Why I try to maintain a physical fitness

My regime of my sportsmanships conveys 4days per week of disgusting exercises - Why Do I do that? Basically It's three-fold!

First reason: TIREDNESS

As an artist who always strives to learn more and more artistic stuff I always have a feeling that I don't have enough free time to do my learning. But If I had just a free time and wasn't tired physically I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the process of learning as much as I would want. If you're tired you can relax more and you have a feeling that you deserve your relax time. And because the pure essence of relaxation for me is art it's a good idea to wreck myself with some exercises.

In addition to that reason I would like to mention that I've learnt how to compress my exercise time to a minimum with a same amount of tiredness. The only problem is that is so painfull! :-) It's a usually crossfit kind of training for time with some handstand pushups, pull ups, squats, deadlifts and so on. It takes me usually 20 minutes per session. I have this kind of training twice a week usually on Tuesday and Thursday straight after work. Through out a weekend I have both days a Sprint session in park in Beeston here in Leeds at 5:45 sharp. It's literally 10 minutes of compressed pain which contains 8 bouts of sprint at my top speed (nothing to brag about I think but I have to mention that I always put 100% effort on them)

It always help me to collect some references of facial expression (before and after session :-D ):

 

In the picture at left that's me with my cuppa before session (not so exited) and on the right that's my self-portrait straight after session with endorphins at their best.

Second reason: MY OWN ANATOMY REFERENCE

Since I believe that for maintaining an optimal body composition it's wise to look in the mirror instead on the scale I took photos of me in the mirror to evaluate the hard work and to see If I'm able to maintain solid shape - I know it is somehow narcissistic but it is way more accurate that a scale trust me.

But that's not a point. These images provide me a great learning tools for anatomy of a human figure. Some of the studies are shown down below:

Third reason: I CAN EAT MORE! (I know - not art related)

I don't eat junk food and I eat considerably low carb diet so I know that If I want to binge on carbs, I have to deserve them. I think only appropriate time for carbs is post exercise and that is the time when I have my high healthy non simple sugar home baked sweet potato pancake with some yogurt, strawberries and nuts on top. For sweetening everything up I usually use stevia powder.  

If you would be interested for exact recipe for this pancake give me a shout! Here's the picture of the final product down below. It doesn't look so great because there's a loads of cinnamon and cocoa powder on top but trust me it's gorgeous! Maybe I'll do a still life in the future from the ingredients of that pancake - I think that would look alright - strawberries, sweet potato, eggs, yogurt in some nice glass jar... What do you think?

My sweet potato pancake with some heavenly stuff on top...(caution! - only allowed after exercise)

Have a blast all of you,

Best regards Pete!

My first sold painting overseas...

It's been almost a month since I received a mail from my main art-selling pages www.dailypaintwork.com that someone wants my picture!

I was so thrilled because it showed me that some can appreciate what I do and all of my effort is worthwhile and the idea of my painting hanging in someone's home is so exiting! So I'm happy to announce that my painting "Chill" have it's own place for chilling in California!! (on the picture right bottom).

It looks happy - isn't it?

After this success I managed to sold another painting "Delivery" this time to Massachusetts! 

I want to express unbelievable happiness of mine. Knowing that the pictures could last on these walls for god knows how long wherever in the world - What a lucky me!

Be grateful, happy and enjoy your day wherever you are.

Petr

Importance of master studies

I think and many successful artist that I know and learn from have a same opinion. In order to get better it's not a bad idea to copy some of your favourite artist. You can observe their brushwork, colour mixtures, edge work and how loose or tighten they are/were. Since I love portraits and it's always a challenge to do them correctly I've decided to give a try and study one of the greatest - John Singer Sargent.

I started with his rapid studies of some people because this unfinished pieces can reveal the most of the procedure. I wasn't that cautious about to have the same likeness of the subject which you can see on pictures down below, but I was more eager to capture how the paint is layed out on the canvas, how colours are vivid/gray or his edge work.

On the pictures there's original on the left and my copy on the right - Under first comparison there's an example how I approached this copy for a start - I used raw umber for an underpainting. The rest two master studies were started as Sargent would do it - just lay in the proportions with charcoal...

Few things that I've learned:

1. My final studies are lot more cooler because my lightning in my studio is warm  - So I have to change the bulbs for neutral light (5000K) to get my colours truthful. Pictures of the studies are captured in day light (more neutral) so it's even more conspicuous. If I would make a shoots of the pictures under my artificial light it would be that vivid.

2. My darks are on some places little bit duller because I polluted them with white in order to lighten them a little bit - That is mainly in warm darks - So in future I'll try to lighten them with a mixture of yellow and white.

3. Sargent made me definitely more aware of the edges and I thing that was the most valuable thing that I've acquired from this lesson.

Sargent master study 1 

My tonal underpainting for my first master study of Sargent work

Sargent master study 2

Sargent master study 3

So my fellow artists please give me some suggestions/advices/tips how to improve my oil painting portraiture. From this comparison I can tell that I have lots to do.

Have you all blast! Petr

Watercolour experience - tips and tricks that I've learned

It's been a year when I tried watercolour for my first time. I found a series lectures on this topic on youtube via a great artist by the name of Stan Miller:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Stanleylestermiller

The quality of the videos isn't the greatest but the information I think is top-notch. Stan himself is a master watercolorist and I think there's merely no one better...

The main difference between watercolour and oil paint for example is that watercolour is not opaque medium, it's transparent and you have to basically diligently start from the lightest colour and go step by step towards darks. So in watercolour planning ahead is crucial - once you put a darker colour than you've intended in and don't react within 5 seconds or so you can't really fix it. That is the reason why it's one of the hardest mediums to handle.


You always have to be careful and aware about edge work. You have to do it on the go every time you put the color, line, splash of mixture on the paper. There's no way how to fix the edges afterward.
That's the main reason I think that my picture of John Scofield lacking various edges - I was more focus on leaving the highlights untouched - nose, beard, forehead. Next time I'm gonna be more aware I promise!

So in my little step by step pictorial demostration I show you how I proceeded with the portrait of John Scofield - my favorite Jazz guitarist.

STEP 1. Reference picture:

I must admit this picture lacking various edges itself - that is the reason why painting from life is more accurate and you can add more of your perception of the subject. Unfortunately John didn't want to go the the bloody rainy England :-)

STEP 2. Lay in the drawing:

No cropping! I always try to do it freehand from observation. Sense for proportion is like a muscle and it is necessary I think to exercise it whenever you can - If I would be professional artist with deadlines maybe I would have to crop it but if you have all time in the world I suggest do it freehand. It's not perfect but I think likeness is almost there...

One most important thing - in watercolour it is crucial to have this lay in as accurate as possible due the properties we've discussed - no room for error.

STEP 3. Laying in the colours:

I'd stared with the most difficult area crucial for likeness - eyes and nose, then more compelled for completion I proceeded outwards the face. 

STEP 4: Finishing the painting.

- I definitely overthought the background and the three colour is to much. I've learnt from this mistake and I now now that the simpler background the better...

John Scofiel portrait (watercolour on A4 watercolour paper)

As you can see if you concentrate to much on one thing you can lost awareness of something else - I think I depicted the likeness in some degree and the colour and values (which is the most important thing) are on spot. But I definitely lost perspective and some sense of the form in the picture (feels flat) and as I've said edge work is not something to brag about also. 

It's been a year since I did this one so I hope that I've made a significant progress along past 12 month and my work is better now. Although I'm more focused on oil painting...

Have a lovely state of being, Petr

Fantastic movie to be seen

I've found just hour ago this little movie about old master from renaissance and their discoveries.

It's a worthwhile movie to be seen, I highly recommend to you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp5iqYawEw8

Have a nice Sunday Everyone!

Reference pictures - sometimes a struggle.

I know what you'll tell me. Painting from pictures isn't such a experience as a painting from life. And I have to agree. But sometimes it's hard to seek out interesting ideas for life painting if you want to stay at home. That's even more truthful if you live in cold England...

I've recently met a great pages where people from all around a globe offer their photographs for artist as a reference pictures. Here there are:

https://pmp-art.com

Great thing about it is that you pick your picture, portray it in your own style and you post it on the pages and tag a creator of the photo reference so that he or she can see that his or her photo was inspiring for an effort.

I've done two pieces from this pages and both had a huge success among the people on pmp-art.com which made me so happy and I keeps me motivated (although today was a hard day at work and I've decided just to procrastinate which doesn't feel always good but what you gonna do right? :-) )

Here they are:

Tiger cub (oil on gesso board 6 x 8 inches)

Samurai (oil on streched canvas 20x30 inches)

If you want to see the actual reference photos go to my profile on the pmp-art.com

https://pmp-art.com/petr-stranik

where are the linkages under my paintings that will bring you towards creators...

Have a nice Evening everyone!

Commission as a pure pleasure

On 4th of December I visited my dear friend Andrew in his lovely house in Menston which is small area near Otley -really nice place to visit and I recommend you to do it if you're in west Yorkshire.
Andrew is a person whom I hold a big gratitude to. He gave me my job! Thanks to him I can make a living here in England as a delivery driver.

But this article is mainly about our collaboration in artistic field. He'd saw my paintings of big cats (Security, Spotted which you can also find in section "ART-WILDLIFE") and he thought that I would be able to manage to capture his gorgeous german shepherds Izak and Zephyr.

So on that Sunday the 4th I went to his house and met his lovely wife Sonia and the figures of action - Izak and Zephyr. Guys were in a great mood and it was such a blast to see them thrive (I think Zephyr  didn't have a pleasant childhood and Andrew and Sonia rescued him from suffering). I made a bunch of reference pictures on the sofa, in the garden, in doors and outdoors in various position to get myself exited in order to portray them right.

Part of the deal was to make another picture of their old dog Reuben who unfortunately past away year ago. So the quest here was to make two paintings - one of Reuben's from an old photograph and one of Izak and Zephyr all together from the reference that I would obtain for myself in the place of action - home of Andrew's. On the following pictures you can see chronological process of making this painting. At the very bottom of the page you can see a painting of Reuben's as well...

Pic. No. 1 - chasing the right posture of the guys in their home

Pic. No. 2 Preliminary sketch of my picked composition - the main emphasis here is on the expression of a different temperaments of the Izak and Zephyr (Zephyr is more subtle and quiet and Izak is more curious)

Pic. No. 3 Early stage of a putting colour in place...

Pic. No. 4 Final product - Izak and Zephyr (oil on board 24x18 inches)

Reuben (oil on board 14x12 inches)

If you like what I do please give me a shout or if you would like me to do some commission on the similar topic (apparently I love to paint domestic animals of any kind) don't be shy and write me a message. 

All the light in your hearts (especially these days in winter) wishes you Petr...