How a Good Silhouette Can Transform the Ordinary

Being aware of silhouettes can help turn an ordinary subject into a grand painting.

The silhouette can say a lot with a little. It instantly establishes gesture and defines a nice balance of interesting positive and negative spaces.

"Silhouettes" have been known to painters for a very long time so I have used paintings from the Italian Renaissance to help illustrate my point.

Alessandro Bonvicino Moretto (1526) used an interesting silhouette to establish gesture in his painting above.

"Venus and Cupid" by Palma the Elder (Jacopo Negretti) c. 1520.

Per usual I am exagerating my illustrations a bit to make the point. One painting can contain many little silhouettes; i.e., sleeve, belt, hair patterns within the figure.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1510-11

This figure is interesting and descriptive without detail - save the silhouette.

Some silhouettes encourage lost and found edges with the massing of dark and light.

Clothing details used by Ercole De' Roberti (1475) makes for a more interesting portrait.

Little details of clothing and hair can make a big difference.

Piero Della Francesca (1474).

Paolo Uccello (1460-65).

Don't make this all-too-common (and boring) mistake (above)!

No matter how beautiful the person, nor how well the face is painted, this will never ever be a good painting.

Instead, fuss with the clothing and hair. Consider the use of props. Use your creative imagination and you could transform this unimaginative pose into something extraordinary.

I am sure that in the early 16th Century women did not walk down the street like this - but Bartolommeo Da Veneto still figured out how to make a beautiful portrait.

Here's an ordinary sitter - nothing special.

But here is the same figure with the silhouette suggesting clothing, collar detail, hair and ornaments. This would make a much better portrait.

In 1501, Piero Di Cosimo used his imagination and painted this stunning portrait.

Here's another boring silhouette above. Hanging hair, no clothing details - ho hum.

With a little imagination, it can be jazzed up and become a better portrait way before the face is even defined.

What a difference a hat makes - by Cosimo Tura.

Portrait of a young man c. 1425 by Tommaso Masaccio.

Don't overlook props. They can serve to make portraits interesting.

The lace at the sleeve in a delicious detail in this picture.

Clothing and props provide interesting details in this painting by Fra Filippo Lippi (c.1455).

The kerchief, broom and bow are exaggerated to make this figure into something better.

Here's a complicated picture that explains itself with the clever use of silhouette.

Can you see the similarity in Pietro Di Cristoforo Vannucci's "The Combat of Love and Chastity?" (1505)

Interesting shapes work with paintings of horses...

...and even dragons and flying drapery as painted by Raphael, c. 1505

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.

Essentials of a Successful Portrait

"Clothes don't make the man - but they sure do make the portrait."

Karin Wells, Portrait Painter

The idea is to "frame the face." What looks good in a painting is not to be expected to look good when "walking down the street." Even the clothing the Old Masters used were largely made of drapery and they added, buttons, bows and other "fancies" if it served the composition.

Clothing, background and props provide needed color in a painting (not just the portrait) - the Old Masters included some representation of each of the following five colors - in every painting: 

Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and White

It doesn't take much, just a touch and it can even be as subtle as the color of wood (i.e., pine for yellow, cherry for red). If one of these colors is missing, the eye will hunger for it and the portrait will leave the viewer somehow "unsatisfied" - no matter how well painted.

The first time I ever found this little painting secret, it was hiding in plain sight in all of the works of Vermeer. And sure enough, I began to see it everywhere - when I knew what I was looking for that is.

Clothing and props allow the portrait painter to establish a strong composition.

Mrs Samuel Quincy

by John Singleton Copley

Oil on Canvas, 35 1/2" x 27 7/8"

This portrait is really "made" by the addition of that wonderful hat.

Mrs James Smith

by John Singleton Copley

Oil on Canvas, 49 5/8" x 40"

Note the fun flying blue drapery. Obviously invented by the artist as a necessary design device, I would guess that it was also an excuse to add a cool blue into an otherwise very warm area of this painting.

Mary and Elizabeth Royall

by John Singleton Copley

Oil on Canvas, 57 3/8" x 48 1/8"

The Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and White colors in this painting are obvious. The drapes provide the props for this portrait even though I suspect that the sitters probably didn't sit around on a rumpled yellow cloth playing with a black ferret. 

But these design devices work visually - and this is the point of it all.

Mrs Ezekiel Goldthwait

by John Singleton Copley

Oil on Canvas, 50 1/8" x 40 1/8"

Adding blue to a painting is usually made easy when a piece of sky is included. However, Copley made good use of that wonderful blue in the chair.

Rev Pennicott (Historical Portrait)

by Karin Wells (after a "lost" portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence)

Oil on Linen, 20" x 24"

This one is by me and I include it here to show that colors can be subtle - and still be there in order to satisfy the eye. 

In many portraits of men, you simply have to get creative and look for "excuses" to sneak some representation of those five colors into the painting.

There is an indication of a red drape behind the figure. The coat is black over a dark gold inner vest with dark gold buttons (hard to see here but there). The neckpiece is white. And the sky has a touch of blue and a little red-gold in order to repeat a bit of the vest/drape color.

Breathing Room Needed for Painted Portraits

Photographs look just fine when they are close cropped...just browse through any current magazine.

This is a news photo of Oprah Winfrey that I found on the web. It is flattering and is what I call a "close crop" - even the top of her head is cut off. as a photo, the image works.

However, as a painted portrait of  Oprah, this would NOT work. 

A well painted portrait of a person, will take on a "life of its own" and quite simply, "living" people need to occupy more of their own space.

