Ms. Information

I got yet another viral email saying that the Health Care System in the UK is "bad."

Well they fibbed - it just isn't.

The UK Health Care System is a whole lot better than what we have. We have to struggle with greedy, unaffordable, unreliable and unethical insurance companies.

Wake up Americans!

If you think you already have "good" health insurance - just wait until the sad day when you really need it and they refuse to deliver.

Call your Representatives, Senators and the White House to weigh in on this issue if you want a Public Option - just like Medicare that every Senior currently enjoys.

On this page, fill in your zip code and click on this . . .

. . . in order to contact your Congress Critter.

"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

- Jesus, as reported in Matthew 25:40

So why am I not hearing any of those heretofore outspoken Christian Fundamentalist voices filling the airwaves in charitable support of this no-brainer?

Over 45 million people are uninsured and have no access to health care.

And the #1 cause of home foreclosure is overwhelming health-care debt.

Shameful.

Each of us must be willing to speak out - loudly and often - to be heard over the shouting insurance-sponsored mobs that intimidate town hall meetings across the country this Summer.

Now that I got this irritating thing off my chest, I'm hearing the easel call me . . .

Why Didn't I Think of That?

What a fun piece this would be in an artist's studio!

I was searching the internet for something else...but found this little piece of visual candy instead.

Sweet.

This is the Designer, John Nouanesing

Follow That Dream

"...dreams get you into the future and add excitement to the present."

- Robert Conklin

A colleague sent me this:

"I'm reading a book called The life and letters of Pytor Ilich Tchaikovsky and wanted to share something from it with you."

"Did you know that Tchaikovsky wrote the attached letter at 23 after deciding to leave a cushy job and pursue music full time?"

"So dream away, and dream often, and dream big. And never let anyone talk you out of your dreams."

- Neale Donald Walsch

In his book "Outliers," Malcolm Gladwell maintains that 10,000 hours is a magic number where people pass from obscurity to fame and fortune.

Long ago my own "impossible" dream was merely "to make a living with a brush in my hand." This idea was "really impossible" because I was a single mom with two children to support - but I did it anyhow and became a sign painter.

Ultimately this path led me to become a portrait painter.

I trusted that hard work and spending my time painting would make up for any talent I lacked. And I had the firm belief that a "teacher would appear" when I was ready to learn.

This blog is part of my payback to others who need to learn the lessons I can teach about painting...I trust that you'll find me if you need me.

How to Cope with a Really Bad Photo Reference

Bad reference photos happen and this is about how you can begin to make the best of it...

In a perfect world, I would only work with a great photo reference like the one below of Sara Lawrence Lightfoot. I took it in my studio with only a single source of light (like the light the Old Masters used).

Without any tweaking, this particular photo reference tells me pretty much what I need to know in order to paint Sara.

Obviously a good photo helps to make a good painting....the better the photo, the better the painting can be.

Then there are the problem reference photos we must work with because nothing else is available.

With the miracle of Photoshop, you may not need to resort to my "Studio Stress Reduction Kit."

The little boy in the picture below is four and his mother wants to paint him at this particular age.

And alas, he has now grown up or my first suggestion would be for her to take another photo using a single source of light.

He's obviously a cute little guy but a reference like this is generally a nightmare. Here are some ways to allow yourself to "see" what you need to "see" in order to paint a decent portrait based on a poor photo reference.

(Note that I am not bothering to crop this into any other composition.)

This is the original full color photo.

This is the same photo desaturated (i.e., changed into Greyscale) in Photoshop. Color can confuse the eye and seeing value is most important here.

This is what I call the "Ansel Adams" approach to seeing a photo (above). This technique can sometimes salvage a poor photo or even make a mediocre photo look sensational:

Make a Layer in Photoshop. I used a Gaussian Blur Filter (12 pixels on this one) and adjusted the Brightness/Contrast to +15/+15.

Then fade this layer to about 35% and flatten the image. The result can sometimes give you a soft and glowing effect with softer transitions from light to shadow - much like an Ansel Adams photograph (tough to see here - sorry).

Here's another way to look:

I posterized a copy of the original grayscale photo to 5 levels above. I'm looking for pleasing patterns of light and shadow here - and a good solid abstract composition.

Remember that the volumes of light, medium and dark values must not be equal to each other?

Posterized at 13 levels, you can see a more precise map of the distribution of value from highlight to deep shadow.

In this detail of the face, you can see where the centers of light are to be found and observe how light flows over the form.

A posterized detail of the arm shows how light plays on the form.

This is a close up detail of the unaltered face.

Sometimes we must paint what we know - and not merely what we see.

So I took some liberties to mess with reality below:

Photographs tend to clump values on both ends of the scale.

Therefore I reduced the contrast between the teeth and the inside of the mouth so it will end up looking more "normal" in the painting.

(Unless the subject is a small baby, I don't know any professional portrait artist who will paint an open mouth).

This is an eye detail of the face above showing how I added light to the iris and moved the highlights up. In a painting, this will make the eyes look more "real."

The source light comes from the upper right and the light (not highlight) reflected in the eyes is an opportunity to get the "color" right.

Note that under the clear lens of the eye, the iris is shaped like a shallow "concave dish" whose opposite rim catches light.

Also, I raised the existing highlights in the eye. This is a portrait painter's trick to make the child look "more intelligent" in the final painting.

Note that I always add highlights in the eyes after the surface is dry. It's easy to make someone look googly-eyed and it usually takes me a couple of tries before I get it right.

I like the option of wiping off the paint without wrecking the entire freshly-painted eye.

"Shrink the head" and read about why I do this. Because this is a child and his head is proportionally large, I don't shrink it very (much as shown above).

