Jesus

This painting still on the easel for a few fininshing toutches is tomorrow morning project.  I think I'll hang it on the wall in y studio and just think about it a while and move on to another painting.  He can keep and eye on me that way... grin

see ya
hy

Jesus portrait is coming along

Yes I'm doing a Jesus portrait. It's a bit different, a compilation painting of many references like the Shroud of Turin www.shroud.com/menu.htm is a good site for all its information. Now this shroud may not be the actual face of Jesus however I think it’s a good representation of a face in that time period. There are references made of that face in 3d done that give you the feel of what I think his face looked like. I have other references like a guy with a beard, now this sounds funny but the facial hair has a growth pattern and I'd like to keep this painting headed I the right direction, if you will.



To begin this painting I started with a linen 16 X 20 and toned it in an orange mix with sienna edges a warm brownish leaving the center more brightly done, The thinking a radiant glow as a base coat if for no other reason to get a good layer of paint as a reflective surface. For this process I used a one inch round long hair brush and quickly mapped in the general shape of the head. So this portrait sort of grew before my eyes painting in eye sockets, line of chin, and forehead and a general outline of the hairline. It was kind of ire doing it that way as this painting as the painted face kind of grew out of the canvas. This painting is important to me on so many levels I did a lot of research before starting it.



That first day I started on his eyes, now this may have been a mistake. I paint eyes fairly well, what I mean is. I paint an eye with the idea in mind that it can see. And you know the paintings that look at you from any angle; well this is one of those. And when the boss is now looking at you, well it makes me bit nervous... grin. Anyway I have a large drawing board on a separate easel for the many faces of Jesus I've gathered from my internet searches. I started a file folder in my Pecasa 3 photo program apply named ‘the face of Jesus’ and simply dumped a couple dozen faces in there for later use. I printed a half dozen or so and subsequently added a few more and also put them on the board.



So anyway this project is well underway and I'll post the painting at next writing should I come close to the outcome I'm looking for. My vision of this painting is a man in his early thirties, a teacher and leader of other men and women. His eyes the most important feature a face which takes up the whole canvas, a statement of the Jesus I think of as mine. We do talk during this process, at least I do, he just looks at me while I paint and so far no lightning has struck me dead so it's going well. And yes I went to church last Sunday... I need all the help I can get on this one...grin.



see ya

haley

Paint brush

I found a brush on my desk this morning, a No 4 filbert with a rounded tip like a flat only round a nice brush, nice size. It’s a Robert Simmons TT42 and silver handle call Titanium, a synthetic hair that I use with my Aqua Oils. You need synthetics they hold the snap and don’t get mushy as do the natural hair brushes in a water based medium. I like this one a lot.


When I paint I generally use the same brush unless I’m doing something that needs different piles of paint then it’s easier to use several, one for each, esp. when blue is involved. That color stains a brush’s bristles and you really need to flush it with a good cleaner to change colors. Even thou I use a water based paint I do use paint thinner to clean the brushes and do leave them in the thinner overnight and longer. And yes some do bend and I reshape them when cleaning and only through out a couple I’ve ruined due to my poor cleaning habits but, mostly they stay nice and fresh.

My thinking is to keep them wet and they really do get nice and clean at least enough to paint with minimum effort, you just wipe them with a clean rag. Now that is a cloth rag you can get a box of painters rags a good months supply at Home Depot paint department, I’m not a big proponent of paper towels. They just don’t have the feel I like no matter what brand, although they are handy for spills, esp. coffee…

     The painting of Motief #1 I did a few year ago now. and I can see so many things now that I should have done in the lighting area if nothing else.
      I can see that the forground should be darker...as forgrounds should be.  And a better lightinig scheme would be the front of the shack to be the shadow side altho this is the ref photo lighting I think a little artistic inhancement would have been better... I think I might just do another painting of the same scene and play just a bit with it's mood.
     BTW the seagull is an add on... grin/hy

This was the first painting I had a lot of fun with, I actually giggled a few times as I played creating them.  Of course they are models you buy at Blick or even a few at Michaels.  I'l even bet you can Google them for deliverey right to you door should you not have the time to fool around.  I think I should have done just that as I'm not too happy with the stiffness of these two.  My idea here is telling him NO basically the gesture fairly evident the body language speaks for it's self

Deb thinks I should do more, one with a top hat and she in a bridal viel but to tell the truth these guys took a while to paint.  I'd rather do a comic series with a camera which actually isn't a bad idea, come to think of it.  In any case this one was fun to do and is a good study really for real people in your paintings.  With the models you cn add a people anytime to one of your landscapes for added interest and adjust the form into a shape that just says something or they are doing and adding motion to your painting.

