Portrait Of My Good Old Friend

On Friday night the 13th of October right after I finished this painting I visited our good old jazz club in Zdar to see my friends that I hadn't seen for a bit (as you maybe know I've spent past two years in England working). It was a cheerful event full of music (It was a jam session night - after some consideration and some wine I resumed to play some old tunes too - it was awful I have to admit :-) ). But most importantly I met a friend that I haven't seen for a while - a great singer and fabulous conversation buddy Zuzana (she likes to talk about life and its meaning and I dig this topic a lot!) So I invited her to come over on Saturday to just talk about life whilst painting her. And She agreed!
It was my third oil portrait attempt in three back-to-back days, big challenge as well - soft light plus young flawless face without wrinkles is deadly combination.

In the first BW picture you can see the setting at the end of the session (3 hours) with her proportion slightly off (I blame her for getting me distracted because all of those interesting topics that we had been discussing :-)

Finished work at the end of the session with Zuzka in my vista

I got a break from the painting till the evening that day. I put my photo on BW to force myself to use colour just from my mixtures done on my palette and adjusted her proportion accordingly. So here's the final painting:

"Zuzka" (oil on board 11x14 inches)

Do you have any suggestion, tips etc how to stay alert and present while doing a life portrait and having a conversation with a subject at the same time? I find it very challenging!

But challenges are here to be overcome so everyone near Zdar who would have some free time is welcomed in my humble room to sit for me!

Sincerely Petr 

Colour study - Midday afternoon still life

Two weeks ago It was still warm outside so I set myself with my french easel on our terrace and set a small still life near mason wall of our house to see how direct sunlight can effect colours. It was a lovely experience. I have tried to be faithful to what I was seeing but maybe I emphasised some colour a little bit just in sake of my understanding that every shape have a definite colour family - even shadows. I didn't use black in order force myself to use chromatic content every time I put brush onto my painting surface.

This is my setting to se roughly the composition (I put it in BW - I hate a colours of photos - Especially from iPhone - sorry apple :-) )

This is basically first laying with and beginning of some details - In this stage I tried to have every colour shape of a definite colour family

Here's final study (oil on canvas primed with oil primer - I love the surface, 8x7 inches)

Both pictures are taken under a balanced light temperature 5500 K to have colours as truthful as possible.

I have some question for artist friends - has someone tried to study colour from a colourist Henry Hensche's perspective? I'm reading this "free be" article from Camille Przewodek's web pages:

Colourist article here

I get an idea from it and I have actually tried beginning stages of study described in the article. But opinions shared in the article are quite strict and I would say doctrine like. For example in mids of it its author says that it is painting strictly with colour and not with values - but I think he misses the point that value is inherent aspect of colour and you can't simply get it out of an equation. 

Another point is that all the people suppose to have a wrong bias for colour given by conception and so on and one should by exercises given by article overwrite those misconceptions. Although I'm on board with this idea - meaning you should try to put colours as you see them and not how you think they are coloured (for example wrong approach would be - I know that that apple is red so I mix red on my palette). We all know that local colour of an object is always affected by light effect and its surroundings. But I'm worried about a procedure - I have to honestly admit that it seems to me really, really cumbersome (It's advised 20 years of development by studies and accordingly author wants from reader some humility) and I would lost my enthusiasm (I thing I would lost that spark that art gives me in the first place) and another thing that I'm worried about is that you can impair your perceptual development sort of speak by doing studies at the beginning with just tube colours (Although If I look at final and complete pieces of Hensche students, e.g. Camille Przewodek I don't think that would be the case.)

And my final point is that I find article quite offensive against any other traditional approaches (starting with just black and white and limited palette and proceeding to a full chroma slowly once you get confident with the basics)

Any opinions on colourist approaches in the comment section would be very well appreciated since I have troubles to get my head around it. Or you can write me an e-mail (stranikp@gmail.com)

Pete

Evening news II - Another sketch - Thanks to Rosemary Brushes

Last week in this POST I covered my first serious life portrait painting in oils. Before that I had managed to do portrait from life just by using a mirror (Link here).

