home depot texture

I've been experimenting with ways to texture gesso to give it more tooth. For this 

painting I tried some spray-on goop that's used to plaster walls. A little too much, but 

I like the way it limits detail. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

more finished

I wasn't happy with the likeness I had when the modeling session ended, so I took a photo and worked on it a while longer. Going into skin shadows, I used viridian to drop saturation of the orange skin tone, and darkened with manganese violet. I cut back on my use of medium because too much condemns my indecisive color corrections into murky soup. 16" x 14" - 5 hours.

new colors

Second try using the brighter skin palette that I've switched to. Figure is a little stiff and the painting needs to be cropped. It's going to take some time to learn how to handle greens and violets in the shadows. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

goodbye ochre,

burnt sienna too. I didn't use any earth colors in the skin tone for this painting. Hardly any red or blue either. Instead, I shifted to prismatic, more secondary colors. Light side flesh was mixed from yellow and magenta. Shadow flesh was cooled and shaded with viridian and cerulean blue. Sienna and umber browns were replaced with mixtures of perinone orange, viridian, and alizarin crimson. Getting away from earth colors and instead using high chroma dye-based pigments gives more color space for scarlets, mauves, violets and greens to model volumes. I didn't pull it off so well in this painting, but I think this is the way to go.

I started with a high contrast two value block-in and any features in partial shade, like the eyes, were painted as a simple dark mass. I did this more for positioning than to depict appearance. I need to remember to add some construction lines and double-check proportions at this point, then lift out detailing.

Also, I thinned the Galkyd underpainting with Turpentoid so it went on thinner and looser. As it set, I found I could brush on skin modeling with hog-bristle brights and paint straight from the tube, just like canvas. Top coats, I used a linseed/stand oil/Gamsol mixture. I took a photo of the model, so I'll see if I can clean this up a bit and re-post. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

the distance law of portraiture

I've come to realize it's no use trying to paint big, detailed faces from 20 feet away. Maybe my vision is weak,  but I can't see eyes well enough to paint them from more than about 10 feet. In fact, I think frustration increases with the square of the distance to the sitter. Since I was in a big, full studio situation for this effort, I tried for a whole figure which is always a race to finish in a session. I can't remember painting this loosely in a long time. I switched to hog bristle brights for the block-in so I could quickly scrub in a thin layer of paint and Galkyd. Then I switched to softer Bristlon synthetics for an oil layer. 16" x 14" - 3 hours

not as bad as I thought

I almost left early because I thought this was a lost cause. I scraped off one eye and moved it 1/2 inch with a half-hour to go and thought I was flailing around matching colors for the repaint. One thing that helped though, was that the first color I painted was the local color at the border of light and shade. Thinking about it, it makes sense to start with this "true" color and then make lights and shades relative to it. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before, but I'm going to try to stick with this rule for a while.

Next morning I thought better of my efforts. My camera is adding saturation, but I like the effect. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

2nd try

I sketched for 25 minutes, then scrubbed out my first block-in, so I had to hurry this one up. As usual, time pressure seems to help. 16" x 14" - 2.5 hours.

glazing tints

Since this painting went pretty well, I'm journaling my process here. This time I broke the preliminary painting into two steps. First I used a big egbert brush and mopped in the layout in a thin orange mix of burnt sienna and yellow ochre. Then I spent about 20 minutes completing a darker brown line drawing and scumbling in shadows with a #2 round.  Next I took a stab at a first layer for the entire surface using thin painting mixtures of Galkyd and Turpentoid. I'm not sure whether this is a good idea or not, but I didn't use any white paint at this stage. Instead I just wiped the paint layer thin to get light from the gesso, like painting in watercolor. My rule of thumb is to paint with Galkyd until it gets sticky and annoying. Then I switched to a linseed, stand oil, Gamsol mixture and floated glazes over the gunk. I mixed in white sparingly in the glaze and the skin seemed to stay luminous. I think this is probably a backwards approach to tinting, but it seemed to work. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

