What I'm Up To

Class was great yesterday.  Welcome to our new student, Susan. I love it when we work on drawing and faces.  Congratulations to everyone for jumping in and being fearless.  Tim, your best portrait drawing yet!

This morning I was up early and painting.  I corrected the lay-in from yesterday's demo - meaning I looked at shapes, shapes, shapes and made better decisions.

I started a painting using a limited complementary palette of blue/orange. The palette is from The Yin/Yang of Painting: A Contemporary Master Reveals the Secrets of Painting Found in Ancient Chinese Philosophy by Hongnian Zhang.  This book is out of print, but well worth searching out. There are major sections on value, temperature and chroma; a thorough explanation of the three complementary palettes; a look at creating texture and then three chapters where Hongnian Zhang applies all of the above to the three genres of still life, landscape and figure.  I highly recommend this book!  

The blue/orange palette is cadmium red scarlet, cadmium orange and cadmium yellow deep as high chroma oranges with burnt sienna as a low chroma orange.  The blues are blue violet, cobalt blue and phthalo turquoise blue as high chroma blues with indigo as a low chroma blue.  The palette also includes titanium white and ivory black.  Notice there is a warm, cool and true hue for orange and blue.

Reference Books for Drawing the Head

I recommend the following books for study of the head:

"Drawing: The Head (HT197)" by Andrew Loomis covers the proportions of the head for different ages, the placement of the features, visualizing the head in planes and the simple bone structure of the head and neck. $8.95

"The Human Figure" by John Vanderpoel focuses on the features of the face as shapes of light and shadow.  It is text dense and not an easy read, but very worth the effort.  The margin drawings illustrate the text description of the planes and muscles of each feature from different angles.  I recommend reading the text and copying the margin illustration in your sketchbook. $6.95

"The Artist's Complete Guide to Drawing the Head" by William Maughan is excellent for both drawers and painters.  It covers line versus value, form and cast shadows, negative shapes, the two masses of light and shadow, perspective in the head, proportion and anatomy of the features.  All of the drawings are in white and sanguine pastel pencil, but the information and approach applies to all media. $16.50 

Portrait Reference

These photos are courtesy of the WetCanvas archive.  I will post them temporarily so you can see if there is something you would like to work from.  

Monet Exhibit

Jacques Demarthon/Agence France-Presse

OK, who is organizing our Christmas trip to Paris to see the Monet exhibit at the Grand Palais?

Here is the link to online catalog of the exhibit.  It is the best online presentation I have ever seen.  You can enlarge every painting in the exhibit to full screen.

Here is the NYT's review.  The photograph of the two Monet's side by side has me drooling.  Click on the image in this blog post to enlarge it.

Class Starts October 13th

We are on our break and class will begin on Wednesday, October 13th. Watch the blog over the break because I will be posting my work over the break - starting with the finish of last week's landscape demo.

Class in October will focus on portraits, or the face - so be looking for reference photos to work from.  Remember - no flash photography.  The best photos have a single light source.  Shots taken outdoors with only the light from the sun work great.  Unlike a portrait photographer, however, look for strong lighting that defines the planes on the face.  Pose your model with the sun coming from the right or left.  Photos with the sun full-on or backlit are more difficult to paint, because the planes are not clearly defined.

I'm going through reference now and will post some for you to choose from, if you don't find something in your photos.

Have a great break!

Frame Source in Irvine

The frame source that Michael Jacques recommends is Fine Art International, 13 Autry Street, Irvine.  Their phone number is 949-859-7898. 

Compose It Grid

Compost It Grid

This is the grid that Jen had in class.  It is 8 x 10 inches and has six common canvas ratios divided into thirds.  It cost $15.29.  It will save money to combine postage.  If we order six there is a price break.  Think about it and we will put an order together in class on August 18th.