Starting & Staying Fresh-An oil painting in steps. Part 3

The weather has been challenging; a hurricane was anticipated and this kept me off the beach for several days.  But, we dodged another one and so, thankfully, we’re back with good weather again.  And I’m happily re-engaging with this painting.

Staying fresh is a matter of exercising taste.  A composition has a point to it, a purpose…and if the artist identifies what the point is early enough, questions of what to include and what to eliminate in the painting are answered by whether they help or hinder the desired final effect.

I’m largely concerned with getting the feel of the light…I mean the color of  early daylight on the various elements, and making something beautiful with the composition by  leading the eye through the elements in a pleasing way. Everything I do, anything I add or subtract, should contribute to this purpose.

Here’s where I left off:

Second day's work

The composition is firmly in place and I’m satisfied that I’ve done as much as I can with the basic shapes.  This is, essentially, the painting in terms of design, that what we will irrevocably be “living with” in terms of the pattern of shapes. Today’s and future sessions will be devoted to bringing the painting up; that is, bringing things to life in terms of my objectives.

I’m also wary of overshooting the mark…one can lose the overall unity of the painting by getting caught up in parts and details, observations that don’t contribute but actually clutter the painting.  I’ll need to be very aware, especially when it becomes overcast for lengthy periods because  I can overdevelop an area while waiting for the light to return.

Resuming the Work

After setting up at my location, my first step is to address whatever area of the painting is most out-of- step with the painting’s progress.  In this case it’s the furthest area of the landscape, the sky and clouds in the right background.  Since I have a nice sky today I can easily jump in where I left off before.

The whites of the sky need to be adjusted down a slight bit from the whites in the waves, in order to keep them back in the painting.  This means graying them slightly.   So I mix a slight gray using Titanium white, Ultramarine, a red (Indian, Cadmium, or Light Red), perhaps some Yellow, usually ochre for this time of day,  and place this in the sky loosely.  By loosely, I mean I create a shade of the right value from these various colors, but do not mix them so completely that the colors  lose their individuality. This provides  a tone of a single value but with varied color temperatures in it.

loose gray

The clouds are in motion and the sunlight falling upon them is changing rapidly, so with this light gray in place over all the cloud masses, I can move shapes easily into a more satisfying design.  The effects of clouds on the demeanor of a painting is worth noting as they can help express many different moods. Clouds have a lot of personality! I refresh the blue of the sky with Cobalt blue, a thin layer brushed over the prior work.  With this I can paint edges of white and blue into one another, creating softer edges on the forms.

greying clouds

As I work on this, I eventually find myself over working an area, so I make a point of leaning away from the work (I’m seated) and actually keeping the seat at a distance from the painting so that I need to extend my arm  to paint. The idea is to keep me from getting nose-to-nose with the painting.  I also use an overhand grip on the brush, so that I can hold it with the brush handle cradled in the palm of my hand…this also keeps me back a bit more from the painting. And I try to move from area to area. Water, sky, shadow, light.  Moving all the areas slowly forward, but (hopefully) in a way that stays unified.  If an area is worthy of the eye’s interest , then I will develop it more carefully.  If not, I will try to simplify it as much as I reasonably can.

One of my main areas of interest is in the colors of the shadows in the foreground.  I find such areas to be quite beautiful in themselves. So I enjoy finding color combinations that work within the general value of the shadow, broken colors applied with varied brushstrokes that combine to create vibration of color like what I’m seeing.

As the session draws to a close, I’ve made changes in almost every area of the painting.  Lights and darks in the trees, enhancements of the waves and reflections in the sand, and more refined observations in general.

part 3 image

I’ll be writing another post on the painting soon.  Thanks for the coming along!

Starting & Staying Fresh- an oil painting in steps. Part 2

Fortunately the weather is looking generally cooperative for this second session.  After arriving at the location and setting up, I take a few minutes to compare what I’ve gotten so far  in relation to the actual subject.

