Alex again

A while ago I posted the block in for this painting. I loved how it looked so much and after the advice from several friends I decided to leave it very painterly. All I did was finish the hands and do a few touch ups on the face. Enjoy :)

Danny

I probably have mentioned on my blog at some point in the past that my best friend passed away 5 years ago on March 7, 2006. It was a hellish time for myself, never mind the tumult of pain, anguish, and suffering his family felt. I had always wanted to create an image that would make me happy as an artist and at the same time memorialize Danny. Yesterday was the Danny Wust Scholarship Fund dinner where I presented his family with the portrait. He and I were fantasy and sci-fi geeks as kids and we spent countless hours playing out scenarios we imagined, always with his younger sister meeting some unfortunate doom because we couldn't save her in time. So without further wait, here is the final painting and a close up.



The painting is oils on paper on masonite and is 18 x 24. I did the drawing and mounted it in class as a demo to show them the Donato technique. For information on how to do, here's a link:
http://www.donatoart.com/technique/mounting/mounting.html

This next drawing was done at Dorian's open studio a couple weeks ago. The model donned an Alice outfit and it was an incredibly beautiful pose. I came ready with gessoed panel and paints so I can bang out a nice painting. For some bizarre reason the paint would not adhere to the surface properly and it was utter disaster. But this drawing came out beautiful, and so it wasn't a total failure.

Alex Piccirillo

Here is the finish of my portrait of Alex. Learned a lot with this technique and i want to explore it more as a means to an end as well as an underpainting. I don't think i have patience working so large with pencils, so I may be doing smaller images in the future. Nothing larger than 16 x 20. Covering large areas of the same color becomes really monotonous real fast, especially since with paint it takes all of 10 seconds to do. But for rendering the figure and getting really bright colors mixed in, it is really fascinating and easy to do. All in all this is probably the most exciting piece I've worked on in a long while, from a technical standpoint. So, enjoy the image :)

Not dead yet

I've been gone from the blog scene for some time now. Busy with work and portfolio and all that jazz. Here are two progress shots of my current pieces that I'm actually having fun working on, which is something I haven't had the pleasure of in quite a long time. The first one is for a class I'm taking at the Yard School called Realist Painting. I think I may have mentioned the technique before but Robert Kogge, our instructor, specializes in a unique method he developed over time using colored pencil and ink or watercolor washes. This is my third piece done in this technique and the first large scale one as well. It's 24" x 30" colored pencil and water color on canvas. You may recognize the sitter from a previous post when I documented my student's work. It's Alex Piccirillo, the master pastelist who was the original instructor of the class until health problems made it hard on him to teach both afternoons and evenings on the same day.



And here's a close up. It's a bit difficult to photograph work done this way, but it's not that bad. Colors are a tad off


And here's a surprisingly quick and thorough 5 hour block in I did on Sunday from the same photoshoot. This one really captures Alex, plus I just love oil paints :P

Dorian Vallejo: Drawings Inspired by Life

I have a few projects going on in the studio that I'll be finishing up before I show anything on here. In the meantime I've decided to write about art books that have made a mark on me and how I create. As artists we gain insight and inspiration by looking at the work of other artists, past and present. Websites are great, but I personally love having a physical, tangible source to look at when I'm in my studio. It also doesn't help that I don't get Wi-FI down in my studio :P

While I bought this particular book last June it has remained close to my drafting table and easel, easily accessible at all times to browse through when I need a little shot of creative juice. Many people who follow this blog probably know his work or maybe even know him. Several of us who studied at the Illustration Master Class had the honor of having his father as an instructor, the fantasy illustrator Boris Vallejo. Hosting an all-day open studio in his own home every Saturday or Sunday, Dorian Vallejo is an easily accessible and generous artist who is always willing to help out with technical advice, life lessons, and just a great conversationalist. His portraits capture more than just the likeness of the sitter, he is able to bring their personality to life on canvas. But his first art book doesn't chronicle his career as a portraitist or even showcase any of his portrait commissions. This book is entirely personal work. Specifically they're his life drawings.

