How I Painted Joanna's Portrait


This is the finished portrait of Joanna. 20" x 24" Oil on Linen.

When painting in layers, it is important to understand that each layer is painted to facilitate the following layer - NOT to correct mistakes.

Start with a plan and draw it out in detail before you ever pick up a brush.



Of course I began with a raw umber toned imprimatura. See this.

When the imprimatura was dry I transferred the drawing to the canvas, used a black Sharpie marker for my guide lines and began to "draw" using raw umber and Liquin. I like to use a soft brush.



This is a close up detail of the beginning of the drawing process. You can see my drawing (cartoon) under the paint.



This is the finished raw umber drawing. It can be done in one day, but sometimes I take more time. Even though it gets dark, the Raw Umber is a warm amber and transparent.

Be sure to let this dry.



This is my first layer of white in building the "dead" underlayer. To begin, I scumble a mixture of Titanium White and Liquin onto the dry surface.




Then I slowly begin to build up white as you can see in this detail. Except for some areas of the sky, I'll stick pretty much to the figure.

Note that light is applied thickly. Shadows are thin and transparent.



This is day two and I'm still building light.



This is a detail of how the light is built and as far as I wish to go on the figure and objects in the foreground.



I'm starting to glaze color into the background and put in the first skin tone glazes.

You can see the rest of my process here:




6 comments:

workhard said...

Lovely demo, i was wondering, when you are working on the light layer, u worked only with white, i am working on make postures in oil, i am an amateur artist, this helps me a lot

Thanks

My Painting Studio said...

It is helpful to keep in mind that this underpainting layer (painting with white) is much like trying to make the object look "like a white marble statue."

The white pigment acts as a base so that the color glazes that will rest on top will look luminous and will create interesting halftones - automatically.

I find it easier to use this Old Master method of underpainting by modeling the form in white than to begin with color (as in the more modern "a la prima" method of painting).

It looks like it takes longer, but I find it to be a nifty shortcut.

Chris said...

Ms. Wells

Your painting is beautiful!

I've tried to study the classical method over the last year. I find it fascinating! It seems as if almost everyone has somewhat of a different approach.

I've got two questions, if you would be so kind to help me:

1. How do you transfer your drawings to the canvas? Do you use carbon paper? Also, do you draw with Sharpies right onto the imprimatured canvas?

2. When you glaze the white over the Raw Umber stage do you use straight white from the tube, or are you pre-mixing different values?

Thanks for your help! I really enjoy your blog!

Chris

My Painting Studio said...

"1. How do you transfer your drawings to the canvas? Do you use carbon paper?"

No, I use a pastel scrubbed into the surface of a piece of tracing paper. It is described and demonstrated elsewhere on this blog.

Also, do you draw with Sharpies right onto the imprimatured canvas?

Sometimes I use a red Sharpie but the "ink" can dissolve into the paint.

And sometimes I use a pen dipped into a waterproof ink to draw lines on the canvas.

And then sometimes I use a thinned raw umber on a "liner" brush to draw lines. (Then I let it dry before moving on).

2. When you glaze the white over the Raw Umber stage do you use straight white from the tube, or are you pre-mixing different values?

Mostly I use white straight from the tube but knocking down the value with raw umber sometimes works when the final result is to be a dark object.

Chris said...

Ms.Wells

I added cooler colors temprature on the highlights on my "Mystery Portrait. My reference is a black and white photo printed from my computer printer. I don't know the colors, so I'm incorporating some of your suggestions and it seems to be working. I'm relatively new to painting so its all experimental anyway. Thanks for the advice/help! (Below is the URL).

Chris

http://blogatbree.blogspot.com/search/label/mystery%20portrait

My Painting Studio said...

I have a post on this blog about the layering of warm and cool colors.

People tend to go from warm to hot in paintings and they end up with an overall "brownish orangey" color.

Ick.

Understanding temperature layering will help counter this.