Various Demonstrations...
I've been asked to put up some of the demos that are in my Angels book and I will also include several new pieces at various stages of progress.
Hopefully these will help answer some questions that other artists have asked regarding a variety of techniques I use.
Demo of Male Model in Robes
28x34" oil on canvas
Starting on the cloth
28x34" oil on canvas
- I started this 28x34" oil on canvas with a black alkyd sketch over a rough charcoal drawing. I let this dry overnight, then added a think coat of liquin to seal the canvas and let this dry for several hours before adding the base color.
Color block in
Starting on the cloth
28x34" oil on canvas
2 My usual opaque color block in. I wanted to paint into the face for several hours so I used a soft mixing white, which contains either walnut oil or safflower, both dry slower than linseed oil. I added a little stand oil to give this some pull and dry shiny. This allows me to paint back into the edges of the cloth and pull areas together with paint that is not as slippery, sort of like sculpting wet clay.
Starting on the cloth
Starting on the cloth
Before and after smoothing edges
3 Moving down the form after the face is fairly finished after a few hours.
Another way to achieve longer working time is to make a mixture of stand oil, mineral spirits and walnut or refined linseed oil, in thirds, then wash this clear medium over the entire surface. Sun thickened linseed oil also works but has a little less pull and dries with less shine or viscosity.
To speed up the drying time, use an alkyd medium, my first choice is Liquin because it sinks in more, added to the stand and MS.
Before and after smoothing edges
Before and after smoothing edges
Before and after smoothing edges
So why smooth edges? I prefer painting with control of edges as this enhances depth and suggests a more believeable figure/object in a given space. Study photography that uses selective focus, or paint from life, this will teach you how to see edges and where you can cheat rounded forms to soften into backgrounds or lost edges for greater effect.
If you want to glaze a thin layer of color over dry paint, you should keep the surface thinner and use heavy paint, impasto, only at the end for textural effects and to get very crisp edges against a softer background.
Hands detail
Before and after smoothing edges
Finished painting
Here you can see a slight warm tone glazed over the hands and another over the white cloth. You rarely see white cloth as pure white; it has a lot of subtle color depending on the light source and surrounding areas. As an illustrator, I learned to push this effect but for fine art I tone down the color to a more sophisticate, even classic look.
I treat hands in two basic shapes - the blocky mass above the fingers and then the fingers as jointed cylinders, more blocky for men, more tapered for women. I draw them the same way with charcoal in blocky shapes.
Finished painting
Before and after smoothing edges
Finished painting
I was lucky to find a great model, makes all the difference. He posed for my fine art work after I hired him to pose for an illustration I was working on. Like nearly every other artist who paints realism, I work from photos, unless I am doing a portrait study or class demo. I prefer shooting photos first for reference I design later, primarly because life models can move out of position and its difficult to get the costume, in this case the robes, to fall into the same place if more than one session. I also adjust every image I use quite a bit, especially with large compositons, which I often build in Photoshop or in 3D.
Nude on Purple Cloth 24x36" oil on canvas
I did a pencil sketch first then transfered the drawing onto a toned canvas. I prefer projecting my drawings, being careful to square up the corners so the image is not distorted. Or use a grid. Some artists draw pencil or charcoal onto the canvas but this tends to rough up the gesso surface. Or I paint with a thin line using oil or alkyd, for my larger pieces. The advantage is that you can quick
My 3/8th" glass pallette, purchased at a glass place for $20. They sanded smooth the edges. I taped gray board below to help see the colors, much better than a traditional wood palette. I have since switched to white porcelan, $3 from a hardware store. White offsets the colors better, but pure titanium is a bit harder to see.
For me, using a palette knife to mix colors is a waste of time. I can
I blocked in the background with a 1" bristle filbert, then did the same for the forground. I place the darks first so that I can better evaluate skin tones. For example, if you paint a portrait with the flesh colors against a white background, when you block in the hair, this will often make caucasian skin look too light. Another example, painting a bright color background, which can make skin lo
Block in the face
I often make up about 50% of my backgrounds - trees, landscapes, cloth, but I usually follow the face refeerence closely. An artist friend once told me that if you paint a good face, or head, then the rest of the painting can be loose or suggested. I do that for sketches or studies. This head took around an hour, the whole painting 5- 6 hours. So the head took 1/5th the total time. A larger head goes faster for me, smaller ones take longer since I have to use smaller brushes if I want any detail.