Venetian red

About halfway through, I picked up a tube of Venetian red instead of burnt sienna. A few months ago I discovered what a great color it is, but I was having some success with burnt sienna so I dropped it for simplicity. Burnt sienna is ok for tints, but makes murky brown tones and shades. Venetian red, however, tones with blue to make really nice violet skin shadows. 17.5" x 15" - 3 hours

inevitable

I unpacked at the modeling session and found I had forgotten my brushes - it had to happen eventually. So I borrowed a couple of pencils and drew on gessoed board. 12" x 9" - 3 hours.

farmers market

Painted on location at a downtown farmers market. Very complicated scene, so I just painted a few impressions of activity under the awnings. 9" x 12" - 2.5 hours

practice helps

I'm starting to feel more comfortable with my materials, palette, and technique. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

better process

So now I'm painting the first layer thinned with Galkyd and Turpentoid on three coats of 30% marble dust gesso. All this endless fussing around with underpainting materials has got me to a point where I can thinly paint, wipe out, re-position and shade a bit while I work out a composition and tonal plan. I'll have another session with this pose next week. 16" x 14" - 3 hours, so far.

As usual, more time isn't always better. Here it is after a second session:

back to the race

Right away, I realized I would have to work fast to get this done during the sitting. The model was leaning her head back, but I didn't really capture that, and instead just got a slightly weird skull shape. I think the problem is I'm starting from a line sketch instead of a volume sketch. I'll try switching to a really big brush for a pale liquin shape placement followed by some loose volume and edge delineation before I switch to painting color with linseed/stand oil/Gamsol medium. Paint control is going pretty well, although I'm going to try adding more marble dust to the gesso to get quicker absorption of the underpainting.  

But mainly, I'm wasting a lot of time making too many small, tentative paint mixtures. I'm spending an inordinate amount of time mixing colors I've already mixed a few times before..
16" x 14" - 3 hours.

easy pace

I seem to be getting less concerned about how far I get in a portrait session. This went well, but at the pace I was painting, I would have needed another hour to finish. 14" x 16" - 3 hours.

at the arboretum

First landscape I've painted this year. At first I was totally lost and foundering badly. I was painting with a group and felt bad about my ineptitude. Eventually the scene halfway sorted itself out. 9" x 12" - 2.5 hours.

subdued

I was feeling a little out of it today and really didn't care how far I got in the time I had. Probably helped the painting! Cropped to 12" x 14" - 3 hours.

softer brushes

Now that I've got the gesso thing sorted out, it dawned on me that the hog bristle brushes I've been using are too stiff and scratching through to the panel. So I switched to synthetic brushes and found I had much better control. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

now with 25% marble dust!

I added marble dust to my gesso and painted all stages with liquin which seems to have cured most of the paint handling problems I've been having with gessoed board. After an hour or so, the paint has a skin and can take additional layers. It still wipes down to near white, which looks better for skin highlights than layering on white pigment tints. 16" x 14" - 3.75 hours.

broke my new rule and paid for it

The layout for this was a little more complex, so I continued the fluid stage block out past drawing and laid in some wet color. This was a big mistake for sanded gesso. It couldn't handle that much thinned paint underneath and the whole thing was a constant struggle. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

nevermind

It turns out that the gesso I've been trying out is fine - it just forms a glossy skin that needs to be sanded off. Now it's absorbent enough to take a wash/wipe stage to try out composition and feature placement. I follow the fluid stage with a simple colored value block-in of stiff paint. Then I can move on to oiled out layers for volume modeling. I've gravitated to a simple palette of primaries plus ochre, burnt sienna, and alizarin. This palette is giving grays that harmonize well with simple skin tones. 16" x 14" - 2 3/4 hours.

too slick

I used three coats of gesso and the surface was too slick. Pretty much everything had to be painted twice to get a color established and I had trouble getting darks in. I also struggled with the drawing after I started painting. I moved one eye, which cost a lot of time, and should have also moved the other (and nose angle, mouth and jawline). I really need to remember to 1) start with some geometry latitudes and meridians 2) pause after I think I've got an acceptable block-in and critically make sure of placements. I'll start bringing a little mirror and look at the reversed image at this stage. I seem to be very good at adapting to distortion and then going blind to it... I've ordered some marble dust - I'll try mixing that into gesso to try for a toothier surface. 15" x 14" - 3 hours.

