Evening news series No.III - quickie done from life within 1,5 hours

On this Friday the 10th of November I tested my new home-made field sketch easel in my parents living room, where I tried to depict my father watching evening news in this case . It has been done within 1,5 hours from life without any editing touches afterwards. I had that time range firmly set in the beginning of the session so that I was forced not to fuss about which I tent to do. The result is juicy application of the oil paint and a quick sketch that I'm quite happy about:

Father watching news (oil on board sketch)

It is really important to train oneself to paint from life, it will give you more confidence over time I hope. It's also more fun than photographs where you can't really soak in the character of your sitter. 

(More of a Evening news series here and here)

In the future post I will share with you how I made my sketch easel. 

Petr

Morning cuddle painting

Recently I gave you a suggestion which of the preliminary sketches should I use for a oil painting. I was a nerve wreck to already start with my lovely oil colours so I made my pick. Since I love to paint people and animals I picked as a topic of my painting my mother with her morning coffee (5am) whilst cuddling her cat Symba. I picked my mother again because I knew that I can do a better job than in the past (see posts: here and here) because those were a paintings for time (around 2 hours) and now I had more time since I was working from photo.

To remind you I used this preliminary sketches of the hot spots of the picture:

After I'd acquired feeling for the expressions of my subjects I started with painting itself on very heavy watercolour paper (600 gms) with two coats of white gesso and final layer of transparent gesso which gives you more of a tooth which I prefer for more detailed work.

Again big thanks to rosemary brushes - working with them is just pure pleasure.

Morning cuddle (oil on gessoed board 10x14 inches)

I really enjoy this kind of illustrative work with traditional media so you can look forward to see more of the work like this. (If you enjoy it of course)

Stay warm beside a nice hot beverage and make sure that you have someone/something to cuddle - winter's coming!

Petr  

Preliminary sketching

I love to sketch with ballpoint pen and white chalk on toned paper in order to find out which idea would work as a bigger painting and which not. Here's some of my sketches coming from various family members, the final sketch is about 4 by 4 inches in oils - it's my father peeling potatoes expression :-) )

Mother's cat

Father peeling potatoes 1st take

Father peeling potatoes 

My brother chopping wood (future painting "Winter's coming")

Mother cuddling her cat

My brother

Father peeling potatoes

We will see which one will make it as a bigger piece.

Have a nice November everyone..

Petr

Common place sketches

If you have a time and you have some gouache/watercolour/pen and ink or whatever with you take your time to sit in front of silent/humble/sincere place in your home and appreciate the quiet quality of that place. You'll discover that time can fly while completely silent trying to convey the place on the paper. I try every now and then to sit down with my gouache sketch pochade box and do that very thing. This small pictures feature my "raised and born" house where I'm living right now after my arrival from England. 

It is on one sheet of 300gms watercolour paper (quite rough texture) witch is part of my pictorial pocket journal. Give me a nod via comment section if you want to see it in its wholeness. I can do a post or video which would run quickly trough all the pages...

I love common places like this, There's something divine behind the places like this....

Petr

Portrait Of My Good Old Friend

On Friday night the 13th of October right after I finished this painting I visited our good old jazz club in Zdar to see my friends that I hadn't seen for a bit (as you maybe know I've spent past two years in England working). It was a cheerful event full of music (It was a jam session night - after some consideration and some wine I resumed to play some old tunes too - it was awful I have to admit :-) ). But most importantly I met a friend that I haven't seen for a while - a great singer and fabulous conversation buddy Zuzana (she likes to talk about life and its meaning and I dig this topic a lot!) So I invited her to come over on Saturday to just talk about life whilst painting her. And She agreed!
It was my third oil portrait attempt in three back-to-back days, big challenge as well - soft light plus young flawless face without wrinkles is deadly combination.

In the first BW picture you can see the setting at the end of the session (3 hours) with her proportion slightly off (I blame her for getting me distracted because all of those interesting topics that we had been discussing :-)

Finished work at the end of the session with Zuzka in my vista

I got a break from the painting till the evening that day. I put my photo on BW to force myself to use colour just from my mixtures done on my palette and adjusted her proportion accordingly. So here's the final painting:

"Zuzka" (oil on board 11x14 inches)

Do you have any suggestion, tips etc how to stay alert and present while doing a life portrait and having a conversation with a subject at the same time? I find it very challenging!

