Representational Painting class

To keep with my proposed plan of updating the blog three times a week, here is my Wednesday post. Alex Piccirillo is an art instructor at the Yard School of Art where I work (part of the museum) and has been there since before the museum took it over. He is also a celebrated Master Pastelist and all around amazing individual. You can see some of his work here:http://www.gallery51.org/artists.php?artist_id=59

He's a self-proclaimed student of the Ashcan School, specializing in images of normal, everyday people doing what they do. Having been a trained boxer in his youth, he is also an authority on boxing history and creates powerful images using the subject matter.

Thats the man himself. I mention him because the class I teach was started by and taught by Alex for many years. Throughout the year he's had a series of surgeries to heal an open wound left over from an earlier procedure to remove ankle hardware. Him and I being good friends, he made sure I took over his spot. So without any more yapping, here are some images from last week's class. It was the last night with our lovely model Melinda. Hope you enjoy.






These were some shots of them working in progress. They're a very strong group, many have years of painting experience under their belt while a couple are young aspiring artists. Some take the class because they like making art for fun (don't we all) and it is their hobby, others want to further their skills and pursue it professionally. To those who have never painted or have very minimal painting experience I suggest using the Zorn palette. While it takes a thorough knowledge of color theory and painting in general to master using just the four colors, it eliminates the clutter of having too many colors to choose from forcing them to make calculated decisions about value and tones. Fellow artist and friend Aaron Miller has started a great blog where he posts information on the individual palettes of artists, living and long gone. Here is a link to his post on Zorn, which in turn has more links to info on the artist:
http://oilcolorpalettes.blogspot.com/2010/06/limited-palette-of-anders-zorn.html

And here are their finished images. Colleen did a painting but was away having fun at the Rose Frantzen workshop the previous week, so for her last day with this pose she decided to start a very nicely executed charcoal drawing. Ronnie, always pushing herself, finished her oil portrait and then did a smaller study (which we both decided in the end had more life and character). Unfortunately a few of the students were not available on that day to photograph their finished pieces.

Colleen


Ronnie



Emily


Hana


Jane


Karen


Sylvia

Pan Pastel experiment 1

I'm going to try to update my blog at least three times a week, M-W-F preferably. Sort of following the posting model of Paolo Rivera. This is mainly in my attempt to make this more of a serious art blog with information and what not instead of just personal ramblings. So for today's post I'll give another step by step demo, this time chronicling my first drawing with Pan Pastel. If anyone knows of Brooklyn artist David Jon Kassan you know he uses this stuff quite frequently and is frankly a master of the medium.



Unfortunately I didn't think to make this a step-by-step till about an hour into the drawing, but this is how it looked after the first hour. Excuse the quality as well, the first 3 images were taken with my cell phone. This is done entirely from life with an actual human skull that I borrowed from my job (and have yet to return, hehe) I started it like I would any other drawing; with light, barely visible gestural lines. I then started finding the major dark shapes and blocking them in. Interestingly enough I found that using the pan pastel I can draw similar to the way I paint, which is a nice bonus. The shadow values get massed in with large strokes and then with my kneaded eraser I start finessing the drawing and picking out lights, carving away at the form.



Second go around, this is the drawing after another hour. I'm picking out more lights and little nuances with my eraser, but now I've also started going in with my pencil to get the really fine detail. At this stage I'm rendering cracks and sutures separating the different bones of the skull. Again not as easy to see since its a cell phone pic. I've started working on the teeth as well, getting in the basic overall shapes of the light and dark



This is probably the same stage as before, but I actually took a picture with my camera. I included both because I'm not too sure :)



This is the finished drawing, taken with my camera so you can see some of the detail and rendering. All in all it took about 4 hours to complete, give or take. The process of drawing is similar from start to finish for me. I push and pull the lights and darks. Another important factor in being an artist is that we get to choose what to include and omit. While this is one of the most detailed drawings I have done in a very long time, a big part of that believability is that I didn't show EVERY single piece of information that I saw. There are far too many cracks, holes, stains, and other minutiae on that skull for me to have rendered. The drawing would have lost it's life.

So in closing, I'm very happy with the end result and am proud to include this in my portfolio of grad school images under the life drawing requirements. Wednesday I'll post images from my Representation Painting class, which I teach on Wednesday evenings. Until then, I bid thee adieu and have a great day!

