How To Paint Details...

It is all in the details, don't you think?  This is a close-up of a portrait I painted in Sweden two weeks ago on a pilgrirmage to Anders Zorn Land with Jeremy Lipking and friends.

I was assisting Jeremy Lipking. Lucky for me. He is pure gold.

If you want more details about this trip, seeing a few of my sketches and musings. post your comments here.

Otherwise, I am as good as gold...

The World of Anders Zorn

I am heading to Sweden tomorrow via UK to visit the world of Anders Zorn. I have wanted to visit this great man's studio since I first started painting.  Click here

I will be traveling with Jeremy Liking and friends, assisting Jeremy who is hosting a workshop there. Lipking's own magical art world here is deeply Zorn infused. I find Jeremy's work very inspiring too and feel I have been gifted to assist him this year.

In the meantime I have returned to my sketch book sketching Zorn copies with a BIC pall point pen on canvas.

I will keep you posted.

I am super excited!

Three for One Zorn Special...365 Days of Drawing

Seems like there are 'three for one' Holiday specials in all the stores/online outlets, so I thought I would do one too. The last three days of drawing to meet the challenge I have drawn up three heads hoping to paint them soon. You will see them next to a few Sargents I have done in the past. This is a good exercise. Do the copies small. Put the timer on for an hour. Get out a big brush.

Let's Talk Turkey-Zorn-licious!...365 Days of Drawing

Ok...let's talk turkey. I really learn from Old Master Anders Zorn as I have discussed many times this year copying his pen and ink drawings often with a Bic pen. I was reminded of a few things this week, the direction I need to go in my art, things I really need to focus on, by a certain present day Master artist I trust deeply.

He told me "Get the Zorn books out". Morgan Weistling also said a similar thing to his students at The Weekend With The Masters three day workshop where I was lucky enough to be his assistant. Morgan said to learn about painting study Zorn etchings.

My Zorn books are never far away but today they are front and centre. This was my drawing for the challenge from yesterday, a copy of Zorn's head, with a paint block-in on the drawing I did today. I wanted to focus on actual paint rather than his etchings on this one. I set myself a timer of about an hour to mass in the shapes with a big brush.

Now I need to do my drawing for TODAY and dress the turkey for TOMORROW. Let's hope I don't get confused and draw a Zorn on the turkey.

You will be seeing a lot more of Zorn in the next few weeks from me until the challenge end.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

BIC AND ZORN...365 DAYS OF DRAWING..

DAY 233
The handy ol' Bic Pen makes a comeback in my year's drawing challenge as does copying an etching from the great master Anders Zorn.

I learn so much from this man. My own 'copy' drawing could have been better. Drawing without a safety net is always a risk.

SEEING RED...365 Days of Drawing

I mentioned a few weeks ago how I need to get to the hair salon. Well, I finally made it today and while I was having a high-light touch-up, I decided to waste no time reading a dog-eared People Magazine like I usually do there but copy an Anders Zorn drawing with a red BIC pen.

My love affair with both, Zorn and Bic, continues Not with my hair tho'. What I am learning from copying this master's etchings is indescribable. I have done a few now in the year's challenge and plan to do more.

To see yesterday's drawing tune in tomorrow when it will be posted with the finished painting.

What makes you see red?

THE VALUE OF VALUES, PATIENCE AND TIME.

Images here reprinted by kind permission of Mr. Everett Raymond Kinstler, N.A., from his one hour workshop demo at The National Academy of Design, New York, November 200

It takes me ages to process a workshop with Mr. Everett Raymond Kinstler, (hence the delay in posting here). I have to chew over the fat and there is a lot to consider. I have a light bulb moment at every single workshop with him. There is just nothing like watching and listening to a master artist. Mr. Kinstler also teaches in a very hands-on concise way that is clear to understand.

However I do find it  hard  sometimes to put new learning down on my canvas. Rather like a baby, I need burping - all this new knowledge to digest.  Time at my own easel to process. I have often thought I am a very slow learner. But once I get it, I REALLY get it! BURBP!

I remember the first time I saw Mr. Kinstler on stage doing a demo in front of oh, only around 600 people. No pressure or anything. He painted away with such mastery while entertaining the crowd with witty stories.  I was gob-smacked by him.  (British translation..jaw dropped)

He advised that one "paint a mile of canvas" to make real progress and I have never forgotten this except  in my case it might be three miles.

Even though I am posting pix here from Mr. Kinstler's demo, and mighty fine it was, I don't think it really my place to describe his technique. That is for him to do as he does so well. I would however advise that each reader of this blog go to his website, www. everettraymondkinstler.com, and check out his many books and DVD's.  I have two copies of a couple. They are that good.

I think it o.k.  however to give a brief overview, as I understand his approach, around the pix posted here. 

Mr. Kinstler works on a DRIED mid-value canvas. He thinks of value first, color second. He mixes a 'soup' of mid-value color for the flesh, matched against the mid-value of his wooden palette. Everything is related to the mid-value. He will mix his shadows from this soup, placing other colors into the soup to adjust. He makes color vibrate and relate by taking a dab of the same color note, and placing it wherever he sees that color-value appear on the canvas. Marvelous to see him do this! He advises "make you color swim'", meaning take it through to other areas. Cheek color into hair color, underplane brim of hat, etc.

For a demo, where he works faster than the speed of light with great accuracy, he does a quick drawing block-in going for 'signposts' of the features, not thinking likeness but proportion at first. He will advise to go for the big shape of structure and form and the overall simple "light effect".  General to specific.