Very motivated the very next day (Friday the 13th of October) I tried a different position more close to my mother (Again watching evening news in our living room). I think you can expect to see more of these because It's a great opportunity for me to study human face from life.

In this particular one I was just twice as fast (1,5 hour - yes I was more confident)

Though I had to deal with similar issues from the previous post (terrible light) I have to say that I had a great aid in brushes that I used. Before I moved out from England (beginning of October) I had discovered that lovely county of West Yorkshire is a home for a great company: Rosemary and Co. They have a myriad types of brushes and they can help you to choose just a right type for you.

I ended up with ultimate series witch is quite similar to hog brushes for rough block-ins and with evergreen series for my tiling technique - especially flats and short flats can give you very desirable chiseled edge - You can see from the picture that I'm the fan of chiseled shapes! :-)

Evening news (oil on canvas circa 9x9 inches)

My newly acquired Rosemary brushes (I have about 20 of them but those four I used mainly for this particular painting)

It's a really good idea to invest in great brushes since painting in oils is a hard task enough to start with.

Lots of love you all, Petr

Finished sketches from Jo-Joo circus

Yesterday I made a post about my field sketching in circus Zoo. I had few sketches in pencil and one in full colour. Based on that one in full colour (in order to wind up) I finished two of them before bed...

They are about 1,5 by 1,5 inch each just like the previous one.

Have a nice Thursday...Petr

Circus Came to Town!

Today our small town in the middle of the country in the middle of Europe became a home for upcoming week or so for a glorious Circus called "National Circus JO-JOO" (národní cirkus Jo-Joo In Czech)

http://www.narodnicirkus.cz/index.php?page=10000&lang=cz

They have among other variety of animals lovely tigers (whom I admire greatly since childhood) and they have during a day open circus Zoo for a reasonable toll. So I decided to go there to study them from life and see their majesty in person! There's no substitute for real thing and photographs can't describe the beauty of those animals.

It was really challenging to attempt a sketch because all the tigers were moving a lot in their cages so I ended up with rather scarcity of sketches in my field blog. However I managed to do one portrait in full colour of one of the sleeping fellows. You can see my setting in this video:

I've done this thumbnail (literally) sketch in watercolour with some touches of white gouache. Since I have the colours at least in one portrait (And now I have mixtures on my palette in my travel rig) I can finish rest of the portraits now with that sole colour study and from photos that I made in black and white - I think that os good practise - not to be influenced by colours that see my camera and rather to use colour that helped me to express myself right on the spot.

Remember - there's nothing more than a real thing. Photos are fine but to see things in person and really "inhale" them is completely different thing.

And what is your experience in sketching wild animals from life?  I'm a newcomer to this realm and it's a great and exiting challenge. Next time - cows and horses maybe? 

Petr 

My first oil portrait from life

On Thursday 12th of October, 6 Days after my arrival home (Town of Zdar nad Sazavou, Czech Republic) I finally after some minor struggles with organising my work place at my parents house persuaded myself to ask my mother to pose for me for my very first oil portrait from life (I have done some portraits of my parents back in April in gouache). So far I have done paintings in oil of a still life - which is quite easy since the bottle on the table is not keen to move, or have a bad temper when painting gets too long etc.

My mother was quite convenient topic - She intended to watch TV news that evening so she sat basically moveless for me about 2 hours so I had a time to study her vigorously.

Anyway...Lighting in our living room is a nightmare. Intensity is really low so final portrait is quite dark (I have to use additional light for my canvas and palette to judge the colours properly.

On the other hand my task was a little bit easier since I have started use Rosemary and Co. Brushes from West Yorkshire recently - They are superb brushes!! (I love especially Evergreen series)

My Setting to see the bad, bad Lighting (and my lovely mother of course):

Here I used an old gessoed canvas that bared awful attempt from my previous times - I scraped it with scourer)

Here's the final painting - I sketched the proportions with No.1 round Evergreen dipped in a mixture of burnt sienna and ivory black. After that I blocked in general tones of the face and proceed directly with rendering. Sketch took me 2,5 hours. I put bright background to make the picture more vignette like. Hopefully I will become quicker! I want to be like James Gurney - prolific in every instance.

