Figure and portrait painting studies from a week’s course at Sarum Studio. Apologies for the poor quality photos. It was a fairly good week, with lots to think about in terms of continuing to develop my painting technique alongside drawing. Colour mixing is still my primary goal to master, but experience and practise is the key to this.

The connotations of pet portraiture and its potential for ‘cheesiness’ loomed large as I embarked upon this painting.
Here’s how it happened…
I had a beautiful gilded frame that was languishing, unused, in a cupboard; I wanted to work on something where I could use larger bristle brushes to block-in quickly and bring to a finish within a limited number of layers; I was interested in representing textures such as fur and material, while adding weight and form; I’d always promised myself that one day I would immortalise Sophie in paint.

The element that was the biggest priority for me was portraying the psychology within the subjects – both Sophie and the toy pig. I think I have achieved this, and moreover, I have captured exactly my dog. Not any spaniel, but my spaniel. The glint in the eye is hers, and the shock and helplessness of the pig perfectly highlights the kind of Anthropomorphism I easily apply to anything with a face.

Technically the painting went so smoothly I had pinch myself. It was done in about 4 shots, with a final couple of hours sharpening crucial edges and refining features such as the shiny eyes and damp nose. The most difficult aspect was determining the background. I had initially imagined a light, contemporary colour, but in reality it just looked too weak. I tried a textured background, but that looked careless and detracted from the important textures of the main focus. Finally, after discussion with my friend Mike Skidmore, I decided that a flat, dark (slightly menacing) background would emphasise the characterisation, as well as elevate the status of the subject in the manner of Old Master portraiture.

The main stages are shown below. I will add a photo of the painting in the gilded frame as soon as I have fixed it in place. I think it’s going to be a picture I hold very dear in years to come.

I’ve recently been working on a small (8″ x 10″) portrait in oil. I’ve been struggling with a few aspects of it, and so I used the iPad to paint on top of a photo of the early oil block-in. It’s helped me to work a few things out and I enjoy the digital results in their own right.

A drawing from this week’s still life class. It’s only one morning per week, but it will be interesting to see what evolves.

As of yet I’m not entirely sure what my objectives are in joining this new group. I am certain however that it’s incredibly valuable to get out and meet like minded artists, and to simply get on with the practical tasks of observing and doing.

Week one – a string puppet, charcoal on Canson paper

It’s taken a while, but I finally bought an iPad2 at the end of last year. One of my favourite Apps for drawing and painting is Procreate. I’m still pretty new to it and am finding using a stylus a bit like drawing with boxing gloves on. The features are very intuitive and easy to use however, so it’s just practise that is needed in order to produce more fluid results.

Of course painting on the iPad isn’t the same as the real thing, but it can still still help with practising techniques such as building up in layers and edge control. Sometimes I sketch objects from life (such as the bronze hare above), and sometimes I copy paintings from Julian Merrow-Smith’s book “Postcard From Provence”. This is a perfect format to make master copies from as it contains nearly 150 still life and landscape paintings that are all reproduced actual size, which mostly happens to be perfect for the approx 8″ x 10″ dimensions of the iPad screen. This means that I can place the book and iPad side by side and work loosely sight-size. It’s my {admittedly easy} version of Bargue drawing exercises.

You can learn so much from exercises like this, where you can study how another artist has handled composition and built up the paint. It can also help you to see problems that may have faced the artist along the way, and how they overcame them. Two of my Julian Merrow-Smith iPad copies are as follows: Bottle of Balsamic and Two Plums. I encourage anyone reading this post to view more of Julian’s work on his website, and also to buy his inspirational book.

Erin. Oil on canvas 40cm x 40cm

Here’s a recent portrait in oils that marks a great step on for me in terms of speed and basic technique.

Unfortunately I had to work from photographs instead of life, however I spent a couple of hours with Erin during our photo session which I feel gave me a degree of insight that anonymous reference material would not have presented. I didn’t work strictly sight-size, but I set up my easel and photo next to each other, at a distance from where I stood, and I tried to work as closely as possible to how I would if I were working from life. For example, I used comparative measuring; I squinted to look for the big shapes, simplified tonal values and areas of focus; and most importantly I tried to overcome the inherent danger of photography where you get bogged down in detail.

