Great Art Instruction DVD's

Still waiting for paint to dry so I thought I'd talk about some awesome art DVD's floating around on the net. I have not seen any in their full duration but I do plan on getting a couple of them. How do I know about them? Youtube! I'm sure you all know this but there are a lot of artist demos on Youtube, some are full demos but most of them with instruction are just clips. I'm going to focus on ones with instruction for this post because they're the most useful.

First up is "The Portrait Sketch" by Jeremy Lipking. Lipking is one of the top realist painters today and when you look at his work, it's a lot like Sargent's work in terms of his brush stroke. His DVD shows him doing a portrait sketch of his wife and for someone like me who would like to be able to do a relatively quick and accurate portrait it's looks very promising. Here's the clip:

The DVD is available through Lipking's website for $75 USD.

Next is David A. Leffel's "Reclining Nude". Leffel has been called a "modern Rembrandt", and it's pretty clear why. What's even more impressive though is his story. He was hospitalized for much of his childhood but he kept drawing and painting and though it. I won't go on and on but the point is he's an inspiration. Anyway, this DVD shows a figure painting sketch and what was really great to see was the colours he uses for skin tones, which is pretty much half the battle. Here's the clip:

It's available through Liliedahl Video Productions for $150 USD. Very pricey but must be worth it. That's it for now, I'll get some more up later and hopefully I'll get a copy of one of these soon and review it. Happy learning!

Staved off the Dry Spell

Same cup only now it has a green friend. The plan was to go into a large scale still-life with this cup but I wasn't loving the set up I had for it. It was too small and I think I want a more well thought out and aesthetically pleasing composition. But I needed to paint something in the meantime and I haven't painted a lime before plus it's an opportunity to get the cup looking more accurate than before. It's looking pretty dark now but I like to leave my lights for last and this layer has to dry so I can glaze and scumble in those lights. So give it a couple days and there should be some highlights on the lime at least.

In other news, I'm going to buy my French box easel very soon, and weather permitting, I should be doing landscapes sometime next week and I can't wait!

Dragging My Feet

I'm feeling a dry spell coming on. I haven't painted in days. I've mentioned the new still life I'm painting which I've done studies and sketches for it and I think one little thing is missing , something I really want to try and that's a bit of tromp l'oeil. It seems to be popping up in more standard still-lifes now with, for example, a photo tacked on the background with a push-pin. Could be a newspaper clipping or an old black and white photograph. It's a trendy thing but why not? Just need a picture to use...And to try to get painting again, I'm going to do a quick one tomorrow of a lime or something.

Teacup in Graphite plus New Still Life Update

I didn't feel like starting a painting last night so I sketched instead. I loved this angle a lot it gives the cup more of a regal felling because you're looking up at it. It took about an hour or so, I'm not sure. Artists know that time sort of disappears when you're in the zone. I think the rim it too blent but I loved doing the handle, that's the best part of the cup for me.

I'll be starting a new still-life featuring the teacup with cookies and pieces of orange. It won't be huge because I plan on doing gradually larger paintings as I progress.

6 Hour Pose, June 9th Day 2

Ugh, that face! I need to redo it somehow but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it. The gesture is great, and although the face is too small, it's ok. The skin tone could have been cooler but it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I'm happy with the values and the overall feel of it. The model is really great, really friendly and she was helpful with giving me some feedback. The pose ended yesterday but the model kindly offered to allow me to take photos and that's really going to help me fix and complete somethings like the leg on the left and redoing the head.

You know what I keep thinking I've sort of got that "Lucian Freud palette" going on which I've never liked. When I was going to university, the few figure paintings that were displayed had that same palette of colours with that greyish background. Then I realized that a lot of that is due to the studio set up. They've got white walls and there's usually never any other background and so you end up with a lot of mid-tones. That's also due to the fact that there's never dramatic lighting.

For my first figure painting in about 3 years (yeah...) I'm proud of it and I'm going to take what I've learned and make the next one even better. But when this one is complete, it will be in my portfolio because it definitely has potential.

6 Hour Pose, June 9th Day 1

Day 1 went much better than I was anticipating. I expected to have to finish the colour and whatever else I wanted to do today but when I got there I found out the same pose is tomorrow. That was a relief because I was able to really take my time. Started out with the imprimatura last night, which was a gamble because I really didn't know what the colours would be but looks like it's working well.

I was measuring quite a bit so the drawing took longer than I wanted but it seems to have paid off. I used raw umber plus flake white for this stage and that worked well because flake white is nice and warm, also translucent so it looks very subtle. The hand was a nice suprise. I was putting it off but when I got around to it, it looked really good. The face turned out fine in the end, but I don't think I'll be getting into the eyes, just some colour maybe and highlights.

Provided everything dries tomorrow, I will be glazing in some colour and scumbling as well. I don't know how far I'll be able to take the colour but I would like to build up the paint more in certain areas. But right now it's got this quality I like about it, sort of a Flemish thing and I think I want to keep that as much as I can (keeping in mind that it is a sketch at the end of the day). That's it for now, and hopefully my painting hasn't been stolen from the studio...

Study of a Tea Cup, Oil on Canvas (Part 2)

Ahh yes, highlights! It's nearly done, just need to glaze that reflection down, get it a bit warmer. I have to say, that tea cup has been a joy to paint, I really love it as a subject. I'm still searching for supporting objects to paint with it and make a larger composition. Perhaps a peeled orange, which I've always wanted to do well. I could add the small tea plate in there...maybe a whole tea set. That might be a bit cliche though so I'll have to work out something more interesting. But I think I will play around with background objects a bit more to add depth and I think that will make things more interesting by giving the eye a lead-in to the painting. Hmmm...Anyway, the design on the cup was a lot less difficult than I thought it would be and it looks great. I'm happy with the sense of form I was able to get and I actually did end up glazing in some subtle colour! I was a bit apprehensive about the colour working out but I gave it a try and I love it. I haven't really glazed colour in years so this is encouraging. Looks like I'll be using a grisaille to start every still-life from now on. 

Study of a Tea Cup, Oil on Canvas (Part 1)

I was always eying this tea cup as a subject so I decided to do a study of it to see how I liked it. I'm letting it dry now, and tomorrow I will be adding more details. I did this one last night in a few hours and I'm starting to really like the grisaille technique again. I really like the imprimatura I used too, I'm probably going to use it for figure painting on Tuesday. Can't wait to add the highlights! I should say the inspiration to do a grisaille again came from the artist Dan Thompson  who has a demo on the American Artist site. He used a grey toned canvas and raw umber plus flake white for his block-in. It looked awesome so I thought I should give it a try and I'm so glad I did. He also mentioned the "calligraphy of the brush", which hit the nail on the head for me. Using the brush not just to fill things in but as a way to create interest in itself (if that makes any sense). So I'm trying to incorporate that into my unfinished pieces to add interest. Stay tuned!

First Painting of the Year

So I've finally gotten down to painting this year. I was sort of anxious about it but I did a quick still-life with roses and it's not too bad. I hated it at first but it's growing on me. Not sure why I thought I was all of a sudden going to be great at painting roses of all things, they're so difficult! Maybe because so many others make it look easy. I am rusty for sure but I'm proud of myself for not giving up on this one and just finishing it even though it's not my best. I think it's important just to finish things no matter what or you never really finish anything. I'll post a picture of it when it's varnished.