Sunday, November 8, 2009

Portrait Painting, Two Masters, Week 3's Painting Finished

Finally, I am calling it done -- the Rembrandt-like study. Obviously, Rembrandt was a great master, and I am not. However, I like that it captures some of the ideas of Rembrandt: the dark moodiness, the feeling that is comes out of the darkness, the islands of light. So here is is in all its glory.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Portrait Painting, Two Masters, Week 3's Painting Continued

In class we are no longer working on our Rembrandt-like study. However, I took a picture of the painting so that I could continue it.

I was not entirely happy with the under-painting for this particular portrait, so I made some corrections, particularly with the shirt and the hands with opaque paint.

In doing that I liked the figure much better. However, I lost some of the transparency from glazing. For instance, the head now looks like a cardboard cutout. After the paint dries, I plan to move in with some glazes, to see if I can get that homogeneous look and feel again.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Portrait Painting, Two Masters, Week 3

This is my second portrait painting class with Mariana Carreras. In this class we will be studying the works of two masters, Rembrandt and Frida Kahlo. I am working in oils.

For week three, we spent the final session on our painting, attempting to use some of the techniques that Rembrandt used. This time we played with color. We used translucent paints with medium, like raw sienna for some yellows, and burnt sienna for some reds. We also used some opaques like yellow ochre and titanium white. I even snuck in some cadmium red, even though that was not available in Rembrandt's time.

This week I focused in on the face of the model. In fact, the rest of the painting is pretty much untouched. As a result, I am including pictures of the full painting and a close-up of the face, so you can see all the color I used.

Obviously, the painting is not finished. I did take some pictures of the model, and, as much as I hate painting from photos, I plan to continue this painting.



Thursday, October 29, 2009

Portrait Painting, Two Masters, Week 2

This is my second portrait painting class with Mariana Carreras. In this class we will be studying the works of two masters, Rembrandt and Frida Kahlo. I am working in oils.

This is week two of our study of Rembrandt. This week we made a glaze of a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, covered the whole painting, and scumbled in some titanium white. In particular, we tried to give emphasis to our areas of focus, leaving the other areas dark, similar to what Rembrandt might have done. In my case, the areas of focus are the model's face and the skull the model was holding.

Here is the result of week two's work:

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Portrait Painting, Two Masters, Week 1

This is my second portrait painting class with Mariana Carreras. In this class we will be studying the works of two masters, Rembrandt and Frida Kahlo. I am working in oils.

For week one, we started studying Rembrandt. In doing that, we tried to create a painting with contrast between light and dark, focusing details on what we want to show, and subduing the details of what is not the focus.

The painting I am posting here is not complete, by any means. This is the result of the first of three classes we will spend on it. In fact, this is simply the underpainting, or grisaille.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Portrait Painting 101, Week 6

My new class at The Drawing Studio is called Portrait Painting 101, with Mariana Carreras. I am working in oils.

This week, the last week of the class, we continued the portrait that we started last week. Like the first painting, I scumbled in some paint. This time, however, I scumbled in some flesh tone, using Titanium and Cadmium Red, to add some variation. I also went in with some Cerulean Blue in the shadows. Here is the result:

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Portrait Painting 101, Week 5

My new class at The Drawing Studio is called Portrait Painting 101, with Mariana Carreras. I am working in oils.

For week five, we started a new painting. This painting, we went back to the indirect method. This week we painted a model holding a wine glass, starting with the under-painting, using burnt umber over a burnt sienna glaze.

Here is my under-painting. Next week we will complete it.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Portrait Painting 101, Weeks 3 and 4

My new class at The Drawing Studio is called Portrait Painting 101, with Mariana Carreras. I am working in oils.

For weeks three and four, we worked on the same painting using the direct method. With the direct method, there is no transparency, glazes, or scumbling. We simply mixed up some opaque flesh color and went to town.

It went pretty well. In fact, my painting was the only one in class that resembled the model (which in my opinion had a lot to do with luck).

Here is the result:

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Portrait Painting 101, Week 2

My new class at The Drawing Studio is called Portrait Painting 101, with Mariana Carreras. I am working in oils.

