Picture This!

You're in a studio, painting with a group of artists, with a model positioned on a chair in front of you.  With each stroke, as you try to capture her image, the picture looks less and less like her.

What's an artist to do?

You take a paper towel and wipe it all off and start all over again.

When I left you last, I had completed the first week of "Model #3" and had showed you the first attempt at immortalizing this young lady.

Here's that first draft, again, to the right.

This is what's called a tonal image...in other words, a drawing with some shading of the same color, in dark, medium and light values, to lay out lights and darks and start to give a semblance to the person's likeness.

Week two saw me adding color to the canvas.

Note that I did not say that I was improving the drawing.

Instructor, "Get some color on that thing so that you can deal with details next week.  Don't worry about what she looks like."

She saw my painting...I had kept working on it without a word...did I seem like I was worrying?

I do think I had a bout of color-blindness.  The background was brownish, almost dark camel.  How I managed to get green, I don't know.

Instructor, "Okay, the color's not right, but the value is and that's more important...you haven't ruined it yet."

I heard, "Yet."  Still time to insure a trip to the garbage can!

Here, to the left, color...oh, and hands...remember last time I mentioned those hands.  Hard to draw, even harder to paint.

Instructor:  "What about those hands?  Do you think the drawing is good?"

Me to instructor:  "You see those hands and you're asking me if they're drawn right.  No, they're not.  Can't you see that?"

Now, I'm worried.

The model is wearing a black top, with gold trimmings and has a large green bracelet on her left arm.  Note to self:  save some of that green paint you put in the background, in place of the brown paint, for that bracelet that you forgot to draw in or paint on!

And those eyes!  What was that movie with the beings that hunted down earthlings and burnt them up with xrays that shot out of their sockets? 

Oh, there was a week #3.

Week #3 looks like week #2, because I didn't make it to class.  There was the talk of not going as it was too hot and then we had a car that needed to get into the garage, so we were down to getting to work and back home and back to pick up the repaired vehicle with the one car left.  Didn't make it...don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

I did leave the painting on my easel in the basement, with hopes that the little green folks who inhabit this Irish household might take up a brush and fix the thing overnight.

However, it was something else that perhaps improved it.  With the heat outside and the moisture in the basement, the painting started to turn on itself.

Here it is, on the right, in its current state.

Seems that the change to water soluble paints and cleaning tools with water has added a dimension of drying (or not drying) to my hobby.

Left unattended for two weeks, in the dark, damp basement, it turned into, "Dark, A Study."

I'm wondering if the drawing is still there.

However, before I attempt to clean it off, I am considering offering it for sale.  Could end up being one of those magical things...as it dries, the image may re-surface!  Or partially recover...Moldy Lisa?

A show of hands, please, starting the bidding at $5.00!

Eye Caramba!

Portrait #1

I know I promised a look at the final product of my first portrait painting class a while ago, but I keep having problems with my eyes!

Not my own eyes, my eyes that I paint on the pictures.

It's not easy.  Seems they have shape and volume.  I thought they were mostly saline solution!

And then I got confused when our instructor noted that we don't see the eye's orbit, but have to remember it in order to draw them correctly!

"Orbit," I blurted out, "my eyes go around in my head?"

She was quick to answer, "In your head, most likely yes!  In the heads of others, they have an orbital shape and you  have to draw and paint them with that shape and space in mind."

Art is becoming difficult.

Once I was happy to draw and paint.  Now, I have to study anatomy and phrenology just to get someones face on canvas!  The next thing you know they'll be telling me that everyone's eyes are different and that will be too many things for me to think about!

I got so engrossed in  painting eyes that I forgot to post that last painting and actually went on to do another.

Portrait #2 Value Study

Yes, the second one had different eyes.

You see, she was turned to the side, so one only has face on one side of one eye.

And, while the eyes in the first painting are mainly straight on and have face on each side of them, the woman in the second painting is looking away from me (what's that about?) and now I have to look for the side of the eye that protrudes from her face....yuck!

The last time I remember someones eye protruding from their face was when an ice fisherman on my hometown lake pulled a line out of the ice hole too fast and the hook snagged one of his orbits!


Fortunately for him, his brother was there and, within a few minutes, cut that thing out with a pair of pliers.  He was back fishing in no time.

So, all of this time has gone past and I didn't even show you the processes for "Portrait #2."

We were told that this one was going to be a study in gray.  It's called a value composition.  I had no sooner started when our instructor told me that she thought I had great value on my canvas.  "Really," I remarked!  "I've just started it, how much do you think I could get?"

She just shook her head and walked away.

I continued to paint.  The instructor returned and told me to add some color to it.  "I thought we were painting in shades of gray?"

She replied, "Your painting needs help, some color might just do it."