I look at the large shapes (also refereed to as “masses”) of trees, ocean, waves,  sand, hills, etc. and see if they are as I want them.  This is the basis of the design, and what we’ll be living with after the painting is completed. Then I check the color of these masses, color which at this elementary stage is relatively flat in character, middle tones thought of  as puzzle shapes fitted against one another. These colors will be developed and refined in the ensuing sessions.

Here’s where I left off yesterday:

16 x 20"
16 x 20″

By assessing the oil painting next to nature, I decide to begin by simplifying some shapes and values to make them work better.   This first part of the morning has interrupted sunlight…clouds move in, and I suddenly have very little to work with in terms of light and color.  When this happens, I always choose to refine and adjust shapes, which are not so influenced by the light.  In this instance it’s the tree trunks and wave shapes which I refine while I wait for sunlight to reappear.

The light returns and I’m  now free to move ahead with the next step, which is going for the shadows and color on the sand. These colors are tricky; they change from warm to cool quickly as the morning progresses.  I know from experience that the shapes become decidedly bluer, so I decide to go with the slightly warmer notes I observe earlier and which I mix with a scramble of ultramarine blue, terra rosa or cadmium scarlet, ochre and white.  I enjoy painting these sorts of passages, and go in with this basic violet shadow value over the prior day’s warm ochre wash, using a large egbert, and break light selectively into it with a separate brush.  Once that shadow shape is in place, nuances, eye path (where the spots of light lead the viewer) and refining the value and color are my preoccupations.  I try to keep the brushwork simple and suggestive.

Stepping Away

I can’t stress enough how viewing and working on the entire painting as a whole benefits the outcome.  Stepping back often, viewing the painting through a small mirror, trying to always consider additions to the painting in terms of their impact on the whole painting.   This leads to unity in the picture…the sense of an easy look to the final painting.

 

Second day's work
Second day’s work

By the time this session winds down,  my subject has returned again to glorious full sunlight and I’ve been able to work and adjust overall color, which is refining the prior days laid-in color with additional observations…working around every area of the painting, keeping the entire picture advancing forward. Sort of like a cattle drive in a Western movie.

After bringing the painting back into the studio, I always make some adjustments to the days’ work, which are almost always simplifications of form or value.  I let the painting dry in the sun a bit, and look forward to day 3.

The news reports that a Hurricane is brewing offshore,which may or may not interrupt my little agenda.  But we’ll see.

Thanks for coming along with me!

Starting & Staying Fresh- an oil painting in stages. Part 1

Although I’ve painted along this stretch of beach for years, I still find myself intrigued by new possibilities for richer and deeper expression in these subjects.  The “hook”, the thing that continually catches my eye, is the remarkable brilliance of light and the presence of life and energy here.  My mission, the “art” in this,  is to relate it (this sensation/experience) to others.

This needs to be stated as much for my own benefit as yours because  the challenges of outdoor painting are formidable. Losing the whole point of the painting in the struggle of making the painting is breathtakingly easy, and so I need to remind myself  of my mission frequently.

16 x 20"
16 x 20″

This piece began with basic pencil sketches worked out prior to actually beginning painting.  It’s very important to make a plan about placement and pattern in advance.  Once I begin painting, color, value  and the light effect are plenty to occupy me and not the time to wonder where I’m going compositionally.

The First Session

Arriving early and setting up at the location with a 16 x 20″ white canvas,  I make sure that the light on the canvas is not bothersome, that the wind is manageable, and also that my location will remain in the shade for the next  1  1/2 hours.

With my palette set up in my usual fashion, my first objective is to get my largest shapes in place. I begin by placing the horizon line and tree trunks with thin loose strokes on the white canvas.  That’s a pivotal juncture in the design and the other shapes (ocean, hills, sky, and sand) are positioned in relation to them.