But challenges are here to be overcome so everyone near Zdar who would have some free time is welcomed in my humble room to sit for me!

Sincerely Petr 

Colour study - Midday afternoon still life

Two weeks ago It was still warm outside so I set myself with my french easel on our terrace and set a small still life near mason wall of our house to see how direct sunlight can effect colours. It was a lovely experience. I have tried to be faithful to what I was seeing but maybe I emphasised some colour a little bit just in sake of my understanding that every shape have a definite colour family - even shadows. I didn't use black in order force myself to use chromatic content every time I put brush onto my painting surface.

This is my setting to se roughly the composition (I put it in BW - I hate a colours of photos - Especially from iPhone - sorry apple :-) )

This is basically first laying with and beginning of some details - In this stage I tried to have every colour shape of a definite colour family

Here's final study (oil on canvas primed with oil primer - I love the surface, 8x7 inches)

Both pictures are taken under a balanced light temperature 5500 K to have colours as truthful as possible.

I have some question for artist friends - has someone tried to study colour from a colourist Henry Hensche's perspective? I'm reading this "free be" article from Camille Przewodek's web pages:

Colourist article here

I get an idea from it and I have actually tried beginning stages of study described in the article. But opinions shared in the article are quite strict and I would say doctrine like. For example in mids of it its author says that it is painting strictly with colour and not with values - but I think he misses the point that value is inherent aspect of colour and you can't simply get it out of an equation. 

Another point is that all the people suppose to have a wrong bias for colour given by conception and so on and one should by exercises given by article overwrite those misconceptions. Although I'm on board with this idea - meaning you should try to put colours as you see them and not how you think they are coloured (for example wrong approach would be - I know that that apple is red so I mix red on my palette). We all know that local colour of an object is always affected by light effect and its surroundings. But I'm worried about a procedure - I have to honestly admit that it seems to me really, really cumbersome (It's advised 20 years of development by studies and accordingly author wants from reader some humility) and I would lost my enthusiasm (I thing I would lost that spark that art gives me in the first place) and another thing that I'm worried about is that you can impair your perceptual development sort of speak by doing studies at the beginning with just tube colours (Although If I look at final and complete pieces of Hensche students, e.g. Camille Przewodek I don't think that would be the case.)

And my final point is that I find article quite offensive against any other traditional approaches (starting with just black and white and limited palette and proceeding to a full chroma slowly once you get confident with the basics)

Any opinions on colourist approaches in the comment section would be very well appreciated since I have troubles to get my head around it. Or you can write me an e-mail (stranikp@gmail.com)

Pete

Evening news II - Another sketch - Thanks to Rosemary Brushes

Last week in this POST I covered my first serious life portrait painting in oils. Before that I had managed to do portrait from life just by using a mirror (Link here).

Very motivated the very next day (Friday the 13th of October) I tried a different position more close to my mother (Again watching evening news in our living room). I think you can expect to see more of these because It's a great opportunity for me to study human face from life.

In this particular one I was just twice as fast (1,5 hour - yes I was more confident)

Though I had to deal with similar issues from the previous post (terrible light) I have to say that I had a great aid in brushes that I used. Before I moved out from England (beginning of October) I had discovered that lovely county of West Yorkshire is a home for a great company: Rosemary and Co. They have a myriad types of brushes and they can help you to choose just a right type for you.

I ended up with ultimate series witch is quite similar to hog brushes for rough block-ins and with evergreen series for my tiling technique - especially flats and short flats can give you very desirable chiseled edge - You can see from the picture that I'm the fan of chiseled shapes! :-)

Evening news (oil on canvas circa 9x9 inches)

My newly acquired Rosemary brushes (I have about 20 of them but those four I used mainly for this particular painting)

It's a really good idea to invest in great brushes since painting in oils is a hard task enough to start with.

Lots of love you all, Petr