I added a fisherman to a seascape that is on the boards now in my studio and he really looks like a people fishing grin... the fishing rod had a lot to do with that on and the bait bucket helped give him a foundation.  Of course when you do add a people it's what the painting is from then on, The Fisherman"  Used to be"by the Sea"  hehehe oh well so be it.   One note of reasoning,' Monet' added the ladies a lot.  Seems People like people in their paintings.

Just a note the painting is better than that photo... I'll look into that one a bit more and get better equiped to shoot my paintings.  If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment.

Heading to my studio

 

This is a quick sketch om my grandson Daniel.  If I were to do a portrait in oils my first job is to draw the reference photo a few times to get a better feel for features and shapes.  You get to know your subject much better and find little things that make him who he is and after all that is what you need capture, a personality as well as a likeness.

The studio is getting full of paintings in every state of finish, my new thing is trying to paint portraits.  Now this is a challenging thing for me as I'm a rather rough painter full of texture most of my work. When it comes to smooth surfaces I do have a bit of a problem. I need to practice more and do some work with smoothing the mix and probably using more sable brushes. There are techniques for the under painting like not so much paint and more thinners; I generally do paint what they call... what's the word ala prima?  finish the work as you go....Hmmmm

I generally paint to get it down on the canvas then fix it should it need fixing. The interesting thing is with my eye sight problems and the glasses I do get in trouble should I not "step back" and view my work from a distance, The glasses with try focal lenses do distort things a bit and the fact that my left eye is not a player. I have that lazy eye birth defect so I'm a one eyed Jack of a painter.

The funny thing is prospective with only one eye doing all the work. And for a painter some strokes from pallet to the canvas is guesswork. You have a nice full brush of paint on a stick and try to target that spot so carefully and you just don't hit the canvas right sometimes with  your first try.... your brush point just gets closer and closer and you finally land somewhere near where you intended... a bit discouraging but you can do this thing, I'd call trial and error...Me thinks more errors but then it's oil paint and you can recover rather well...if you step back and look that is.

When painting you get so involved in the work concentrating on whatever spots you are working you get lost in the work. I did one painting of a clam shack and worked the door to this thing so intently and then stepped back. Well I was surprised to see I left out a corner of the building...Not a big thing and easy to fix but I was fascinated that I did such a thing without realizing what was going on, That doorway problem like the shadows inside the building from the open doorway had my full attention and nothing else existed. Hmmm I should really step back more than I do.

Now this portrait thing is a different story all together. And yes I am reading and doing the work of studying features. I've painted the eye and nose the mouth on practice sheets to get the forms and muscles; all the how to things you should get down before you do a portrait. There is so much to it, the measuring can drive you nuts and that one I'm not very good at. Don't get me wrong I can measure with the best of them, and know that a scale not a ruler is what you measure with. I'd done the drafting bit quite a lot over the years so it's not that type of problem. What is the issue is my style of going for finish rather than plotting and planning to a result. I seem to paint rather directly and get caught up in the details way too quickly in a painting.

I suppose I should develop a technique rather than go along with my "style" of painting. I hate that term and they"the other artist" say I have a distinctive 'style". It means to me that you're not quite up to a level others might be... hmmm. Style is what you want to achieve but it's all about the work and how good it is rather than how stylish it is. I'd rather not have a style per SE but have my work recognized by it's quality. But then I'm learning how to paint and some day might be halfway decent, but in my mind I have along way to go.... so now I head out to the studio....That's not too far....not such a long way that is...