"Evening News" (oil on canvas 11x14) 

Petr

Useful pages:

My favorite brushes:    https://www.rosemaryandco.com

My oils paints - Especially good for indoor painting:

https://www.royaltalens.com/products/water-mixable-oil-colours/

Getting back - calling of my upbringing

Hi all good people and art enthusiasts,

I guess some of you maybe have noticed that I recently moved back to Czech Republic. The reason is quite simple - I've begun to miss my family. It was a great experience - two years in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire (by the way county where you can buy the best brushes in the world - but I'll talk about it in a future), occupation as a delivery driver for primary schools (there's around 200 places in Leeds and Bradford alone so we have been busy). I met genuine people. I want to give my farewell especially to Istvan Docza (my Boss), Lucy, Jamie-Lee Fogarty, James Lockley, Terry Fogarty (She teached me how to drive on the left side of the road), Peter Cinone,  Shayna, Anthony, Damon, Jason, Dan, Andrew Colburn and his lovely family (and their two dogs Zac and Zephyr) and to the whole gang of GT produce family. I would like to say it was a great sessions (although a few) in the gym with PJ Stone (Hope you'll come to visit mate) and with Sam Hewitt as well! I Have to say I'm so thankful to meet you all! I want to thank to Tony which was some kind of utility guy in our lovely old Victorian house in Beeston, where I has lived past year, and to my  Landlords Mike and Soni (lovely people Indeed!!)

Before I left I wanted to have same handmade memories on the common places, which I don't know why have some precious qualities for me. Let me introduce you some of my pictorial notes from my life mainly from past month (September 2017), I hope It'll not be boring for you. I really appreciate all those little moments in my life greatly and I want to share it with you:

My window (only one in my apartment with some remnants of a grocery)

Gouache on Paper 22 September 2017

This is my art corner in my room before my departure (Watercolour 28 September 2017)

This is Tony (Utility guy) Gouache on Gesso

My self portrait from my driver's seat (Ballpoint pen)

Quick portrait of me and great dinner lady Monica from Harehills Children Centre) (ballpoint pen)

Lady From a bus on my way downtown (ball point)

I thing sketches like this from field (Except my selfportrait and the one with Monica - they are from photograph) improve your skill in execution of drawing and hone your visual memory so I thing practise like this is essential. 

In the next post I'll tell you about my new settlement and about more art that I deal with in current days...

Petr

Painting exercise - warm and cool painting

Hi all,

I have a feeling that won't cease I think in any time soon. And that is that I stink (artistically :-) ). My visions in my head are always better that outcome on the canvas. I think we all feel that and it is natural. Nevertheless it is important even in times of great disgust with ourself to push through and persevere. One of the action for that is to do some basic exercise from time to time.

It's a great advise from any great instructional book on art that you should learn to see colours in the temperature relationship and warm and cool painting with just two colours is a great opportunity how to see this relationships.

I started my exercise with ultramarine blue and raw Sienna according to my favourite book (thanks to Juliette Aristides: https://books.google.cz/books/about/Lessons_in_Classical_Painting.html?id=SCuJDAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

I did a mixtures between the two colours and lighten them in ten steps with white and made this colour chart:

That provided me with an information of which range is achievable with those colours.
Next step was to set up a still life that would be manageable with this range of colours. So I put into my shadow box a pumpkin (warm orange) and blue plate with some blue cloth underneath.

On the image you can see my setup. It was a quick study approximately 4x6 inches just in sake of a practise. You can see my chart above the painting to guide me. 

Here's the outcome. As you can see you're able to achieve a lot just with two colours (plus white). Some things has to be downplayed greatly - for example the green stalk of the pumpkin - but you can achieve believability by mixing a colour that is not green at all but have relative temperature right to adjacent colours! And that's the key of this exercise)

I was so focused on the colours that I put to much of a detail in cloth and the background which ruined the picture but in overall I think the exercise served the purpose. 

I would like to know in comments your suggestions how else to train warm - cool relationships. I strive to get better in this so any advise would be appreciated greatly. 

Sincerely Pete