on getting the values right than the colour.

Setting the Palette for Skin Colours

Pinned to a wall in the figure painting room at the school is Juan's palette for flesh tones. The principal colours he uses are: Lamp Black, Veridian (Green), Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre Pale, and White (Lead or Titanium).  Optional Colours include: Raw Umber, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, and Alizarin Crimson Permanent.

Here's a link to an online note summarizing basic rules about skin tones:
http://studioproducts.com/demo/palettxt.html

Second Figure Painting Begins...

I'm on a slow journey to working with full colour when painting figures.

Last fall at the Academy of Realist Art, I started figure painting sessions once a week and the first exercise for me was to paint the model Robin in monochrome -- neutral greys created by mixing ivory black, raw umber, and crementz white.  The image below is the results after about 8 sessions in total. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to advance to the "second painting" stage and smooth out some of the raw areas and edges.

Now I'm on my second figure painting there. This time, raw umber has been replaced by Venetian Red. The objective is to gradually introduce the concept of warms and cools in the painting. The skin tones will be primarily warm (Venetian Red + White), with some cooling down with grey in some shadows.  The background areas will be primarily cool (Ivory Black + White) with some Venetian Red for some overall harmony.   The model is sitting in a dark red velvet chair which itself has been cooled down with greys so that it won't compete with the level of chroma in the figure. (There's a more intense red in the shadow on the stomach than in the chair itself, so that's why the chair has to be cooled down). The image below is from my third session Jan 25th.

New self-portait, early stages

I'm trying something new here.  As a reference, I'm using a photo taken of myself last year against a wall of red fabric and a single light source close by. The red in the backdrop seems to be reflected everywhere, affecting skin colour in the lights and darks. The challenge for me is see past that and use more natural colouring, at least in the lights. The traditional pattern follows something like this: cool (highlights, like the chin and left side of forehead), warm (normal skin colour), cool (half-tones, the areas moving into shadows) and warm (contained and cast shadows on the figure).  A traditional face is usually cool in the forehead (closer to the light source), warm in the cheeks (where the blood is), and cool again in the chin area (a result of less blood on the skin's surface and effects of stubble, etc.).  
Before I move on though I'm going to correct the basic drawing in the lower half, raising my right shoulder and moving my left arm in.

A look again at the Holbein master copy

I haven't worked on my Holbein copy since early October but plan to return to it soon. The image below shows its current state. On a visit to New York City in October, I returned to the Frick Collection where the original hangs on a dark wall.  I stared for a long time trying to see what the skin colour and values in the hands are supposed to be, but in the dim light it was hard to see for certain. Inside the gift shop, I was struck by how bad most of their prints were. I purchased a large poster that is about 95% to scale but like the many online versions of Thomas More I've seen, the printed colours are way off. What I did learn from studying it is that I still need to sculpt the chin and push it to the left while giving the underside of the nose a greater angle.  In short: I have to make him uglier.

Figure Painting Update

Here's a view of this figure painting from my previous class, November 23. I "wasted" two sessions moving the head further down a few millimeters to reduce the size of the neck. It was a good reminder of how important it is to get the overall proportions correct in the first drawing of the figure. White is not very opaque, especially the Crementz white I'm using for this picture. So two weeks ago after moving the head down, the old eyebrows and eyes were still showing through, giving the face a "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" look. I spent last week performing more surgery on the new head, masking over the old features again and remodelling the new eyes, nose and ears. Tonight, I have to go back in and reapply the right values so that she doesn't look like a ghost. The head is such a small area in relation to the rest of the canvas that it seems a shame to spend so much time on it.  The class winds down in a few weeks and I need to bring all other areas up to the same degree of "finish" as the breasts.

New Figure Painting in Progress

I've joined a regular Wednesday evening figure painting class taught by Juan Martinez at the Academy of Realist Art.  Below is the work in progress. It will be a "monochrome" study of the model Robin that I will have until mid-December to complete (about 10 sessions in all). For this first effort in front of a live model, I'm forgetting about the complexities of skin colour and temperature, and concentrating instead on value and form. That makes the exercise much easier. The drawing on the canvas was fairly quick for me and now I'm slowly modelling the shadows and lights...

Fishing Still Life -- Finished

It's now finished and home drying.  And I can turn to other projects at last.  I think this is the one and only time I'll ever attempt to paint printed words upside down on warped pages.