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

life drawing Feb 2011

My first time this year...I had shake off the rust and the poses from the model was not very inspiring so it was a rough night. I shouldnt blame that for the bad drawings...I always question the lighting of the place and find the model is lit from very angle. It tends to flatten the model and all you can draw is mostly contours... So here are the work from that night. They range from 2-20 minutes.

Tex Lecor

I recently visited my friend Tex Lecor at his studio. I always enjoyed my visits talking with him about anything from the arts, a bit of politics to his past colorful stories. He is a wonderful artist and person. I could say that he is one of my mentors and inspiration. His studio is filled with paintings, drawings and lots of them! It kind of reminded me one of my art teacher's studio. I always love seeing old drawings and paintings in progress.

He was working on a small oil painting of a man or 'bonhomme' holding a bottle.

 I am always greeted pleasantly by his golden retriever.

Tex and me.

Cornelis Van Der Geest - wip05

Here is an update. I completed the mouth/chin area and started on the frills. I tell you the frills are tough and time consuming. I just have to be a bit patient. :) I will complete the hair next.

Cornelis Van Der Geest - wip04 Color Correct

I noticed the color of the photo I took seems to be off. So I check it and YES it is off!

 Color corrected (above)- notice the skin color is more reddish than uncorrected one which is much more pale.

uncorrected

Cornelis Van der Geest - wip03

Continuing through the forehead...just slowly filling the empty spaces.

Cornelis Van der Geest - wip02

I painted in the dark background and started the 1st painting. I started with the left eye and went across to the right then the nose. Paint I use is very lean using only the oil in the paint and sometimes added to make the paint flow from the brush better. The colors I am using are Titanium white, yellow ochre, terra rosa, raw umber, burnt umber, ultramarine blue and lamp black. I try to stay with the earth colors since these were the colors available at that time. Cadmiums were not used or discovered yet.

Cornelis Van der Geest - wip01

I just transferred the drawing and dry brush the basic tone of the painting. I am using raw umber but I realise that Van Dyck might be using Burnt umber. Its because see some of the burnt umber showing through in the background. The support I am using is a gessoed (acrylic) wood panel.

Van Dyck's Portrait of Cornelis Van der Geest

This is a portrait of Cornelis Van der Geest by Anthony Van Dyck. Its one of my favorite portraits. I will attempt to copy this portrait since it will be the subject of a class I plan to teach. (Classical painting techniques on Portraits.) The course will cover the technique used by Van Dyck, the background and start to finish process. The size of the copy will be as close as the original painting about 13in x 15in.

Some demo drawings and a painting sketch

Here are some demo drawings from my drawing class on Tuesdays. Usually I dont finish them as you can see. ;) I have several request for a portrait painting class so maybe in the new year I will start one with the Festival or on the side. (depending on my schedule too)

Drawing from a skull cast.

This exercise was using subtraction. You start off with a mid tone using vine charcoal and then you erase or subtract the areas where it is lighter in value. It is a great exercise to let you see in 2 or 3 values.

 One of the Bargue exercises.

 I recently met and visited Tex Lecor at his Studio. He is one of the great artists from Quebec. Not only he paints, he is a famous folk singer in the 70's and had some TV shows too. A real renaissance gentleman.

 Another subtraction exercise demo.



Why Beauty Matters

This is a veryinteresting documantary hosted by philospher/ writer Roger Scruton about beauty and why we need it. 6 parts.