gesso man

I've started salvaging paintings I didn't like by painting over them. I'm using a couple of coats of big-box sealer/primer followed by two coats of Golden Gesso, which is amazing stuff. It's more absorbent than the oil-primed linen I've been using, and probably better for alla prima. I used a pretty limited palette for this guy with plenty of underpaint noodling around. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

bright wall

Preliminary drawing and block-in was a mix of indian yellow and venetian red on a dried Liquin base. The main masses were underpainted simply with added medium. The facial features were placed early with burnt umber and didn't seem to need much fussing around so I left the face unfinished and tried to not overplay skin modeling. I've noticed that my cool flesh shadows tend to be harsh, so I stayed with warm shades and softened some of the edges. The second pass around the big forms was made with big brushes and plenty of paint. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

finally..

I finally manged to block in a figure in four values - which is something I should
have been doing all along! Preliminary sketch was Venetian red, which I then
firmed up with a mixture of dioxazine violet and burnt sienna. Since the drawing
and block-in went well, I was free to squander time playing around with background
colors! This sitting continues next week, so I will get a chance to try to finish
this up. 16" x 14" - 3 hours.

2nd sitting

literal observation

I'm kind of stuck on trying to stay close to literal observation vs. inventing any
visual drama. I was busy trying to get a passable likeness and didn't get much
else going on. 16" x 14" - 3 hours

pretty quick

This is my second time painting into a toned half-dry Liquin 'primer', which is a
completely awesome way to work. I picked a blue background tint, which was a
little jarring. Next time I'll try a more neutral gray. Pretty much the whole painting
was roughed in with a big brush and gloppy paint in two hours, so I had time to
refine her features a bit. Used a simple palette of mostly primaries which helped
speed things up. 16" x 14" - 3 hours

better ground

The drawing isn't very good, but this was an enjoyable painting. I've been
struggling for a while with the oil-primed linen I use. The finish is slick and
non-absorbent so the paint stays pretty wet. I have trouble painting over
the preliminary sketch, and repainting churns things into a muddy mess.

This time, I primed the canvas with blue tinted Liquin a few hours before I painted
and baked it in the sun so it was dry but not fully cured. The Liquin pulls
solvent out of oils, so I can dry-brush and scumble thin underpainting. When I
use nice gloppy paint it finally sticks where I put it and accepts overpainting
nicely - a very big deal! 16" x 14", 3 hours

I had a plan

I wanted to paint in a traditional dark to light sequence, but the model was too
evenly lit so that didn't happen. At least I started from big simple shapes so
the composition is ok. The face is quite tentative in every respect and was
painted with brushes that were too small, so it looks horrifically mottled. Still,
a couple of folks though the likeness wasn't bad. 16" x 14" - 3 hours

20 minute oil-on-paper sketch from the day before.

bigger and faster

Since I only worked the face in any detail, I was able to get this done pretty
easily in 3 hours. Skin tones were mixed from phthalo and ultramarine blue,
burnt sienna, yellow ochre, and alizarin crimson. Phthalo blue makes a nice
cool compliment to alizarin, and I used it to play around with green hues in the
shadows. Also, I stopped fooling around with painting medium blends which
usually end up making the canvas soupy. Instead, I just used linseed oil which
seems to contribute to a more brushy look.  20" x 16"

not even close

to getting done in 3 hours because I worked longer on composition and
underpainting. I realized that with a more developed underpainting, I could
get a looser, more gestural look that could support some unfinished areas.
So when I was running out of time I just worked on the face and a hand and
let the rest go. Also for a change I tried to catch a fleeting expression instead
of the normal posing deadpan. Colorwise, I had a new magenta-viridian/ochre
axis going.. 14" x 16"

I don't remember much

Quick, sloppy start - just throwing paint around. I left the face shadows
too gray and cold. Autist that I am, I enjoyed painting the blouse pattern
the most! 14" x 16" - 3 hrs.

quiet

Tired and sleepy while I painted this, so I tried to work as efficiently as
I could. Limited palette of mostly warmed and cooled Venetian red.
14" x 16", 3 hrs.