For week 2, we took last week's painting an scumbled in some titanium white and cadmium red on a terra verde glaze.

This is the result:

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Portrait Painting 101, Week 1

My new class at The Drawing Studio is called Portrait Painting 101, with Mariana Carreras. I am working in oils.

The first week, we laid in portrait on a glazed canvas, using one pigment, burnt umber. The highlights are achieved by pulling up paint with solvent.

This is what I did for week one:

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Root Vegetables In A Square Bowl

I tried to play around with a looser style with this one. I am not sure if it was successful, but here it is in all its glory.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Drawing Portraits, Week 5

This is a series on a class called Drawing Portraits, at the Drawing Studio. In this class, as the name would suggest, we will focus on the human face.

This week, rather than working from a live model, we worked from a photo. I chose a photo of Jazz legend, Art Tatum. Here is the result.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Drawing Portraits, Week 4

This is a series on a class called Drawing Portraits, at the Drawing Studio. In this class, as the name would suggest, we will focus on the human face.

This week, like last week, we started with some gestures and then settled into a long pose. This is what I ended up with this week:

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Barnett

Here is a painting that I did on my new easel. It is a still life of a wine bottle and glass. The wine bottle was a 2002 Barnett Cabernet Sauvignon.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Drawing Portraits, Week 3

This is a series on a class called Drawing Portraits, at the Drawing Studio. In this class, as the name would suggest, we will focus on the human face.

For week three, like last week, after some instruction, we drew a live model. We started with some quick gesture drawings, and then settled in for a longer pose.

Here is what I drew for the long pose:

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Drawing Portraits, Week 2

This is a series on a class called Drawing Portraits, at the Drawing Studio. In this class, as the name would suggest, we will focus on the human face.

For week one, after some instruction, we drew a live model. We started with some quick gesture drawings, and then settled in for a longer pose.

Here is what I drew:

Here are two quick two minute gesture drawings.


This is a longer pose.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Painting Studio with Betina Fink, Week 4 and 5

This is a six part series -- well, actually a four part series -- on the class I'm taking at The Drawing Studio, called Painting Studio with Betina Fink. All the work I will be doing in the class will be in acrylic paint.

The reason this is now a four part series is two fold. First, for the last two classes, we've worked on the same painting. Also, I will miss the last class. So, there you go.

Like I said above, the last two weeks we've worked on the same painting. Basically, it is a still life of musical instruments and flowers. This is what I created:

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Art Show

Today was an exciting day. I had a piece of art that I created featured in an art show. The art show took place at The Drawing Studio, and included art from the Drawing Fundamentals classes. The piece of mine in the show was a still life of desert vegetation done in graphite. In the picture below, it is the one at the top.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Painting Studio with Betina Fink, Week 3

This is a six part series on the class I'm taking at The Drawing Studio, called Painting Studio with Betina Fink. All the work I will be doing in the class will be in acrylic paint.

For week three, we did two things. First, we added glaze -- basically watered down paints -- to last week's painting. Second, we did a new piece. This one was of a knotted yellow cloth hanging under some lights. We primed the canvas with yellow ochre. The idea was to let some of the primed color through the subject.

Below is the one of the knotted yellow cloth:

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Painting Studio with Betina Fink, Week 2

This is a six part series on the class I'm taking at The Drawing Studio, called Painting Studio with Betina Fink. All the work I will be doing in the class will be in acrylic paint.

This week we did a black and white painting of various items lined up with lights over them. There were many items to choose from and we had to choose three. I chose a conch shell, a gravy boat, and a clay figurine.

There are a few things that I wish that I'd done better. Compositionally, the three subjects are not integrated enough. It is a little like a slot machine. Also, scale-wise the gravy boat is huge, and conch shell is small -- again, making it look like three different paintings.

There are some things I like, though. For instance, I think that the texture of the various items are well represented. To be honest, I'm am just glad you can tell what the three items are in the painting. To me, that is mission accomplished, seeing that this is one of the first paintings I've done in about 20 years.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Painting Studio with Betina Fink, Week 1

This is a six part series on the class I'm taking at The Drawing Studio, called Painting Studio with Betina Fink. All the work I will be doing in the class will be in acrylic paint.