The Old Masters knew this and here are some examples of portraits with what I call "enough breathing room," i.e., space surrounding the head:

Mrs John Amory 

by John Singleton Copley

Oil on Canvas, 49 7/8" x 40"

This canvas is large although the head is smaller than life size. Note that the space around the head appears to be even  greater because of the added sky.

Mrs Timothy Rogers

by John Singleton Copley

Oil on Canvas, 50 1/4" x 40 1/8"

There is an old saying that "clothes do not make the man, but they sure do make the portrait." 

John Quincy Adams

by John Singleton Copley

Oil on Canvas, 30 1/8" x 25"

This portrait is not currently on view so I don't know if it is unfinished or simply painted to fit into a spandrel frame (i.e., a rectangular frame with a flat oval insert).

In any event, the oval design device and the "outdoor" device give this painting a lot of inches of space surrounding the head.

Robert Hooper, Jr.

by John Singleton Copley

Oil on Canvas 50 3/8" x 40 1/2"

Note the sky device used in this portrait to give added "breathing room." 

And just to show how you can crop a "photograph" - I have cropped this one for you. (You are looking at a photograph of a painting after all). I rotated it to make it look more "interesting" and close cropped it according to the current style.

Not bad as a photo pix, eh? BUT you will never ever see something like this hanging in a museum in the section that displays the old masters. It would appear claustrophobic - no matter how well painted.

It is kind of funny but when you see beginners in portraiture draw or paint from a news or magazine photo (usually a celebrity pix) the "original" art just never looks quite right. 

And despite the obvious copyright problems a painting like this just isn't right. But most of us don't know that close cropping is likely to be the problem.

Now you understand what your eye knew but your head hadn't figured out.

Realistic Painting in a Nutshell *

...or What I've Learned from Copying the Old Masters...

The real measure of a painter’s success is that his or her knowledge can be applied in all cases and not just "randomly or occasionally."

Unfortunately talent alone is not nearly enough.

Knowledge will enable the artist to self-critique accurately and consistently raise the overall level of his or her work.

I think that it is fine to paint what you "see" (if you can see it), but it is much more effective to paint what you "know." The human eye is not always "sophisticated" or "trained" enough to observe reality.

There is a lot of false or misunderstood "knowledge" that "sounds right" but unfortunately cannot consistently be applied to improve the artist’s work.

I have been very fortunate to have been taught by Mr. Numael Pulido, and have had an opportunity to copy the works of some of the Old Masters.

I have found Vermeer to be the best teacher of all the Old Masters. Here are some of the lessons I have learned about realistic painting from the Old Masters in general - and most especially from Vermeer in particular.

FIRST STEPS

1. Build Composition with three values. You must represent a dark tone, a middle tone, and a light tone.

2. Clearly define the silhouettes of both the positive and negative shapes early in the painting and make sure that these shapes are interesting and not repetitive or uniform.

3. Use only a single light source. If possible, have the single light source come from the upper left.

LIGHT AND SHADOW

1. Beginning in the under layer, the light and shadow must be clearly defined in thick paint.

2. Light flows across an object in a path from the center of intensity (highlight) and should not be interrupted by dark shadows in its flow. (i.e., shadows appear lighter in the light).

3. Connect shadows into a pattern whenever possible.

4. Separate light in a consistent manner from shadow. No light should appear in a shadow and no dark shadows should appear in the light. (That is, shadows that break light must be lighter than any single shadow in a shadow area).

5. An effective way to add “reflected light” to a shadow is to mix pure color pigments from opposite sides of the color wheel to get a neutralcolor. Then add enough white to match the surrounding value of the shadow.

6. Whenever possible, find and make a pattern of connected light.

7. Utilize shadows as distinct and important design elements.

8. Light is always built with thick opaque paint.

9. Shadows are to be thinly painted.

10. A halftone is formed on an object where the shadow meets the light. The transition between light and shadow may occur very slowly or very quickly and this will determine the character of the halftone.

11. I begin with an imprimatura (aprox. the value of brown wrapping paper) by painting light as it emerges from this cool middle or halftone.

12. A pleasing light/shadow or shadow/light ratio is 1:3.

FORM

1. There are no hard edges in nature. Blend and soften your edges!

2. Perspective and anatomy ought to be depicted as true and accurate.

3. Man made objects with a straight edge should be painted with a "ruler" (i.e., tabletop).

4. Distant objects tend to become "bluer/cooler" as they recede. Close objects show more "yellow/warmth."

5. Turn edges of objects away from the viewer by making them cooler.

6. Paint objects in the distance less distinctly than objects that are near the viewer.

7. As highlight transitions into deep shadow, warm and cool tones begin to alternate to create each layer that defines form. The overlapping ofwarm and cool color is essential in building realistic form.

(The terms “warm” and “cool” color is relative to the specific color used…i.e., warm and cool blue…)

Highlight is cool. The lightest coolest value paint on an object.

Light is warm. Light warm value paint - gets lighter as it approaches and surrounds the highlight.

Halftone (where light and shadow meet) is cool. Mid-value paint that is cooler than the shadow and light which it connects.

Shadow is warm. Dark warm value paint.

Deep Shadow (cast shadow at the origin) is hot. Darkest warmest value paint.

COLOR

1. Some representation of the following five colors should be included in a painting: red, yellow, blue, black, and white. (“Shadows” do not count as black.)

2. Differentiate and define a background, a middle ground and a foreground in each painting. These levels of depth should eventually be integrated with “lost” and “found” edges.

IN GENERAL:

Out of clutter, look for and find simplicity and pattern.

* Excerpts from a talk by Karin Wells - "Building Art Beyond the Image" - at the Portrait Society of America’s Annual Conference in Chicago, April 2001.