I liked where the underpainting was headed, I'd like to stay this loose
throughout..

bedlam

Painted this at a local gallery that had timed the modeling session with some
sort of 'Art and Wine' street fest. So about 100 drunks trouped by while I worked
on it. I enjoyed listening to a cognoscente describe to his friends what I was doing,
while I personally had no clue! About halfway through I thought this was a lost
cause with chalky skin and flat purple shadows. But I brought modeling into the
shadow side with dark oranges over the cool that helped rescue it. I switched to
14" x 16" which is much better for portraits. In retrospect, I was nuts to have been
painting portraits on 12" x 16".

out of time

I switched to an easel with a shelf-mount palette directly under the canvas,
which saves a lot of mixing time. Even so, I couldn't do more than rough
in most of this in the time I had. It didn't help that I noticed a massive
drawing error with 10 minutes to go. Need to remember to use model breaks
to sanity check my proportions. 12" x 16"

tighter and looser

I added a step to my block-in process: After the initial broad figure placement
with an egbert brush, I delineated with a small brush so I was pretty clear on
shapes early on. This helped me be looser with paint application. 12" x 13" - 3 hrs.

this went ok

I felt reasonably in control throughout, although I waffled around on skin color
too much. I think I should be painting skin as a two or three value poster before
adding any detail or modeling. 12" x 16" - 3 hrs.

half done

I slowed down because this will be a two session pose. I've started using
flesh ochre instead of burnt sienna for the main skin tone. It's more mid-value
and redder, and makes for more gentle variations. It will be fun to try to
refine this portrait in a couple of weeks. 12" x 12" - 3 hrs.

no charcoal

I switched from sketching in charcoal to directly painting the basic
composition with an egbert brush. It's a great brush shape for gestures
and seems to help me work out overall placement. 12" x 16" - 3 hrs.

rushed

I took my time with drawing and had to rush the painting to finish in three hours.
Used cerulean as the shadow blue which makes a much softer skin tone than
ultramarine. Last thing I worked on was the hand which was looking dangerously
like a claw right up to the end! 12" x 14"

Somewhat Relaxed, 4/29/2016

Skin tone is burnt sienna and alizarin crimson , no ochre.  Was struggling
with shadow tones - at the last minute pulled some purple from the background
into the shadows of her left arm. 12" x 16" - 3 hours.

Relaxing, 4/17/2016

I'm really happy with how this three hour painting turned out! It's the first time
I've felt I had a grip on a workable portrait technique: 1) very quick charcoal sketch
2) quick thin monochrome to place the form 3) thin local color plus shadow with no
painting medium, just scrubbed in  4) last 1.5 hours modeling volume from a base tone
mix using plenty of medium.

Step 3) was new and gave plenty of grip so I could dab in two or three value layers in
nice gloppy paint! Three hours means strictly first thought best thought! 12" x 14.5"

Portrait, 4/15/2016

I didn't realize I was painting such a sad expression! Obviously, I'm still
struggling with skin tones. I'm using a penlight led now, so at least I can see
what I'm doing. I think the problem is I'm mixing for one area at a time,
which is ok up close but comes off blotchy as an overall image. So next I'll
try a traditional approach of starting skin mixes from a single, mid-value
tinted red oxide base. 12" x 16" - 3 hrs.

Portrait, 4/8/2016

Added viridian to my palette- very nice to shade skin tones. I keep getting

thrown by color temperature - painting under very warm incandescent and

then discovering in daylight I've been painting magenta skin! 12" x 16", 3 hrs.

Portrait, 4/1/2016

About halfway through the paint was turning into soup, so I stepped outside and
hit it with a blow dryer for a couple of minutes. 12"x 11" crop, 3 hours.

Portrait, 3/27/2016

Have to ease up on the on the dioxazine purple! Next, I'm going to try experimenting
with thin underpainting in contrasting color. 12" x 16", 3 hours.