Return from Guanajuato

I'm glad to be back. The very next morning after my return I opened the atelier and we got back down to business.  There are warm and fond memories to revisit, pictures to go through, unpacking to do and a whole lot more. As they say "No rest for the wicked".

These feet did a lot of walking, it was hilly, so I bought myself these nifty boots. The entire trip my hands kept busy, I sketched, painted watercolour and gouache and saw many sights. My mouth tasting the culinary favourites of the region. My ears listened to the cacophony of the busy streets and battling Mariachi bands in the plaza.  There is much to tell and share, but it will have to arrive in its own time. For now back to the Atelier!

Listen to this! We started the portrait class with the study of the ear and why? we have to draw it that way. I did a quick demo after anatomical notes on the board. I gave each student a reference photo to study and transmit onto their paper.

 After the portrait drawng class we moved into the afternoon portrait painting portion where we continued our study f the ear. In this session we painted in the skin tones based on what we drew previously. We roughed in colour an defined.

 The following day in Still life/object studies we learned to draw bone texture with two skulls I borrowed from the decor of my house.

 I did a demo of finding dark shapes and some lights on toned ground.

 The students did great work describing the forms in their own styles. After a short break we moved into paint studies and how to mix warm and cool grey tones and how to lay them in for the skull study.

 We scraped back our work after the lesson ready for another painting session anther day.

 We also have a new studio assistant, on loan from JJ peters. Thanks to her sleuthing skills we have a full sized skeleton in questionable condition to work with. That was just the first two days back!

Coming very soon....

....more updates

plus

the latest episodes on Youtube from Guanajuato!

Master class and more . . .

I have a bunch of classes quickly coming to an end this semester and a stack of comissions and new works started in the studio.

I drew up a bunch of skulls and intend on filling them in to varying degrees in order to show the stages of the Venetian and Flemish painting methods.

This skull is copied from a painting titled S. Girolamo Penitente by Bartolomeo Di Giovanni.

 I had a little help in my Life drawing class from "Bucky" (Aka. Alex, according to Menika), who may be the skinniest model I've ever worked with but casts a nice shadow.

We had remembrance day off so I had my painting students still paint and what they brought back definitely impressed. These two pieces of his granddaughter were done with two different methods. Grisaille technique on the left and direct application on the right.

I did a deep and thorough lecture and demo on oil paint mediums, glazes and scumbling at the start of the class and here we can see some of that knowledge being applied to her canvases.

Look at those delicious fruits, they look good enough to eat.

Anne Marie's Velazquez copy is the most sophisticated and developed of all the works I've seen her create so far. Great job in honing her very loose painting style for the purpose of this class. High five!

bird is the dead

Back to the piece I have been developing before the life drawing intensive I completed.

The main focal point of this piece is the skull head on the birds body. I used raw umber, for the outline and shadow elements. I blended titanium white to create shadow. Raw umber goes a bit grey when mixed with white so it is a perfect candidate for bone. I brought in a bit of the red as reflected light and added highlights with some yellow ochre mixed in.

The previous layer of paint is dry so I sanded it down with 80 and 120 grit sandpaper. It gives it a nice worn out feel and allows the under painting to show thru a bit for the next stage.

After the skull had been painted in I painted in the brightly coloured feathers and added some textute to the image.

I then filled in the background making it a very dark burnt umber to pop off the colours.

I drew in a branch for my "angel of death" to perch by scraping away to the under painting and brought in some white to set off the space with some light areas.

The paint is wet and shiny and hard to photograph straight on. I'll let it dry and revisit the piece on my next opportunity to work in the studio.

Back to dead coloring angel of death

After sitting and looking at the piece again I decided I definitely had to tweak it a bit more in terms of the angle of the body in the composition as well as make the skull bigger on the birds body.

I drew in charcoal right on top of the previous design. I had the bird arch its head further so that it looked a bit more like it was turning around to face the viewer. I also raised the talon up a bit higher and made the skull larger and tilted at a slight angle to work well with the angle of shoulder of the wing.

Here is the small skull model I am using as a reference point for my drawing. The lighting will be different based on my knowledge of the shape, but who knows I may use this quick snapshot more than I anticipate.

I laid out the colours I intended to use for the basic filling in of the body. Cobalt and Cerulean Blue, Green and yellow, Deep, light and cadmium red and Titanium white for mixing. I blended up a 3:1 linseed oil to mineral spirits medium with one drop of cobalt drier to help speed things up a bit.

I blocked in the basic colors of the parrots body as well as the skull with some shadowing to help see the forms. I then took some burnt sienna and put in some of the background tone.

This is where I have the most fun. I use the paint tube as if it were a crayon. The lines are quick and natural and expressive. At times I wonder if this is not my true art form and that I should try to go further with it, and not try to paint things at all. That may be more ballsy that I'm ready for.

I blocked in the remaining background with Burnt Sienna right on the canvas. It really flattens the image out but once it dries there will be much more detailed work done on top. For now, it has richly colored masses to work on.

Exclaim This!!!

Cartoon Curses!

For a while there blogger wasn't allowing me to upload any drawings.
What you see above is how I felt, and what was said during this set back.