Now, don't expect a book with academic drawings of figures created from life. There is nothing Atelier about his work, nor is there any hint of specific formulas. Dorian is a master technician, wielding his drawing tool with the precision of a Ninja swordsman. But he is also playful with his media. This sets him apart from a lot of other representational artists. He has a voice all his own, and every page you turn yields a delightful feast to the eyes. Anyone can place a nude on a page and call it a day. Dorian creates a thoughtful narrative with every drawing he presents. These wonderfully gestural and rhythmic creations appeal to the senses. You want to reach in and join the figures as they dance on the page, or engage you with a beckoning stare. Anyone who genuinely appreciates art depicting the human form will fall instantly in love with this book, and rightfully so. It is a visual feast for the eyes. Here are some images from the pages inside:





For an incredibly reasonable price he will create a drawing inside for you. On his site he has a gallery of some of these Collector's Edition drawings that are enough to entice anyone. For more information on the book and the artist, visit here:
http://drawingsfromlife.com/Pages/Book/Book_Page.html

I sell stuff now

I opened up an Etsy account. I wanna try and sell my stuff. There'll be mostly smaller pieces, studies, etc and a few larger pieces for sale. Here's the link and I'll post it on the size somewhere.

http://www.etsy.com/people/Painterification

enjoy

Goodbye 2010

I have been very absent from the blog this month for many reasons, namely that I haven't been making any art. There has been a lot of introspection and figuring out what I want to do with my art, portfolio, and career. So art was put on hold. I finished up a few commissions that have been lingering in my studio for a while and I've done a few sketches here and there but nothing major except for the charcoal drawing from the last post, which I'm reposting with a better quality image with revisions. So for the last day of 2010 I'm posting the finished pencil portrait I did of a family friend's baby and the charcoal nude. There'll be a lot of interesting things going on in 2011, so I hope at least. I wish everyone a Happy New Year. Party hard, but be safe :)

Charcoal experimentation

Last week I got the urge to just stop painting and start drawing up a storm. Like, make finished pieces using only drawing media. So with that in mind, I browsed the wealth of stock photos on deviantart for something that would pique my interest. I found an image by Marcus Ranum, of mjranum_stock (I strongly suggest looking him up on deviantart) and created this quick study.



It's actually a horizontally orientated photo, since it would be rather uncomfortable to sit like that. But for my purposes, I just turned the photo. This is done on gray charcoal paper with graphite and colored pencil. Originally I was intending to transfer this to canvas and do a color pencil/ink wash finish since I really want to try and explore that medium a bit more. I created this charcoal abstract, I guess you can call it, based on Richard Schmid's old figure painting book. It was intended for a different photo by the same artist. All I did was sprinkle powdered charcoal on the surface, wet it, brush it around, added matte medium to create a cool gray tone and make the surface non-absorbent. Then I sprinkle some more powder and sprayed heavier concentrations of water and tilted the board letting it drip here and there. Voila! I noticed that some of the gestures within the charcoal mimicked the photo I had already used, so went ahead and started drawing it again. Perhaps colored pencil might work on the charcoal surface? Nope, so I quickly erased what I could. After looking at it today, I noticed some trouble areas that I will address tonight after work, but here's the process so far. Bear with me, most of them are cell phone pics.







After I finish it up and fix what I don't like, I'll post a better picture of the final image. All in all though, I love the process. It has been years since I used charcoal. I couldn't stand it because it would get all on my hands and in turn all over my paper. Since the surface is already toned and non-absorbent, the charcoal is easily erased or brushed off and any marks I may make by accident are barely noticeable. But the reality is I hate getting my hands dirty. I ended up using charcoal pencils, which on the matte medium surface erases completely off like magic with virtually no residual marks left. Needless to say, I'll be playing with this much more. Enjoy!

Not a whole lot

So this weekend I spent a good portion of my time medicated, fighting off a dastardly cold that decided to infiltrate my body at the worst possible time. Despite it's best efforts though, I still managed to get a lot of work done. I finished up a smaller painting, brought my cigar self-portrait to the final stage, and put the finishing touches on my final colored pencil/ink wash drawing. I'll keep it short and simple today, let the art do the talking.



This is the final for my colored pencil and ink wash piece. It has been an incredibly fascinating learning experience. Once I get my portfolio done, I'm going to explore this technique a bit more and personalize it to fit my stylistic needs.



Hands have always been a weak point, so this is a personal victory. Also learned that in painting my arm hair it is simpler to do it wet-in-wet as opposed to painting the skin first and then dry brushing the hair on. It feels more natural.



I know this is cheating, but I had no time or success (I really tried) in doing a small self-portrait this weekend to make up for first-friday self portraits. But I thought this would make an interesting replacement. A bit of a throwback to freshman year. The assignment was to appropriate a master work and make it our own. This drawing is based on Leo Da Vinci's "five grotesque heads" ink drawing. And it's five self-portraits in one. Huzzah!

The Palette: Fin

So I have woken up sick and it took every last bit of energy and motivation to bring my laptop up from my studio to make this final post. I woke up 2 hours later than I anticipated, sleeping through both alarms, and I justified a 40 minute nap just half an hour after I got up. Suffice it to say, I don't think I can work up the mojo to start a whole new painting for First Friday Self-Portrait... today at least. But I will finish my lengthy discussion on palettes and close off with a few helpful tips.