"A few minutes ago," I added, "you said this was a valuable painting.  Now you think it needs help?"

She walked away again.

Above, to the left, "Portrait #2, Study in Gray, with some pinks, reds, greens, yellows, and blues."

Almost done here.

Portrait #3

Portrait #3 was started last week and I did remember to snap a photo of it so you can see it as it develops.  Here it is to the right.

For this one I decided to paint more of the subject and added the upper body and hands!

Silly me, I wasn't having enough fun with eyes...I had to add hands and fingers and fingernails...just shoot me.

To spare you the vision of just how bad my first attempt of hands was, I cut the picture short...if these things don't pan out, I may be cutting this canvas down to postcard size!

Perhaps, "Chin, A Study!"

More next week, as this painting moves along!

The Layered Look

I did think about taking some video during the portrait painting class that I'm taking, but didn't want to intrude on the others in the class.

And, I couldn't figure out how to mix paints, hold a brush or two along with a wipe rag, be able to squeeze out more oils as needed, hold the camera and zoom in and out at appropriate times, and run back and forth to the snack table!

It's a lot of work being an artist.

I did write last week that I would post the painting as we go along, and here to the right is week two of the same model, with another layer of paint.

You don't get to see the painting stroke by stroke, but hopefully you see some progress.

I was surfing the web and came across this portrait painting video and thought you'd like to see what we artists look like in action:

While some painters have insecurities about having people watch them paint, I don't mind.  In fact, I seem to do a bit better if I think someone is watching.  Don't know if I try to do better in front of an audience, so they think that I know what I'm doing, or if it's akin to a joke I read recently.

"How many artists does it take to change a light bulb?"

"Ten.  One to change it, and nine to reassure him about how good it looks!"

It always helps when you hear positive things.  Some like to hear only good things.  I'd rather have honest critique.  I did have an art instructor in a class setting once take a painting I was working on off my easel, look at it for a moment and then drop it on the floor, paint side down.  As he walked away, he said, "Garbage.  Start again." 

I knew the painting wasn't going well, but....

I probably should have picked that oil smeared canvas off the floor and framed it with all of the dirt, hair and unidentifiable objects now embedded in the surface.  "Studio floor - a study."  I could have been rich.  A whole new genre.  Floorealism...hmmmm.

Next joke...

"How many modern artists does it take to change a light bulb?"

"Four.  One to throw bulbs against the wall, one to pile hundreds of them in a heap and spray-paint it orange, one to glue light bulbs to a cocker spaniel, and one to put a bulb in the socket and fill the room with light while all the critics and buyers are watching the fellow smashing the bulbs against the wall, the fellow with the spray-gun, and the cocker spaniel."
Back to the portrait.  I have managed to get her face positioned in the right direction, but keep struggling with that nose.

The instructor says that I'm painting my nose.  When she said that, I went right to the paper towels and started to scrub my face for errant oil paint.

"No," she said, "You don't have paint on your face.  You're not looking at her nose, so you're painting a picture of the one you see every day....yours!"

"But," I protested, "I can't see my nose."

She grabbed my brush out of my hand and plopped the end of it on my nose, giving it a dollop of paint, and said, "Now, go in the bathroom and look in the mirror and clean that off and you'll see what I mean."

What's with me and these instructors and paint everywhere but on the canvas?

So, here we are at week two.  The model continues to be outrageously patient, holding her poses so well that you could almost tell time by the shadow cast by that nose, if she were outdoors during the day and were in the middle of a garden in the sun...she is good.

I wish I could do her justice and come up with something that really looked like her.  There are about six students in the class, mostly beginners, and as the model takes breaks I can almost hear her wincing as she passes the canvases of the various students and looks at our efforts.  I hope she doesn't drink.

Everybody who paints portraits wants to capture the likeness so that the sitter is pleased, along with the artist.  And, perhaps even someone who didn't know the model would see the painting and then the model would walk in and the viewer would turn quickly and say, "That's her...it's so good."

You never know when a good representation can come in handy.  There's a story that the artist Pablo Picasso surprised a burglar at work in his new chateau.  The intruder got away, but Picasso told the police he could do a rough sketch of what he looked like.  On the basis of his drawing, the police arrested a mother superior, the minister of finance, a washing machine, and the Eiffel tower.

See!

We have two more weeks of working on this portrait, so you will be treated to at least two more rounds of "what does the model look like this week."

I did a little bit of work on it at home this week (something you shouldn't do, as you should always be looking at what you're painting) and made some improvements.

Here it is now...let me know what you think!

A Work In Progress

One of the things that I promised my readers was a tour of a painting process.

I started a seascape back in July.

While I did post the first image of that production, and here it is again in the upper corner as a reminder, for several reasons I haven't given it as much attention as I should.

As a result, I have no updates to show. 