One thing he says all the time is "to paint the illusion"of what you see. For instance, if you are doing an eye socket don't paint it all.  Squint. Are you really seeing that highlight in the eye? Each individual eyelash hair?  Of course not, silly. I get a bit Zorn-y here. Look at his etchings to see how he keeps the masses simple, simplifying the light effect. Look at Mr. Kinstler's etchings too.

Come to think of it...come up and see my etchings any time. Sorry.

Mr. Kinstler quickly moves on to applying thicker paint to his sketch initially drawn with a big brush in a thin-ish wash. He will often hold onto the the original canvas using the dried untouched areas for a half tone in various places, in the hair, turning edges, etc.  Just yummy. Swish, swash, swish and he is soon done TALKING all the way. His saves his lightest light on the skin for the forehead but this is not a highlight just the lightest plane.  Highlights are for shiny things like eyeglasses and gold, he always points out. How many times have I made that mistake?

Mr. Kinstler talks all the time about values describing himself as a value-painter. People often ask me what is the single biggest thing I have learned from him over the last few years, and this area would be it. An understanding of value painting but many more miles of canvas to go to develop that understanding.

That's where the patience comes in. I have felt incredible frustration in myself at times. Not being able to paint to a level that I want to. Not understanding why I couldn't do this fast enough. 

 Well, darn it, it just takes time.  Repetition leads to mastery it is said. So I repeat, repeat, repeat and then suddenly when you least expect it,  the art learning penny will drop. I will see Mr. Kinstler do something he has done before many times, but FLASH!!! My brain is ready to understand it. It is the SINGLE best feeling in the world outside of childbirth. 

I tell my students you cannot rush the learning process. Ha! You can read the same art book two years later in your journey, and it will be a different book in terms of your understanding.

That's the magic of it in a way.  Now back to that mile of canvas and burping.

Food for thought -French sauces! A La Zorn.

So much discussion goes on in my teaching class about color! What palette is best? How do you get that green on the skin just there? And why did you put it there? How come we don't see it there? Should one keep it simple using a Zorn-like palette or not? 

I have students come in with a beautiful full rainbow palette and possess an equally lovely color sense and application that I admire. Then I find they have studied with Sharon Burkett Kaiser , www. sburkettkaiser.com, one of the best around, herself trained by Russian painter Sergei Bongart, www.sergeibongart.com, unfortuanately no longer with us. Then I have had others who simply were too dazzled by that full palette to know what to do with it. Others who were getting comfortable with their palette to be then completely thrown by all that Zorn black in front of them. I had this happen just last week in class and it was interesting as a teacher. Simple sometimes is complicated. 

Anders Zorn, 1860- 1920,  was a Swedish painter,  with a wow factor bar none. Great restraint and great juicy soft painting. He is credited for this very limited palette but anyone who paints knows he put other colors out there sometimes. You can only achieve a certain amount of blue tones with black and ivory white next to orange.

The main palette I use is the one taught to me by my teacher Mr. Everett Raynmond Kinstler N.A.  www.everettraymondkinstler.com, aformentioned many times in this blog!,   Still fairly limited at nine colors or so, but it does work so well around a light and darker value for each of the primary colors. Just look at his paintings for proof. There is no-one better for the study of color in this lifetime. Sorolla in the last!  And actually, I do think Ovanes Berberian, this lifetime, really rather damn good.

Mr. Kinstler's color palette is Permalba white, cad. yellow pale, raw sienna, cad. red light, alizarin crimson, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, burnt umber (I prefer raw umber), sap green OR chromium oxide green. I like c.o.green. NO BLACK.  As all my students know, burnt sienna and c.o. green make some beautiful shadow colors that you can enhance any way you wish, a bit of purple/blue here, a bit or orange there.

However, I have found much value to experimenting with the Zorn palette, yellow ochre,vermillion and black. There is a certain harmonious restraint that happens.  And also experimenting with other three color palettes around the primaries.

Look to the beautiful work of artist Dawn Whitelaw, www.dawnwhitelaw.com,  to see what can be done with a three color palette. Her landscapes are magnificent as is her portrait work. GREAT color! She studied with Mr. K. for many years and has really made his teachings her own. Impressive. I admire this lady a lot. She is also very generous with her advice and teaches much in demand workshops. 

But really, you can choose any yellow, red and blue, plus white and black and have some fun. But go steady with the black. See if you can tone down with compliments first before dipping into the big black hole. YOU will learn a LOT about color mixing and color temperature. I know I have during the last several years of experimentation. I can now see a color before me and KNOW which way it leans temperature-wise and how to mix it.

A recent thought of mine has been to use the Zorn palette most of the way through a painting, SEE THESE TWO IMAGES, and then add some brights on top around the color wheel theory, limiting your 'brights" to the color compliments. You have to tread carefully but it is FUN. And I kind of like how it looks.

It reminds me of what an a wise old artist/sculptor said to me over lunch recently: "A painter needs greyed color much like a french chef needs a good sauce as the base for his food". 

Let me know what you think???? Just the painting, not the sauce stuff. I know the sauce I like. Cream with peppercorns all the way.

I teach Thursdays at the stellar Los Angeles Academy of Fine Arts in Van Nuys, CA., www.laafa.org. Visit the site for  more information about its' curriculum, including an impressive atelier training program in the academic tradition which Zorn would have been proud of.