3 hour study

Hello all. I don't think I've mentioned it before on the blog, but over the summer I undertook a time consuming process to cleanse and sun-thicken my own linseed oil directly from cold pressed, unrefined flax oil. The benefits, you may ask? Well commercially sold linseed oils dry slower than snails crawl, they're chemically refined, and they just don't really compare. The home-made sun-thickened oil I made dries within 30 hours and is completely pure and simply a delight. My step-father has joked countless times that it's "organic" linseed oil, since it is untainted by any alkali and other stuff.

All this is thanks to my friend Louis Velasquez, an art teacher and artist from San Diego, who took it upon himself to find out what the old master's used. He doesn't claim that his medium is THE Old Master's "secret" medium, he can only guess at that himself and as we have both said, they really were just amazingly knowledgeable with their craft. But his research is extensive and has taken up the better part of 10 years or so. And if you look at some of their paintings, in particular the works of Van Eyk, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, just to name a few, their work show an incredible freshness and preservation considering they're 100s of years old. Rembrandt's in particular look like they just came out of his studio. Bastard!

For my part, I have read a few books specifically on Rembrandt and Velazquez (the two old masters I admire the most) and I can say that Louis's research comes pretty close to what cross-sections of their paint samples show is in their paint. For the most part, oil, calcium, and proteins are the most common ingredients (Rembrandt was ahead of his time in using sand, glass, and God knows what else to achieve his desired effects). Its completely archival and non-detrimental to one's health, as well. Bonus!

So that said, mixing some of the oil with calcium carbonate leads to a thick, viscous medium that when mixed with paints adds transparency to the colors and gives it more body. Oiling out, you take an egg white/oil mixture, called an emulsion, and rub that on the surface and then work into that. NOW... all this is for the sake of permanency and working without any solvents and resins, which in the long run and if in an unventilated room is pretty bad for your health. And as I mentioned, its completely archival.

I've experimented with the medium and emulsion and initially I was not a fan. Particularly of the emulsion. The oil itself is friggin awesome, and those I have given samples to attest to said awesomeness. Having painted for many years using various mixtures of solvents and resins with oils and what not, I became used to the soft, washy effects that I could achieve early on. That was not possible when using this stuff. In effect, I was discouraged. But last night I slowed down and worked a tad more methodically than I'm used to working. But the end result blew my mind. So here is a nice step-by-step progress of last night's painting.

I worked how I normally worked, except I was more careful in my application. My color mixing remained spontaneous so that a lot of random bits of colors and happy accidents still occurred. To those who read my blog and may not be painters, and even for those who are painters and just like seeing how others work:

My palette is arranged as follows: Chinese Vermillion, Cad Red Light (sometimes just Cadmium Red instead of those two), Quinacridone Red, Permanent Rose, Cad Orange, Winsor Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Greenish Yellow, Viridian, Cobalt Blue, Manganese Pthalo Blue, Magenta, Transparent Red Oxide, and a Titanium White/Flake White mixture enhanced with extra Titanium white ground pigment (its a really bright white)

I first lightly drew in the skull with a mix of transparent red oxide and cobalt blue. Once finished, I began blocking in the major shapes of light and dark working from top to bottom. At this point I'm concerned with exaggerating the colors I see so that as I layer over that, it shows thru and enhances the overlaying color. Working slowly and patiently, I study the shapes and redraw as I see fit. I keep the shadows transparent and the lights opaque. The main colors used for the warm light areas are different mixtures of white, cad red light, quinacridone, all the yellows, greenish yellow and magenta. To cool areas down I used manganese pthalo blue and viridian.

The nature of this medium allows for literally glazing wet into wet. So once some of the colors were pretty set, I began glazing warm and cool tones over some areas and worked into those glazes. I just continued pushing and pulling the lights and the darks, the warms and the cools. Certain colors were exaggerated, for instance the blues in the shadow and some of the reddish shadows turning the form. The finishing touches were added by dipping my brush into the emulsion and mixing a puddle of syrupy color on my palette and applying that in thicker, juicier strokes. By the end of the 3 hours, this is the result.
As of this writing, the paint is tacky, but doesn't rub off on the skin if touched.

For anyone who wants to read more about the whole process and if you have questions for my friend Louis, I suggest visiting his website http://www.calcitesunoil.com/ I really can't wait to start working larger with this stuff!