Painting plaid and other complicated patterns isn't as hard as you think. I added the Photoshop Gaussian Blur filter to make the light underneath the pattern easier to see.

First you will need to paint the cloth beneath the pattern and get the light and shadow right. Then paint the pattern.

I do hope this helps....

Fear and Frustration

The only way to fight "Stupid" is to speak out with facts, common sense and compassion.

Katie Couric gets it right:

Finally we have a real chance to get a low cost, not-for-profit Public Health Care Option (like Medicare) if we call our Congresscritters and demand it.

If you like the insurance company you have - by all means keep it.

But it is the rest of us 45 million, hard-working uninsured folks that are so vulnerable that we are only one serious illness away from total financial ruin.

Join me?

Sick for Profit

The Democrats should've launched this campaign six months ago, easy.

Take a look at what you're fighting for, teabaggers.

Insurance companies, have you no decency?

UnitedHealthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley owns $744,232,068 in unexercised stock options. CIGNA’s Edward Hanway spends his holidays in a $13 million beach house in New Jersey. Meanwhile, regular Americans are routinely denied coverage for the care they need when they need it most.

Got a story? Tell it here.

This country seriously needs an outburst of common sense.

If ever there were a time for comprehensive health care reform, it's right now.

Yet the forces of darkness are lining up against this urgent need, buttressed by lies, mobs inflamed by those lies and millions of dollars changing hands and changing votes in Washington, D.C.

Safety Matters in the Studio

How safe are the art materials you use every day?

The three pictures below, for example, is one MSDS for a tube of Winsor & Newton's Cadmium Orange oil paint:

These MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) are easily available online. Each tube of paint & each art material of any type or brand has its own MSDS.

Personally, I refuse to use all paints that contain lead and the MSDS tells me this.

A good place to get instant (free) access to information would be a big online art supplier like Dick Blick. Also, any manufacturer will supply these data sheets on request.

Paint thinners can be reused. But when the solvent will no longer clear upon standing, it is exhausted and you will need to dispose of it.

Used thinners are a toxic waste.

Call your local recycling center for disposal instructions. I keep my spent thinners in a storage can and take it to the dump once a year on "Toxic Waste Day." Because it is a bio-hazard, I do NOT dump it into the soil.

To protect our precious water supply, no artist's materials, including acrylics, oil/water media and watercolors, should be washed down the drain - ever.

Encaustic Portrait: J Mitchell Bailey

I just finished this little encaustic, oil and graphite portrait.

(Jesse) Mitchell Bailey, 1918-1945

10" x 10" Encaustic, Oil and Graphite on Board

Detail of Mitchell's face.

This was a very difficult portrait to paint because:

#1 My reference material was poor

#2 The finished head is extremely small (1.75 inches high)

#3 I used encaustic paints and since I'm a beginner in this medium, my skill level is not up to snuff - yet.

Now, in the "DO AS I SAY BUT NOT AS I DO" Department....

I agreed to this job for no good reason.

It came with awful photo references (as you can see from the faded 70+ year old snapshots below). But merely because I had a beloved aunt named Jessie Mitchell I grabbed the job...go figure.

I was totally prepared to not have the client like it - but I wanted to paint it anyhow.

Mitchell died tragically at the age of 27. He had a strong, angular and exceptionally handsome face. He had been an oarsman at Yale and stayed in shape.

In my research I found an old magazine cover with a 1908 Leyendecker illustration of a Harvard Oarsman and leaned heavily on that as a basic body model. (So noted on the back of the painting.)

Per usual, I made his head too small so he would appear more "commanding and in charge." Read more about why I mess with reality both here and here.

Here is the entire painting without the frame (pictured above). You can see that I followed the Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and White Rule.

The overall "softness" of this portrait is characteristic of the way I am currently using my encaustic paint.

Some Nerdy Technical Details:

For starters, I've cranked up the heat on my encaustics and am working at 250-275 degrees F these days. Maybe hotter if I dare...

I did a little graphite drawing of that face (backwards) on tracing paper (I made-up shadows & added an ear) and transferred that, thus destroying the paper and embedding just the graphite into the first layers of encaustic.

Then I used a brush with powdered graphite to finish that face drawing in wax before I sealed it with clear medium. The face was too small to paint with a brush accurately but using a soft graphite pencil made it easy.

Above is an extreme blown up detail and hopefully you can see that the grey of the graphite represents the cool halftone. Of course, any student of mine knows that halftones are always cool, eh?

Hence my use of a graphite pencil to embed this drawing.

What I love about encaustic paint is that it is such an "immediate" medium. For example, if you hesitate a wee bit too long, the melted pigmented wax on the brush will harden and that brush will will stick to the surface and make an awful mess. Naturally I speak from painful personal experience. :o)

The rest of the painting is my usual layered mix of encaustic and oils.

I am only beginning to explore what this unique encaustic medium offers.

"Engrave It!" of Keene, NH supplied (they ship) the 1/2" high brass nameplate for the frame because I simply couldn't handle lettering that small in this medium.

Old Story, New Twist

It's so hot today, my paint is acting "funny." But I wasn't laughing until a fellow artist sent me this:

A truck driver was driving along on the freeway and noticed a sign that

read: Low Bridge Ahead.

Before he knew it, the bridge is right in front

of him and his truck gets wedged under it. Cars are backed up for miles.

Finally a police car comes up. The cop gets out of his car and walks over to

the truck driver. He puts his hands on his hips and says, "Got stuck, huh?"

So, the

truck driver says, "No, I was delivering this bridge and I ran out of gas."

Just an observation but so many of my fellow artists (me included) have a wacky sense of humor and are political junkies.

Could it be that if our thoughts turn to the heated political scene very often, we need a lot of humor to survive with our sanity intact?