Having explored the palettes of four exceptional painters I think it is safe to make the following recommendations:

1. As a start, try having at least a warm and a cool of each color. You can split this so you only focus on the primaries and have a few secondaries on the palette, or you can have a warm and cool of all of them. It comes down to preference. Plus temperature is relative. Cadmium Red will appear warm next to Viridian, but next to Cadmium Orange it will appear slightly cooler. Donato exemplifies this with his use of Mud.

2. For some reason the red/orange/yellow colors have more opaque/transparent variety than the green/blue/violet colors, which tend towards the transparent. Having a good balance of transparent warm and cools is important. As far as the latter range of colors are concerned, they work best as transparent pigments in my opinion. I replaced Greenish Yellow with Cinnabar Green Light because it is opaque and just as warm. So the browns I mix with it are very similar and they have the added benefit of being opaque. I try to have an opaque or semi-opaque and transparent of each color except for orange, yellow, and violet. Cad Orange is enough orange, plus Transparent Red Oxide and Burnt Sienna are pretty orangey. Aureolin is a good transparent yellow, but I have no need for it. Magenta is the only violet range color I use and it is transparent. I can mix my own opaque violet since I don't use it in large quantities. Fun fact: all oil colors are inherently transparent given the nature of the medium. Titanium White is the most opaque pigment.

3. Try to use only permanent pigments that are lightfast. There are a couple systems that determine how lightfast a pigment is when you look at the labeling. If you see I through V that is the ASTM (American Society for Testing Materials). The lower the numeral, the higher the permanence. So if you have a tube of color with a V, chuck it. It's not worth the money you paid since in all likelihood it will fade in a couple of years. There is also the Blue Woolscale system that uses a regular number system from 1 to 8. The higher the number, the better the pigment. For more info go here: http://www.paintmaking.com/testing.htm

4. It is good to experiment with a lot of colors first and see which ones you use more often. Yes, it costs a lot of money immediately. But in the long run you end up saving since hopefully by then you'll know how much and how often you use each color. Titanium White is the one color you should always buy in the largest tube possible since you go through it pretty fast.

5. Figure out what kind of painter you are. Are you the type of artist who uses a limited palette of a handful of colors, or do you roll with half table-top sized palettes with more pigments than you have fingers, toes, and other appendages if you really want to get crazy? Do you paint using thin glazes of color like Maxfield Parrish? Perhaps you build up subtle tones, gradually increasing the viscosity of your paint in the light areas and keep the darks transparent like pretty much every other painter in history? Or maybe you paint opaquely all over with juicy impasto, focusing more on color and value relationships a la Impressionists? Maybe you don't really care about form and tradition, opting for the immediacy of abstraction in evoking responses from the viewer. Regardless, take the time to find out how you paint as it will greatly affect your color decisions.

6. Don't be cheap. I've heard a lot of people say it doesn't really matter what paint you use. They're right to a certain extent since it isn't the material that makes bad art, but poorly trained and delusional artists. If Leonardo had only Winton or Van Gogh oil paints, I'm sure he could still paint the Mona Lisa. But most tube paints are made with crappy oil anyway, nowhere near the same quality oil that painters would purify and cleanse on their own in their studios 100s of years ago. Ideally, grinding your own pigments is the way to go, and I know of a few painters who do that. But who has that kind of time? A dab of of Old Holland or Williamsburg Cad Red goes farther than a giant glop of the same color in the Winton brand. Make the extra investment, you won't regret it and the difference is noticeable.

7. Lay out your palette in an arrangement that suits your needs. I lay mine out ROYGBIV because no one ever told me how to arrange my colors. So naturally I was inclined to use the rainbow. Richard Schmid lays his colors out from lightest value to darkest (not including white). You can put two piles of white in the middle and on either side of that arrange your warms and cools. But please, do not just place them at random. My young teen students learned the hard way that placing them wherever makes a mess. I trained em well :)

8. This isn't really a big trend, but some people find it important to use colors that are safe. This applies especially to anyone who grinds their own pigment. A lot of colors are poisonous, but when proper care is taken you don't have to worry about it.

9. Learn how each color mixes with another color. The color charts are a great exercise, but so is trial and error with a touch of intuition. If you're a disciplined enough person with the patience of a saint, I STRONGLY encourage you to make the color charts. It's a long standing exercise in the education of classically trained painters. If you're a free spirit, just go with it. But keep a mental note of which mixtures look like poop and which ones glow like gems.

I would add a 10th, but odd numbers are more appealing to me. Especially anything related to the number three. Three three's is just downright beautiful. I hope you enjoyed these posts. They were a labor of love, which I think came across. Stay tuned next week for the belated self-portrait as well as some other progress shots and informational tid-bits. Have a great weekend everyone. And try not to get sick!