Thoughts on the fragility of life

Tonight my mom's best friend Carmen passed away after a battle with liver cancer. I didn't know her very well, but the few times I met her it was evident what it was about her person that resonated so strongly with my mom. They met thru a real estate transaction when my mom sold her a building a handful of years ago. This very unassuming, humbly dressed, down to earth woman shook the very foundations of everything my mother believed to be associated with wealthy people. Surely they all drive luxury cars and wear designer clothing right? I mean, what's the point of having all that cash if not to lavishly spend it on completely unnecessary things?

Here's what I know about Carmen. She came from Peru I don't know how many years ago, didn't speak the language (still could barely speak it), and with her siblings opened up a restaurant in NY. That one restaurant led to about two others being opened, all with some of the most authentic latin cuisine that money could buy. This lady, born into a very poor, antiquated world where women were meant to stay at home, take care of the house, and please their men, defied the rules and customs of her people and became a very successful entrepreneur. Despite the terrible drama that unfolded with a divorce from a man who doesn't deserve to be treated better than a cold-blooded murderer, she held her head up high with only the well-being of her three children on her mind. That, and money never got to her head. She had it, but didn't need to show it. She was a perfect model for the kind of person my mother wanted to be, and I'm thankful everyday for the friendship that existed between the two.

My mom's not one to keep many close friends and a lot of times they turn out not being very much in the way of friends anyhow. Money leads to greed leads to jealousy leads to friend infidelity. So for her to have someone who just loved to sit and chat about anything and everything, never cared for gossip or bullshit, and truly loved life and her family, it made her very happy. She was a different person with Carmen. In her last weeks alive my mom spent a lot of time with her, helping her sister take care of her and just spending quality time with her friend. She never let her sickness bring others down, always preferring to keep it to herself. Yesterday the three of them spent the day outside picnicking while it was gorgeous. And today, Carmen left the world surrounded by the people she most cherished. So now all that is left are the fond memories that her family, friends, and my mother have with her.

And it is because of this event that I write this post. Life is too short to worry about silly things like artifice and wealth. Too many people seem to think that material things leads to happiness. There are far more important things that we are blessed to have, and in reality is all we need. Love, above all, is what drives me to be who I am and is the reason why I have a sunny disposition. Believe in whatever deity you wish. Hell, you can be an atheist, it doesn't really matter. But as long as love exists, I think anything can be overcome and life be much happier. Carmen gave a lot of love, and even with the wealth she had she never lost sight of where she came from and who she was.

We should all take time to just appreciate and love the life we live, the people we know, and the things we already do have. We are richer than we think when we're able to really prioritize what is important. Don't let little obstacles stop you from pursuing your dreams, anything is possible if you love yourself and really want it. And with that, I wish you all a lot of love and good night.

RIP Carmen... Gracias por la amistad que le diste a mi mama. Por gracias de ti, ella hoy en dia es una persona mejor y mas fuerte. Y puedes descansar sabiendo que tu familia te quiere muchisimo y que siempre te extrañara. Yo se que mi mejor amigo Danny esta arriba con usted, cuidandolo a nosotros. Descanse en paz!

Some works in progress

A shot of my studio as it looks now, with a big peg board installed on the far wall. Helps me work on multiple images at a time, thus freeing up both my easels and my drafting table for other works. Plus it covers up that gawd awful green! The rest of the images are things I've been working on for the past two days. Its been an incredibly productive 48 hours. The nude with the pink galxyish swirly stuff behind her is 23x23, oil on Strathmore 500 and will be my submission for the Tata Gala, hopefully it gets in! I've included the finished drawing and some progress shots of the oil painting itself. The galaxy I did Wednesday morning after rewatching Donato's instructional DVD. Love that man! And the nude back is a restarted painting. If you look on my studio wall you can see the original one started from life. I took photos to finish it at home and while working on it I found so many horrifying errors and the way I was painting didn't allow for easy corrections, so I scrapped it and started over. I drew it out on illustration board and started the oil painting Thursday evening. Enjoy!