Body block in
With the front hand painted, I move on to the figure, using fairly thick paint. Paint viscosity determines opacity, I try not to use impasto so that I can later glaze over the dry surface if needed.
Since I am painting fast, I can tweak the edges here and there for more realism.
Closeup of brushwork
Closeup of brushwork
Here you can see some of the brushwork. As an illustrator, I smoothed over most of my painted pieces, especially for book covers. For fine art, I like leaving enough brush strokes to help suggest form. Some artists really lay on thick paint, but I prefer a mildly textured surface, which shows less glare and a gentle surface for skintones.
Feet
Closeup of brushwork
I like painting feet and hands. Don't be afraid to do studies of body sections, it will help you see the inner formation of bones and muscle. I am not a great colorist, but good with values, so I can be off-color a bit yet still have solid realistic form. Start with basic shapes then work you way to more complex body areas. Faces are usually the hardest for most people.
Final
Here is the final with a later glaze over the background to darken the shadows of the cloth, and a slight ocher tint to warm up the skintone as I thought it was a little too red. I let this dry for about 3 weeks before glazing. Sometimes you can glaze a gray or blue over a warm skin tone, or a red or orange over a blue sky. Both give a deeper effect, an illusion of rich color, or color within color that is only possible with glazing or using small brush strokes or dots, as in pointalism, to get a slight shimmer effect of light on a surface. Painting and drawing on a 2D plane is all an illusion anyway.
A couple of comments regarding figure painting- To achieve a believeable skin surface, you can try layering one color over another in small strokes that follow the form. Round for the limbs, for example.
A classic method is to paint a full brown underpainting first, let dry and seal this, then paint thin in light color so that the brown, or gray base comes through. Its fun to do quick brown or gray studies and take them to a finished degree. This makes it somewhat easier to color over to get a colored photo effect.
If you can draw well, figure painting will become easier. I went to life drawing sessions 3 times a week for 15+ years and saw improvement in both my illustration work and fine art. There are usually life drawing sessions in most areas or start your own. Try painting, if the model holds the pose well. Great way to make friends, too.
The Old Conquistador 20x30" oil on canvas
The model is my good friend John, who came to one of our annual art parties and put on the helmet as a joke.He did not hesitate to pose for me and looked the part, once he scowled.
I have a lot of old costumes from years of religious and historical commercial work.
First I did a clean drawing that I projected and redrew onto the canvas, then sealed with a light spray of workable fixative.
Next, a quick brown wash of burnt umber and Van Dyke brown, using only mineral spirits and a wide house painter's brush.
Having an accurate drawing underneath saves a lot of time since I don't need to rethink where the features should be placed. When portraits look like caracatures or the drawing is off, the work looks forced and so less realistic. I advise my students to spend more time on the
A light amount of ivory black was added using a drybrush method to deepen the imprimatura, or first layer.
At this point I am about an hour into the painting. Again, having the drawing underneath helps me to paint faster and with more confidence, since I have an accurate base and already did the drawing essentially as a warm up to study how light and shadow fall over the form.
First opaques added
Here I added a little opaque paint in the skin area and his right arm. Since the values, and overall realism, are set up in the initial browns, its fairly easy to start adding color, but also easy to overdo it.
Filling in the background with first grays. I see problems with his right arm that I wlll need to fix. The hands are also blocked in and ready to be darkened by a few glazes in the classical approach.
I added at least 4 brown and deep blue glazes to darken this to a classic look.
I was able to keep John's scowl intact, so I feel this was successful.
This technique is actually easier than my usual opaque approach since values are initially worked out with the first stages of deep brown. No wonder it was used by great artists like Van Dyke, who was prolific despite his short life. Rembrandt and
Far Below 4x4' oil on mounted canvas
After working out a rough idea in abstract shaows, fun to do in charcoal, I set up a model session with a neighbor who asked to pose for me. She is only 11 here, but had the face and spirit of an older teenager and was great to work with, falling into poses quite naturally.
