November 16, 2008:
A recent head cold kept me out of the studio more often than I would have liked.
But it did have an upside: I painted its portrait.
The painting came together quickly, during breaks from lying around and watching TV all day. It was also quite small, which helped.
In other self-portrait news...
A work in progress: sp-21 part D. I worked a little on refining some shapes in the figure but that's about it. At this stage, I continue to make decisions about composition and figure out value relationships.
So far, the painting is more about mass drawing than anything else, which I tend to enjoy. There is an interesting 'back and forth' that takes place between positives and negatives. The head, for example, was painted solidly as a dark rectangle, and then carved away with white. Going further, I will paint the features of the face and add volume to the shape of the head. The same treatment will take place beyond the figure.
One of the most important things about these early stages is to get the shapes right, because the subsequent layers depend on an accurate framework of shape and value. Although I will be painting with opaque lights, only translucent glazes will manipulate the darks, thus their shapes must be correct. (And these shapes aren't there yet... more to come.)
November 07, 2008:
A work in progress: sp-21 part C. Traditional painting deals with one overwhelming and contradicting force: Reality. A painting is made up of marks on a flat surface; the painter uses color, value, and perspective, to fool the eye. The most illusionistic trompe l'oeil paintings are still just marks on a surface. A good painting --if it is the artist's intent-- directs the viewer's attention away from this flatness, before doing anything else.
One strategy for achieving this goal focuses on a specific handling of lights and darks. The idea that darks should be handled transparently, and lights should be handled opaquely, is both simple and logical. Transparent passages of paint are, by nature, thin. As such, they are not likely to catch light or protrude from the painting's flat surface. Opaque paint, on the other hand, often reveals brush-marks and impasto passages, which will very likely catch light as they protrude from the painting's surface.
The painter should take advantage of these qualities, rather than resist them. For instance, the light that is caught by a thick passage of paint will not distract the viewer, or contradict the painted image, if it occurs in an area where light belongs. In such an instance, the light area may seem lighter, and more 'real' as the painted image steps out of the surface and interacts with the light of the room.
The history of painting is full of these kinds of wonderful solutions. The difficulty with this one, in particular, is that it requires a tremendous amount of discipline.
When painting, I keep this concept in mind but deviate frequently (with, and without reason). It is my intention here, with this painting, to adhere more closely to this system of darks and lights.
Continuing to work with a limited palette of Burnt Sienna and Ivory Black, I laid down a transparent dark, onto which I worked with Titanium White. I am still organizing the composition and refining shapes, but the general suggestion has become clear.
Continuous:
I teach an observational painting class at O.S.A. (Oregon Society of Artists).
The Portrait, Still life, and Landscape are among the subjects covered. Focusing on observational drawing and painting, students learn to analyze what they see and record it with accuracy. Various observational techniques such as sight-size drawing, and tips for achieving color accuracy, are discussed.
Class time: Mondays, 1:30 - 4:30pm.
Oregon Society of Artists
2185 SW Park Place
Portland, OR 97205
503-228-0706
www.oregonsocietyofartists.com