I was thinking about why I wasn't getting around to working on that piece and decided I should just start over and take you through the work on something different and new.

So, I grabbed a stretched canvas, pictured here on the left, and set it out in my painting space.

I had decided that I was going to do a winter scene, as there's the alluring part of leaving part of the canvas white where the brightest snow appears and it's winter so I have a lot of reference material just looking out any window.

The hardest part, some say, is putting the first line on any piece of canvas or paper.  The trepidation is that you'll ruin it right from the start or get it wrong and not know it, and it's much later on before you see where you went wrong.  That's really bad.

However, I had things to do before I could commit to time in the "studio" (not a fancy artist space, just a spare room with a futon in "couch" position) and promised to get to the art as soon as the dishes were done and the place was picked up.

Unfortunately, I left the TV on and between chores was caught up in the Today Show and the local news, but knew that I had plenty of time left in the day for creation processes.

I was on my way back to the drawing room, content that the house looked suitable for the balance of the day, when the phone rang.  It was my brother.  We talk for a few minutes almost daily, I look forward to his chats, and it's never more than 10 or 15 minutes...not a prob.

During our conversation, I was reminded that I had to go to town (remember, no sidewalks leading to interesting and useful shops within a short bipedal commute) to pick up a few necessaries, but wanted to do something productive with the canvas prior to trekking to town.

After a short chat on the phone, I headed to my art space, put the canvas up on the easel and stood back to contemplate its arrangement (horizontal or vertical, hmmm?).  I had to decide whether to focus on the trees I was thinking about highlighting or a full landscape.  I put a light wash over the whole thing, as the white of the canvas was bothering my eyes, and stood back.

While I was cogitating on wide or tall, I noticed that the room was cool and remembered that I needed to bring in more wood for the wood stove.  Didn't want to have all of the embers go out, so I turned my back on the canvas, grabbed my outdoor gloves, and brought in enough wood for the day.  The clock in the basement, where the stove is located, has one of those bird call sounds that chirp or hoot on the hour and it went off while I was stoking the fire.  "Lunch time," is what I heard.

As I hopped up the stairs, I took one more quick look at the stretched canvas to "check it out" for possibilities and it looked much like it did earlier in the day.  But, it had more possibility!  And, I liked the vertical position...stronger, I thought, than the horizontal.

I finished up my mid-day meal and then remembered the trip to town!

Out here, in the wilderness, one plans several stops to make the most of the time and effort, and I had four places to go to.  Some groceries, some gas, some house warming items (needed to put some insulation around the door opening, the cold air just seems to be rushing in), and some new windshield wiper blades and washer fluid for my wife!  Sounds simple, but it's half an hour down and back and then time for the efforts.

I got back just in time for a round of phone calls.  Seems the marketers, who aren't supposed to be calling you, call in sequence and it's one "He's not here" after another!

The insulation seemed to be a priority so I took the time to rip off the old stuff and put the new stripping in place.  After putting away the grocery items, I took my time to get the new insulation in place and, while it's not perfect, it's better than what was there.  The best thing of all, I didn't break anything else doing it...that's like a first!

I was so impressed with myself, I had to email my brother to let him know of that success.  Of course, I had other incoming email that had to be attended to.  And then, as long as I was on-line, I had to check Facebook and LinkedIn and look at my blog to see who else might have looked at it, and recheck my email (and there were more), and then remembered an update to a file I was working on.

So, it was about two hours later when I remembered my painting...or non-painting, as it was.

I took the time to go back to the room to look at it and decided that horizontal was going to work better than vertical and I made the great move to change that.

Here it is on the right after that monumental change and effort.  What do you think?

I know what I thought right away!

I was painting a winter picture and was going to leave the canvas white!  That changes everything!  Now, what to do?  How could I overcome this mistake?  What had I done?

You see, an artist's world can be shaken in a moment.  Just one action can be the difference between "feeling good" and "disaster."  I knew what I had to do.  I got out the gesso and painted over the entire surface to make it white again!

Now, of course, I couldn't start anything as I had to wait for the surface to dry.

That was okay, as I had laundry to do and dinner to prepare, and I still had work to do on that computer file I was attending to, so I headed back upstairs content that I had done some more work on this painting in progress.

I got caught up in my computer work and then the news came on.  By this time, it was the evening news and during that time my son came home from work.  He was hungry and I had leftovers from last night.  I fixed him a plate and then figured I might as well eat, too.

I had my dinner in front of the TV and then got into my usual nighttime television routine...news, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert and, being Friday, Supernatural.

My wife worked late today, showing up halfway through that last program.  I greeted her, fixed her a late snack and then settled in to discussing the day.

I asked her how her day went, "Okay," she said, then she asked what I did today.

"Oh," I replied quickly, "I started a painting!"