I moved from the background to the figure, finishing each stage with loose brushwork. Normally, I would work over the entire painting and build up to a finished state overall. But here I felt confident enough to simply push through, with a clear vision of what I wanted from the start.
Far Below final and details
The painting took around 5 days to complete. I like the color harmony on this piece, consisting primarily of cool grays. This makes the warm light in the distance appear more luminous without resorting to the use of hot color.
The head is painted about 5 inches high, a good size that lets me use larger brushes to work out the planes of the face, and a few smaller flats to clean up areas and soften edges.
Compare the rough brushwork of the wings on the left with the smoothed over wings on the right. If you paint with enough viscosity, that is paint thickness for opacity, and don't paint too heavily, you can then pull the area with extra long filberts, soft rounds or even softer mop brushes. This smooths and blends the areas together, blurring the focus. Flat strokes over this will look sharp by contrast. This helps bring any figure or object forward, away from the background.
Caverna Magica 5x7' oil on canvas
Over an old, unused canvas with a fine weave, I added an additional coat of gesso, letting this dry for a few days.
Here I have drawn the full composition using first charcoal to block in the base areas, then alkyd ivory black in a sketchy outline. Once this dried, in about 8 hours, the charcoal is easy to buff away.
Using large filberts and rounds, the background is blocked in. Windsor and Newton's Oil Painting Medium is great for a traditional mixture of Stand Oil and Damar Varnish, thinned with solvent. I've mixed something similar but its nice having a medium that is constistently high quality and easy to pour onto my palette or in a small container. In a half hour or so, the stand oil adds a slightly sticky feel to stiiffen the paint. This makes oil painting less slippery, allowing more control.
Face blocked in. Most of the background on this painting is made up, but I don't like to guess whenever I want to paint a realistic face. You can see my reference on the left, my daughter, who often models for me. This doesn't mean I have to slavishly copy the photo, but use it as a guide to get the results I want.
Caverna Magica final and details
Bearded male profile, experiment 18x24" oil
This is a strange technique, more of an experiment. Basically I block in a fairly finished underpainting, in browns or grays, or in color. Let this dry, then obliterate it with heavy brushwork, or in this case, oil sticks.
First I toned a used canvas to cover an old sketch. I combine palette scrapings, which makes a nice gray, and apply this with a palette knife, then smooth over with a mop bru
I take the underpainting to about this level, or more if done in brown or gray. Its actually easier to paint in one color (brown is a good base for skin tones and green landscapes) because you are just dealing with values, not skin color.
I let this dry for a few days while I work on other paintings.
Knowing I can recover my underpainting, if needed, I liberally coat the painting with heavy color. On this piece I used large oil sticks, which are opaque and very easy to apply without much accuracy. They actually helped me to loosen up more than I would with a brush. I don't recommend them, however, as they can be a sticky mess and you must re-seal them in their plastic sleeves. Great color, tho
Bringing the face back out of the color
I used a little mineral spirits to smear the oil sticks, wanting a blurry base over the underpainting. For color, I just aimed for local patches with the few sticks I have, knowing I am going to blend this together at this stage.
The idea here is to subtract the overlay of color from the blurred surface so that the underpainting comes through. I overdid this on the first attempt, so I smeared more color on and tried again.
This stage actually goes very quickly.
Looking down on this a bit, but you can see where the sharp edges are recovered against what was the blurred background. I still went too far in removing the top layer, but I'm learning, which is always my goal.
Bearded profile demo final
In the end, this was close to what I hoped to achieve. It has some nice sharp areas against softer wash-like shadows and background. If I hadn't used the oil sticks, I probably would not pushed the rich color as much. Since then, I apply the color over brown underpaitnings using wide filberts that help keep my brushwork loose.
Detail from the final.
If I hadn't smeared or blurred the initial coat of oil paint sticks, or just heavy oil paint, I would have had to fight the impasto and lose some control over the edges, which is what I prefer for realistic work.
Another profile image I did of an Italian woman, using the same technique. You can just make out the remainder of the oil sticks here and there.
Laying Down Gouache and oil on panel 24x30"
You can paint oil over gouache (and thin acrylic.) Work on a panel so the surface won't buckle. I use untempered masonite, found at most lumber stores. Get the lighter ocher color, not dark brown as this has oil added. Apply 2-3 coats of gesso after a light sanding. I use a short, soft roller in opposite directions, going over this again to give it a fine grain surface.
You can see my gouache setup for this piece and the one brush I used to block in the base colors. Gouache is water soluable.
Close up of the gouache block in at about 1 hour. Gouache is essentially opaque watercolor, with a glycerin binder. I have been using it for many years for technical illustrations because of its flexible properties. You can blend edges with a moist brush, lift off or 'extract' the paint, even airbrush with it. I prefer using it on illustration board or D"Arches 300 lb rough Watercolor paper. For oil underpainting, you will need to work on a gessoed surface so the oil doesn't soak in.
Here I have sprayed a light mist of water via airbrush then buffed areas with a mop brush to make the image blurry. This is very easy to achieve and one of my favorite techniques. Its similar to thin oil blended with MS or turps. I feel the gouache gives me more interesting effects and much easier to control, dries much faster and is reworkable indefinitely. I used this style off and on for years in my early commercial work, simply doing a finished drawing first, fixing, then washing over it.
Gouache and oil technique
With a damp brush, paper towel and cotton swabs, I lifted out highlight areas to suggest warm sunlight. I made up the rocky background so I experimented a bit with how many sunlit areas I liked. Here and there I blurred sections again with water in a lght airbrush mist. My goal was to achieve a blockin stage, then seal it and use oil to refine areas.
To seal the gouache so the oil paint does not sink in too much, I usually spray a light coat of Krylon workable fixative. Always spray this outside and try not to breathe in any fumes. Use a light side to side overlap. Let this dry for a few hours.
Next, I applied a liberal coat of Liquin (regular) which makes the surface look just like a smooth oil painting. Let dry for a half day then paint oil freely to refine the painting.
You can see the initial gouache strokes in the upper right corner.
For the final, I deepened the colors and toned down the hot areas from the gouache underpainting. I like how the dress blends easily into the foreground shadow. Playing with the gouache initially gave me some ideas of how to approach this moody piece. Experimenting with a variety of techniques keeps me excited about painting since I am curious what the end results will be.
1 hour oil color sketch 10x12" Oil primed canvas
My grandson Henry, at around 8 months. Like most artists, when I'm emotionally attached to the subject the painting process seems effortless. By contrast, a lot of gallery artists create work simply to sell, and so much of it seems to be without much feeling.
Over the years, many artists told me they are much happier painting for themselves and not just to sell. Even Sargent grew to dislike portrait work, escaping to the Alps to paint landscapes or friends and family members willing to pose.
- Acrylic or traditionally primed gesso canvases absorb the first layers of paint, leaving a matte surace as the oil sinks in. For a less absorbent surface, apply a thin coat of alkyd medium or moderate layer of oil color and let this dry completely. I used to spray fix my illustration drawings but for archival fine art this can lead to adhesive problems.
- Here, my remaining palette colors cover a previous sketch. White, Ocher, gray (combing 3+ hues) are opaque; an ideal surface to paint over.
- Raw umber is essentially a clay. Burnt umber is heated raw umber that drys quickly and so is good for oil sketching but will leave sunken, or matte, areas that can affect the color layers above it. It's a good choice for portratis but there are alternatves, such as asphaltum or a mixture of burnt sienna+black, etc.
- I blocked in the base flesh tones with opaque oil using a 'soft' white. For quick sketches like this, I usually use 1/2-1" tapered bristle filberts.
- This is about 20 minutes in.
- The ocher background is a good 'neutral' color that relates to the baby's pink-ish skin. Using a cool color for the background would have made the skin look too red. Similarly, had I started with the background very dark or stark white, I might have applied the base skin too light or too dark by contrast. A neutral, mid value background works best for me.
- While the paint is fresh and wet, I choose edges I want to soften, and those I want to keep sharp.