Using large egbert brushes and pigment slightly thinned with Gamsol  I then lay-in all these masses in flat general tones,   in overall color as close to nature as I can get them. This process takes an hour or more.  No details. I keep the edges of masses fairly “lost” in most places.

I really try to be fresh with the brushwork ….an energetic start with large, flexible  brushes can’t be a bad thing at this stage.  I work the strokes in various directions, often attempting the unexpected  ( like pulling the sky tones downward, the tree trunks painted with horizontal strokes “across the form”, etc.).   The whites in the clouds and waves are actually greyed down a couple steps so that the actual brilliance of these highest value notes can later be built and adjusted over the grey.

Everything is kept simple  and  painted as freshly as possible. Although I’m seated for this painting, I work at arms length from the canvas and step back often, so that I’m always viewing the entire painting rather than focusing too much on the individual  parts.  Whatever redeeming qualities the final painting may eventually have are being established now.


Long filbert brushes (egbert) for lay-in work.
Long filbert brushes (egbert) for lay-in work.

After about two hours work, the light has changed enough that I need to stop.   Paintings of this sort are always a survey of the light effect, not (as in a photograph) an instant summation.  As this painting progresses, the window of working time will narrow because I’ll have a better grasp of the light effect.  In ensuing sittings the point will not be to add more stuff to the picture, but to select and refine relationships and beautify what nature is providing.

So, it’s a good start.  I look forward to continuing the momentum tomorrow, weather permitting.

 

More coming soon, and thanks for joining me!

 

A Watercolor Portrait from Life

watercolor portrait

Particular subjects bring out a certain response from me, so while considering the few hours that we would be working with our model Lance, I decided that a watercolor portrait from life would be a refreshing way to capture this intriguing fellow…and introduce something a bit different to my students.

I don’t often advocate watercolor as a portrait medium because it’s drawbacks are pretty formidable, often outweighing whatever benefits one hopes painting a portrait in watercolor will bring.  No corrections in the drawing are possible after a certain point.  And transparent paint has color values that are limited…you can reach color notes in the high and mid range somewhat, but richness in the mid-darks and lower are a lot of work to achieve, and often not very successfully.

 

DSC_0026

But if one wants a suggestive,  informal piece in somewhat short order, this is a good way to go.  There are certainly lovely  qualities that watercolor brings to the table, and I like to take a crack at it from time to time.  The great John Sargent’s portrait heads in watercolor have always been an inspiration…even serious oil painters like them!   So despite my reservations,  beautiful things have been done in the right hands, and we can try to emulate them.

Anyway, this painting was completed over two separate evenings in  perhaps 4 hours;  the first two being devoted to working out the pencil  drawing as best as I could. So much hangs on the drawing being in place, especially with a watercolor portrait!  Everything else came together very gradually, which is what I prefer.  I’m not a great believer in quick production though it’s fine if it looks that way.

It’s painted on Arches #300 lb cold press, and measures 15 x 12 “. Watercolor, graphite, and opaque white.

Thanks for having a look, let me know if you agree or not with my assessment.

The Artist at Work, Kailua Beach

I get photographed quite a bit, often surreptitiously. People do funny things because artist’s can be funny people,  and that’s okay.    Happily in this case the young lady doing the shooting offered to send me an image.

Ayse U

 

I’m setting up my palette in preparation for a 1/4 size late afternoon color study (for a 28 x 36″), which can be a hard thing for me to pull off.   I always make a point of having my easel perfectly level with the horizon.  A perfect day for what I was after, but ended up with a horizontal rather than vertical composition. More on that later.  Kailua Beach, I believe July 28.  Thanks to Ayse Uzan for kindly sending this.

A Small Portrait Head in Oil from Life

Ala Prima oil

I’ve just had the pleasure of completing this small  (10 x 8″) oil portrait from a model that has been sitting for the portrait class that I lead Tuesday evenings a The Honolulu Museum of Art School.