Drawings

Alexandra (the nude) is a helluva great model who I intend to use more frequently in the upcoming months (if funds allow). I'm actually working on a painting of her right now that will be done soonish. The portrait was from one of Dorian Vallejo's life drawing sessions about two months ago. It was a terrible evening where nothing came out right. I must have gone thru like 10 sheets of paper in the 6 hour period, all of them failures. So the last pose was really awesome. First try, crap. Discouraged I pulled out a second sheet of paper. Crap again. I all but gave up and tried again, I'm not giving up in the presence of one of my favorite artists. It was worth it! This was done in the last 20 minutes of the pose, but I captured her look, her mood, the subtlety and softness of her face, and to further boost my deflated ego Dorian sat on the floor staring at it for a good 5 minutes, thoroughly entranced. All in all, a very good night!

Looooong overdue

These are a collection of images i have created in the past 2 1/2 months or so. The drawings of the female model (Liz) and the loose painting of lady in the red shirt (Michelle) were all done at Dorian's house and his workshop, respectively. I included the finished White Rose self-portrait and a close up. Also a white pastel self-portrait done on an abstracted acrylic base. And a life drawing that I reworked for the sake of experimenting with washes and what not. Enjoy :)

Portraits

So I've been getting a lot of portrait commissions in the past week and am strongly considering going that route. In the coming months I'll be updating this blog with the pieces I complete for clients as well as personal works to add flare to what I can offer as a portrait artist. The first drawing is a self-portrait I did a couple weeks back that is currently hanging on the wall at work for the Faculty Drawing Show. Lots of leftover hulkish white roses from a wedding, a nice burgundy red shirt and voila. Second is a drawing of my boss's beautiful one-year old daughter Alexandra. Possibly one of the most difficult drawings I've ever done, but it was worth it in the end. And lastly is my best friend Meg who modeled for me before she moved into her brothers after staying with me for about two months. I took several shots of her in different poses, so they will provide me with art fodder for quite some time. This drawing on wood was actually really fun. Its 10x10 inches but I want to make it larger, possibly 20x20 or 30x30 even, again with the intention of adding it to a portraiture portfolio as something different to offer other than the traditional portrait. Hope you guys enjoy.

New works

So I've been keeping moderately busy with art. I began experimenting with copper as a ground. Its very interesting. Initially I prepared it using liquin impasto after sanding it down a bit for some tooth. I painted my brother Andy. It came out really nice and a lot of my fellow coworkers and artists thoroughly enjoyed it, even have a tentative commission! However... it was pretty much impossibly to add extra layers to finish the painting because any bit of solvent just completely destroyed the underlying paint layers. So I just, begrudgingly, scratched off the paint and prepared it the old fashioned way with denatured alcohol and garlic (i know, weird). This painting is last nights efforts on that ground and it feels so much better, oddly enough. I want to keep practicing. I think the painting got too tight for my towards the end and I lost some of the bravura that the first painting had, PLUS I really want to capitalize on the reflective surface and keep the shadows more transparent instead of as opaque as they are here. Otherwise, I'm happy with how this came out.

The skull is borrowed from work, its a real one too. Its almost done. The two drawings are just weekly head studies I do at the art school when I can sit in on a class here and there. The male head, Vinnie, was done in 30 minutes and I wish I could paint him, but alas I have to work :( The female head is the lovely Cheryl and I did her in 20 minutes. She's an evening model so I'll probably do a 3 hour oil sketch on wednesday. Thats all for now folks!

Art Dump 3

This is the last of the blog art dump. The skull is what I'm currently working on in my studio. Its an actual human skull I borrowed from work. There will probably be like two or three more paintings done in different angles. Primarily its being used to better my drawing/painting abilities from life, especially since I don't have a model readily available. After these I'll probably set up a still life and work on several in between hiring models. The second piece is a three hour painting I did yesterday of my model friend Marisa. I can't express how happy I am to have actually gotten a likeness in such a short time and I can honestly say that it was a huge milestone, breakthrough painting for me as far as life work is concerned. Last piece is a drawing from life done in a class I was originally taking at the museum but ended up teaching for the remainder of it's duration due to an emergency surgery had by the teacher, master pastelist Alex Picirrillo. Its the same model, Marisa, and its about 4 weeks (3 hour classes) of work. Its pretty much done and I'm really happy with it. I also used Wolff Carbon pencils for the first time, and I can honestly say I am not a fan. But this is my current work, all done within the last two weeks except for the drawing of Marisa. Enjoy!