For week one, we did a still life of a platter full of vegetables: heirloom tomatoes, red and yellow bell peppers, root vegetables, and so on. This is what I did:

Acrylic, 9" x 12".

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Drawing Studio: Drawing Fundamentals 2, Week 8

This is a series of posts about my second class, Drawing Fundamentals 2, taken at The Drawing Studio, an artist's cooperative here in Tucson. Week by week, I plan to do a log of what we do in class.

For week eight, the last week. we did figure drawing. Each person in the class took turns posing for 15 minutes. The rest of the class drew the person posing. The whole idea is that they were quick. Obviously, they are not polished.

My drawings were all done in charcoal. Here are the best ones:







Thursday, March 5, 2009

The Drawing Studio: Drawing Fundamentals 2, Week 7

This is a series of posts about my second class, Drawing Fundamentals 2, taken at The Drawing Studio, an artist's cooperative here in Tucson. Week by week, I plan to do a log of what we do in class.

For week seven, we took some of the paper we had textured with gesso and ink or paint, and did a drawing in the media of our choice, using that texture. I chose graphite, using a white pastel and white gouache for highlights. Our subject was a simple still life.

This is what I did:

The Drawing Studio: Drawing Fundamentals 2, Week 6

This is a series of posts about my second class, Drawing Fundamentals 2, taken at The Drawing Studio, an artist's cooperative here in Tucson. Week by week, I plan to do a log of what we do in class.

Week 6 brought us to abstract. For this week, we did charcoal drawings, on toned paper, using two pastels: white, and a color of our choice. A still life was set up, of some odd ceramic shapes.

Though I was not happy with it, the is what I drew:

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Drawing Studio: Drawing Fundamentals 2, Week 5

This is a series of posts about my second class, Drawing Fundamentals 2, taken at The Drawing Studio, an artist's cooperative here in Tucson. Week by week, I plan to do a log of what we do in class.

For week five, we were back to color. This time we did a still life in a media of our choice. I had never done oil pastel, so I gave it a try. This one was also done on green toned paper.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Drawing Studio: Drawing Fundamentals 2, Week 4

This is a series of posts about my second class, Drawing Fundamentals 2, taken at The Drawing Studio, an artist's cooperative here in Tucson. Week by week, I plan to do a log of what we do in class.

For week four, we were introduced to color. We spent the first part of the class putting gesso and colored inks on paper for use in a future class. Following that, we tried our hand at some drawings using color. I did three, two in pastel, and one in colored pencil. Only two of them were worthy of putting on this blog. They are below:

Three oranges in a blue dish, in pastel.


Two limes in a red dish, in colored pencil and graphite.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Drawing Studio: Drawing Fundamentals 2, Week 3

This is a series of posts about my second class, Drawing Fundamentals 2, taken at The Drawing Studio, an artist's cooperative here in Tucson. Week by week, I plan to do a log of what we do in class.

Week three: ink. This week we used ink and a brush to draw, or paint, if you will, a still life of a plant. After the brush, I went in with a feather quill and filled in some lines. This was the result:

Friday, January 23, 2009

The Drawing Studio: Drawing Fundamentals 2, Week 2

This is a series of posts about my second class, Drawing Fundamentals 2, taken at The Drawing Studio, an artist's cooperative here in Tucson. Week by week, I plan to do a log of what we do in class.

For week 2, week experimented with texture. We arrived at class to find a large still life setting in front of us that included some yucca plants, cacti skeletons, and rocks. We all started out by roughing out the outline using graphite powder. We then took our graphite sticks, various erasers, chamois, and other tools to complete the drawing.

Here is the result:

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Drawing Studio: Drawing Fundamentals 2, Week 1

This is a series of posts about my second class, Drawing Fundamentals 2, taken at The Drawing Studio, an artist's cooperative here in Tucson. Week by week, I plan to do a log of what we do in class.

The first week of the class we tried our hand at drawing portraits: the close-up of the face. We split into two groups and took turns posing as others in the class drew us.

Here are the best ones that I did: