Good news

I am honored to be selected to one of the honorable mention or certificate of merit in the annual Portrait Society of Canada portrait competition "The Miracle of the Portrait". I entered 2 portraits of Tex Lecor but I dont know which one got it. One is in pastel and the other is in silverpoint. The one posted is in silverpoint but the info is of the pastel. I will have to ask which one got picked. Fellow Montrealers Marina Dieul and Irena Korosec won People's choice award and the best portrait award respectively. You can check out the winners on the Portrait Society of Canada site.

Les Pastellistes demo opening night

Last night, I had a chance to do annother portrait demo/challenge with Denis Jacques and Ann Rochefort at the opening night of PSEC annual exhibition. As usual, I was super nervous doing it live. This time I listened to music to calm my nerves...kinda helped. Here are some pictures.

The model was PSEC member Ann Duckett. (right)

After over an hour. Time flew by. It felt like only 30 minutes had gone by. I think I got the likeness but I am a bit off at some places. :(

Post demo. The 3 portraits.

I was so happy that the grand prix of the night was award to a good friend of mine Dominique Bisson! Come and visit the PSEC exhibition. There are some wonderful works there!

Les Pastellistes 2011

I will be a part of this year's annual exhibition of PSEC's Les Pastellistes. I have 2 artworks in the exhibition.
I will also be doing a portrait demo live with Denis Jacques and Ann Rochefort on the opening night at 4pm, Nov 4. There is also live demoes everyday during the exhibition. Details are below.. Hope to can make it.


When: Nov 4th to 13th, 2011
Where: OGILVY TUDOR Hall, 1307 West Ste. Catherine Street (5th floor), Montreal, Quebec (H3G 1P7)
Opening hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Thursday, Friday - 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday - 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Official Opening reception: November 4th, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.


DEMONSTRATIONS' SCHEDULE


•Friday, November 4th, 4pm to 6pm. Portrait Challenge with Denis Jacques, Ann Rochefort and Josef Sy.
Three talented portrait artists step up to the challenge and paint the same model. Observe their varied techniques!

•Saturday November 5th, 10h30. Margaret Ferraro; Set up for Spontaneity in Pastel.
Margaret will use a process where colour becomes a key factor in learning how to play in the moment, in order to find your true voice as an original artist, using colour intuitively.

•Saturday November 5th, 2 pm. BILL HOSNER; Painting a Portrait ($10 Entry Fee)
Take this unique opportunity to come and see Mr. Bill Hosner, Master Pastellist with the Pastel Society of America, as he paints a portrait from a live model.

•Sunday November 6th, Noon to 5 pm, Café des artistes
Visitors will be free to tour the exhibition and watch the artists at work, while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee, with a lovely musical backdrop.

•Sunday November 6th, 1:30 pm, Véronica Takacs Fragman, Guided Tour;
Véronica will give a guided tour and reveal why some works are so successful.

•Monday, November 7th, 1:30pm. Ann Rochefort; Still Life
Ann will show us her still life painting techniques.

•Tuesday, November 8th, 1pm. Juan Cristobal; Painting a Rainy City Scene
Juan, a PSEC master pastellist, will paint an atmospheric rain-soaked city scene and tackle the challenges of rendering cool and warm lights.

•Tuesday November 8th, 3pm. Juan Cristobal, Guided Tour
Juan will finish off his demonstration with a guided tour, commenting on strategic and fully developed compositions.

•Wednesday, November 9th, 1:30pm. Véronica Takacs Fragman; Guided Tour
Véronica will give a guided tour and reveal why some works are so successful.

•Wednesday, November 9th, 2:30pm. Susanne Strater; Ways of Working
Susanne will show us how she layers her pastel strokes to achieve a rich texture and a semi abstraction of the subject matter.

•Thursday, November 10th, 1:30PM. Michel Raymond; Night-time City Scene.
Michel will paint a night-time city scene and explain his choices of colours and tonal variations to achieve the required mood.

•Thursday, November 10th, 5:30pm. Suzanne Godbout and Viviane Roman; Pastels and the Proper Tools.
A yearly feature, Suzanne and Viviane will introduce all the different materials available on the market, and discuss their inherent qualities.

•Friday, November 11th, 1:30pm. Magda Bascaron; Composition from a model.
Magda will show us how to establish, from a model, the elements of the composition, including lines, shadows and lights.

•Saturday, November 12th, 11am. Suzanne Godbout; Guided Tour.
Suzanne will give a guided tour and reveal why some works are so successful.

•Saturday, November 12th, 1:30. Suzanne Godbout; View of the Saint-Lawrence River
The artist will establish a tonal structure with an under-painting adding depth to colours.

•Sunday, November 13th, 1:30pm. Caroline Guernon; The artist's portfolio
What comprises a professional looking portfolio, from the cover page to the resume.

Rawdon, QC

I took a dayoff from work to go outdoors to paint. I was with a friend artist Linda Lamontagne in Rawdon checking out the falls. There are a couple of falls around there. We painted where there is a cascade or mini falls upstream. Feels great to be outdoors!

Figure Drawing Oct 2011

Ok. I went to a couple of figure drawing sessions this week. Here are some stuff. 2-25 minutes.

eye of the needle - silverpoint

This is a small silverpoint drawing. 6x8

Figure sketch studies

These are a couple of studies in oil. Trying to capture the skin tones is tricky. There is a lot of grey bluish hue in our skin. One of Piertro Annigoni's portraits I find he uses quite a bit of greys, and in effect looks like blue or green. Its an optical illusion.

Tex silverpoint finished

Finally finished the silverpoint drawing of Tex Lecor. There is a bit of bluish tint on the last part (lower). I am wondering if its the oxidation with the point or maybe the point is worn off and it coming in contact with a different kind of metal??

Spy Kids 4 is out

The latest installment of spykids is out. We went to see it with the kids and they loved it! It is good ol family entertainment. Hybride did a lot of VFX on the movie...about 1114 shots or over 60+ minutes of the movies!

Pastel Tex

This is another version of Tex Lecor done in pastel on Canson paper 18x24. It was entered for the annual PSEC exhibition this coming November. I hope it gets in the show. :)

WIP silverpoint

This is a work in progress of my first ever silverpoint drawing. I love this technique! It takes time and patience and also nerves...you cannot erase your mistakes! I was really nervous at the start. What if I place it off centered? It is on gessoed illustration board. It is suppose to be white but I have really bad lighting. I tried correcting it but it was taken in jpg. Damn jpg! Got to remember to take ALL artworks in raw. Next time...

David Usher - Mile End Sessions

I recently bought David Usher's new album - Mile End Sessions. It is my very first purchase from iTunes! I should say I am very pleased with my purchase. I highly recommend this album. It is a collection of David's songs done acoustically. (A couple of new ones with Quebec singers Coeur de Pirate and Marie- Mai.) I always love acoustic sessions. Anyways, If you have a chance to listen or buy this album, it is worth every penny!

correction on raw vs jpg post

I realize that the jpg photo might have been taken with a different setting on the camera. So I retook the photo in raw and jpg in the same setting. Here is the result. Left is raw and right one is jpg.

raw vs jpg files

I was looking for a way to calibrate my monitor, or find a way to capture or color correct the pictures of my paintings that I took. There is xrite passport colorchecker which is a handy tool to check and adjust the color of your pictures. But the pictures have to be in raw files in order to do the adjustments efficiently and correctly. I remembered that I have raw file mode on my Canon G2 camera. So I decided to do a test. The 2 pictures are taken in the same light conditions (under flourescent light). The left is raw, middle one is jpg and the right one is the color corrected jpg. From comparing the color of the painting, even without adjustments I see the difference in accuracy color-wise. With the raw file I could do adjustments in Photoshop CS or Lightroom.

When I color corrected the jpg for the skin to be more reddish or orange, the lips which is red became even more red.

Tex Lecor Sketch

This is a sketch I began several months ago of Tex Lecor.  12 x 16 Charcoal on paper.

Expresso 3

Expresso 2

Expresso

I just started a new still life painting. Here is the first stage.

Workshop on Classical Portrait painting

DIY pochade box - lid support detail

A fellow artist who made a Serett pochade box asked me some pictures of the lid support installation and position.

I installed the end part (with pivot) of lid support to the top part of the pochade box about 1 inch away from the back. With the pivot, it gives about 1 3/4 in away from the back. I then installed a bolt for the wing nut 3 inches away from the back. This makes it possible to open the pochade box to its maximum.

Beauty

This from the BBC documentary 'Why Beauty Matters' with Roger Scruton. I love this passage from the documentary...

"All art is absolutely useless,” wrote Oscar Wilde, who intended his remark as praise. For Wilde, beauty was a value higher than usefulness. People need useless things just as much, even more than, they need things with a use. Just think of it…what is the use of love, or friendship, of worship? None whatsoever. And the same goes for beauty.” “This returns me to Oscar Wilde’s remark that all art is absolutely useless. Put usefulness first, and you lose it. Put beauty first, and what you do will be useful forever. It turns out, nothing is more useful than the useless.”

DIY pochade box

My recent project is a homemade pochade box for plein air painting. It is light and compact. The palette is built in into the box like the open box M. I started from plans of Jim Serrett at pochade box paintings. His plans were easy to follow. Thanks Jim for sharing this. I hope we will meet someday and paint together! Cheers.

I made mine from scraps of 1/4 plywood and 1x4 oak planks I have lying around. I had to cut it into 1/2 x 3/4 inch square dowels. I have one that is 3/4 x 3/4 for the backside of the box where the hinge and tripod support will be attached. I used a piano hinge cut to length, lid support (I could not find the table leg brackets), 1/4 T nut which is standard for the tripod attachments, a bolt and a wingnut and some washers, plexi glass and a bungie cord with hooks.

I took me several nights to put it together with some error or miscalculations. (very typical of me) I worked hard on this box and I now know why the profesionally made ones are so expensive! ($300 and up) In the near future, I might do some modification of the attachment system for panels. I like the bungie system but if the panel is painted, it would be a bit of a mess removing it.

Black Mamba

This is a Nike spot that Hybride worked on.



Black Mamba 2, Black Mambe Returns...lol

Springtime

This is a pastel I started last year and finally finished it. It will be on show for "Pastel Toujours" the 15th Annual Members' Choice Exhibition held at the St-Vincent-de-Paul Gallery, in Laval, from March 16th to 27th, 2010. Hope you can come a visit.

Geest comparison - original vs copy

This is a side by side comparison and you can see that there is things quite off. DOH! Ok, not to be discouraged. The purpose of copying is to learn and in learning mistakes are made. The reference I have was a printed copy of the painting and here are some of things to fix. 

• overall color of the skin is much too yellow.
• lips are too red and saturated. (the hard copy ref was that color I swear! lol)
• Some shadow areas need to be punched up.
• frills or ruffles value need to be toned down and detail added.
• Hignlight on the nose needs to be toned down.
• transition tone between the left eyebrow and forehead.
• Hair details needs some tweaks.
• cast shadow under the nose.
• ears needs more modeling.

Cornelis Van Der Geest - wip06

Here is an update. I did the hair. The bulk of the 1st painting is done. There is still some color issues on the ears, left cheek in the shadow side and the ruffles which is too white or too light in value. The next stage after the 1st painting is the 2nd painting. I will repaint the 2nd time around but with greater attention the color values making sure they are the same or very close to the original painting.

Sistine Chapel VR

This is really cool. Sistine chapel in VR!
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html