I worked methodically and pretty quickly, trusting that each layer was a step to the next. Starting with a loose colour block-in, I worked to refine and build up the paint over a further 3 sessions (the last of these being largely faffing over small areas that I perhaps should have left alone for freshness). Anyway, it worked OK. It’s not perfect, but it is an improvement. I also stayed with a limited palette of Lead White, Yellow Ochre, Brown Red and Ivory Black – with a tiny bit of Cadmium Red Light in the lips and Raw Umber in the background and hair – which felt like an achievement too.

Something else I considered before starting was the general placement on the canvas, and where compositional lines could be utilised. To this end, I mapped out where strong diagonals and dividing lines based on the Golden Section could be found, and I tried to place (or add emphasis) to features that fell along these points. For example, the diagonal of the shoulder and neckline, the eyes/eyebrows. At the end of this post is a picture of an early block-in, as well as an illustration of these key compositional lines that I tried to work with.

Now on to the negative. There is something a little too saccharin in the pose for my taste, and I wish I could have found a deeper psychology and/or narrative to draw out (no pun intended). As it is, I see this portrait as more of a paint handling exercise than anything else. That’s not all bad as it’s technique that I am most concerned with at the moment. I must progress the storytelling of my art too however, so it does bother me a little. Finally I need to think about whether I leave this painting alone now, or make a couple of final refinements that could improve the features (namely widening the nose slightly, and adding a little to the jawline and neck in shadow). The risk is that a can of worms could open up in making these small changes and perhaps it’s best to leave it alone and get a new project underway. I think I should put it aside and look again in a month or so, making a decision then. Watch this space!

Taking a small break from painting, I worked on this little cast drawing last week. It was good practise for my eye, but I am frustrated with my handling of the charcoal.

The cast itself is only 3″ or 4″ in length, so first of all I think the paper was too textured for such a small scale, and I struggled with toning some of the smaller details. Of course, I could have filtered out some of these details, and I am frustrated with myself for getting a bit too literal with some areas. I foolishly thought this would be an easy exercise given the deceptively simple lines of the cast. It’s also a strangely ugly/beautiful piece, and although I can’t be far away from correctly representing the face, I seem to have found the ‘ugly’ in the nuances of the angles.

A small side-by-side picture follows, which is of rather poor quality and sadly a little burnt out. I am going to start a much larger, more ambitious cast study of a Greek Slave within the next week. I will try some smoother Ingres paper for the first time, so it will be interesting to see how I get on. I feel that I need to make a good stab at as finely finished a piece of academic work as I can manage in order to relax and loosen up with mark-making that is more my own. Maybe it’s a misplaced notion of somehow earning my stripes as a representational artist; I don’t know. One thing’s for sure, cast drawing involves such intense study, I am always greatly aware of improvement in the acuity of my seeing afterwards.

Drawings from last week at Sarum Studio. It was very dark for most of the week, so I didn’t take progress photos this time. I’m very pleased with the portrait, which I think is a good likeness. The figure study could be better, but all in all, it was another enjoyable week. That’s it at Sarum now until February. I just have to maintain motivation and work out some goals for my portfolio.

Here’s a quick oil sketch of two pears and a black glass bottle. I started this a little late in the afternoon and daylight was quite limited. While I’m not particularly happy with the suggestion of the bottle in the background, I am pleased with my overall approach to the process of painting this still life. I started with a simple, thin block-in, and built up texture from there – refining the shapes as I went. There’s plenty of room for improvement, but it feels like progress.

Another couple of quick(ish) Alla Prima studies. They’re not particularly special, but I feel they represent an almost imperceptible progression for me in terms of confidence. The process of starting with a simple block-in and then layering up detail and focus is getting a little easier for me to put into practice. I have understood theoretically that process for quite a while, but getting it from head to hand is something that clearly just takes time and effort.