She asked if she could see it.  I brought it up to her from the room below.  As she looked at it she said, "What is it?"  I realized I was holding it wrong and quickly put it in a horizontal position.

"I still don't see anything, what is it," she asked?

"A work in progress," I replied.

"What's the progress part," asked she?

"Um," I said, "Sheep in a Snowstorm?"

"Right," said she, "Show it to me again when you've spent some time on it."

As she walked away I replied, "I spent all day on it!"  Sigh....

A Break In The Code

I've been watching the news about Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," where some are speculating that there are codes embedded in the painting and that, due to these hidden clues, there is a secret waiting to be divulged!

In her eyes, they see letters and numbers; elsewhere in the painting, other letters and numbers.  Given the never-ending questions about the famous "non-smile" in this painting, questions about "who this really is," and the recent works of Dan Brown, including "The Da Vinci Code," "The Lost Symbol," and others, it's no surprise that people are still trying to figure out what important secret Da Vinci was hiding or what message he intended to leave us.

If you're not familiar with Dan Brown and what he puts forth about the hidden secrets, check out his website:

http://www.danbrown.com/

I should get right to the point of the matter here and let you know that I have solved the mystery of the letters and numbers, that seemingly appear within the painting, and what Da Vinci was up to with the "Mona Lisa."

However, I'll give you another glimpse of Mr. Brown's deduction processes before I proceed.  Check out this video...




Now, the answers to the eternal questions!

I did not come to this glibly...I am an artist, so I have some experience in putting forth meaning and messages on canvas, and I have listened to and heard some of the "evidence" put forth by others.

1.  It has been touted that Da Vinci toted this treasure to Tuscany and back, from the moment he started it until he finished it just before he died. 

2.  The picture has many elements of painting types...portrait, landscape, seascape, and still life.

3.  There's the "enigmatic" smile.  No fun, no emotion, straightforward.

4.  Numbers and letters, such as "D," and "L," and "7", to name a few, appear in various spots within the painting.

5.  According to records, it was never finished while Da Vinci was moving around...he didn't put the last brush stroke on it until after he couldn't travel anymore.

What does this all mean?

Simple!

Da Vinci was a traveling salesman.  "Mona Lisa" was his "sales kit."  He took it everywhere.

In order to be able to sell canvas, paints and brushes, he had to be able to show that you could use his stuff to paint any kind of picture!  Portrait?  No prob.  Seascape, landscape, still life?  Go ahead, knock yourself out...do them all at once!

He couldn't paint someone smiling or laughing.  This was business.  People like to know they're spending their money on serious objects that they, in turn, can use to make money.

The numbers and letters? His "cheat sheet!"  While he's showing what the  stuff can do, people ask questions...what color did you use, what size brush, what kind of canvas?

Luigi asks, "Leo, che spazzolla (brush)?  Che colori (color)?"

Leonardo sees "V" and "7" that he wrote into the painting..."Verde" (green), he responds..."Spazzolla numero 7."  It's like  PowerPoint!

And it was something he painted on as he showed his wares.  As he traveled the cities and towns, carrying it about, he would paint on it showing people how his supplies would be the best for them.

When did he finish it?  When he didn't need to use it for sales promotions anymore.  In fact, one day after he retired, while having a cappuccino, he looked at it and said, "Not bad.  I could probably just paint over the numbers and letters and sell this thing...could use a few lire!"  And then he thought, "Probably some day someone will see those numbers and letters and think that I have a great secret or it's some mystic code!  That would be funny!"

And, as for the mystical triangles and squares...they sell protractors, don't they?

It's not that there aren't "things" in paintings.  A good friend of mine gave me a painting years ago.  A very nice watercolor, he handed it to me with the comments, "I hope you appreciate the fact that I broke the tip off my favorite palette knife doing this for you!"   I did.

After framing it, I looked closely one day as there appeared to be something 3D in the picture.  Right there in the painting?  The tip of his palette knife.

The painting is here, above, on the left.

The knife tip is on the right side of the painting, above the top rock on the right...the dark spot in the base of the tree/weed.  Of course, generations in the future will, no doubt, be sure that we were smuggling precious metals via artwork or setting up magnetic codes that, once all paintings with metal tips in them are lined up with magnets, would lead the world to Atlantis.  Whatever!

And, the secret in the painting that I did, below here on the right?

I was trying to paint something that I could put in the hotel gift shop that I thought someone would buy!

The other secret?  It worked...the painting was only in the shop three days. 

There are many things in paintings.  Dust, dirt, sand (see Monet), oil, water, bad chemicals, and many other things, including things we don't want to think about.

Remind me to tell you about the time I sneezed during a watercolor demonstration.

Oh, before I forget.  The biggest idea an artist puts into a piece of art?  A keen desire to sell!