Noil is a rare find, he has a great look and focus, and maintains a pose with great accuracy.  At one sitting, (perhaps more than one, now that I think of it), he stayed in pose for the entire three hour session without a break.  Our kinda model!

Noil

 

Anyway, I managed this small piece while teaching, and it’s grown on me over time. There’s a simple and direct “thing” it seems to possess.  “Noil” is painted on masonite primed with Gamblin oil primer.

Halona Cove Oil Painting-Part Two Painting the Ocean in Hawai’i

Welcome back.

The painting of Halona Cove was at this stage where I left off in the last post.

DSC_0006 Divers,  Halona Cove  16 x 20″, oil on stretched linen

At this stage of the painting the pattern of the shapes (land masses, “whites” of the waves, the shape of the dark shadow, figures, and simple color)  are all in place and ready for further development where appropriate.

This stage is the structure of the painting;  if I have any misgivings about the composition they must be addressed by now. A figure is suggested among the rocks, and  in the water as well.

Step back before moving forward

Before I move forward in this next plein-air session, I pause to refer to my original concept sketch to see if I’m heading where I’d intended.

NOTE: When painting outdoors, and probably even more with the ocean, it’s very easy to get seduced by all of the activity in the subject…and led away from what is important, the strategy of where the viewer’s eye travels in the painting, and what it finds along the way.  I always have to watch this carefully.

halona pencil   Using the original sketch to reaffirm my goal of the work  (essentially, capturing the light of this time of day in this particularly powerful  place in an energizing way) I set up my easel for a third , (or is it now a fourth?) session.

Building and refining the colors and values

The weather has been really kind. That means the light is the same as last session, and  I’m able to get down to work on the various “notes” of color, and developing the dark/light relationships.

I’m also trying to keep the brushwork  fresh  and descriptive, and especially while capturing the colors in the water.  Unlike some other painters, I seem to use a number of brushes at this stage, possibly as many as 12-15.  This way I can keep each note of color distinct and  get the stroke in the shape I want.

My palette for the water  includes Ultramarine, Cerulean, Viridian, and Yellow Ochre, possibly a touch of a Cadmium Yellow. Darks can be helped in the water by a bit of Alizarin Crimson and Viridan, which creates a fascinating transparent grey that is very suitable for this work. At this stage the “whites” are keyed down to a lavender gray of varying warmth and coolness.  There is probably no “straight”, pure white in the painting. I’m also using a Schmincke Manganese Cobalt Blue that I believe is helpful. And there is Ivory Black on my palette, which I find helpful  and useful in the darks.

 

Halona 3 detailjpg

Painting the figures

The figures are ready to be placed directly into their positions and I do so, referring very loosely to actual figures in the scene before me for color, but still relying on the sketchbook drawings for position and gesture.  They form a generally pyramidal  shape as a group, and I push the gesture and color as far as I can without losing  the simplicity of the brushstroke.

The water and especially the whites of the waves also receive more attention. I’m building up the paint so that these loaded whites physically catch the light falling onto the canvas in a way that contributes to the sense of foaming, breaking , dazzling white water.  These whites are a powerful compositional tool….where they are placed is where the eye will go, and their shapes should work on the canvas as an effective design  pattern.  I find that to be much more important than clutter or details in the water, as I mentioned in the first post.  The whites are also warmed or cooled, sometimes rather subtly,  to create variety.

DSC_0003 - Version 2

So as I develop these concerns,  I’m aware that the painting is reaching a point where any further work will not really help the overall look of the painting, but actually start to work against the vitality that I would like it to possess.

After adjusting some more elements, and defining ever so slightly the island of Molokai off on the horizon,  I then back  away from the painting for a day or two,  then give it a fresh look and decide that it’s ready to be signed. DSC_0003 - Version 3Divers, Halona Cove  oil, 16 x 20″   January 2013

Thanks for your interest in reading the post, I hope it’s interesting and helpful!