A Lesson in Cropping and Composition

This plein air painting done at Bodega Bay a couple years ago was reasonably successful, but the composition is not very strong.  I wrestle with compostion...or at least the "rules" which I have always suspected are largely made up after the fact...but it's pretty clear that the focus of this painting isn't obvious.  It struck me today that the large mass of rocks to the extreme right are contributing little to the painting.  Additionally, they introduce a strong color that isn't anywhere else in the painting.  Finally, the rocks force the tree mass into the 1/3 area, which is often the location of the point of interest.  It struck me that they gotta go.

 This evening, I took another photo of the painting but zoomed in a little tighter.  I could have done the same cropping in Photoshop (I actually use Elements, but it's essentially the same thing but about $500 dollars cheaper!); however, the camera was what I had at hand.  The picture is slightly darker than the original, but it's closer than the picture above.  Anyway, I think the composition is much improved and the focus is now clearly the building.  Admittedly, the roof stands out more in the darker version and that pulls the eye, but I think the location is also a contributing factor.  This was painted on one of my cheap canvas panels that my artist friend Ruth ( http://ruthandre.com/ ) hates so much, but it will make it easy to cut down the original from 10" x 20" to something like 10" x 14".  I'm headed out to the studio to do that right now.  (I bought some better quality panels for the Bishop trip next month, Ruth!)

Remembering School House Beach

White Shirt  20 x 16 Oil on Canvas

I've painted several times at School House Beach in Bodega Bay California with a group of artist friends.  It's a wonderful place with something incredibly scenic waiting around every corner.  I've painted School House Beach in wind and fog and bright sunshine, from the surf line on the beach and from the top of the cliffs.  There's always something picturesque to capture the imagination.  On this day it was bright sunshine with the morning fog all but gone.  On the beach, fellow artist Rusty Wallace found a spot and was well into his acrylic painting when I walked by.  I was struck by the brilliant white of his shirt against the sea and sky...and by the incongruous choice.  What courage to wear a white dress shirt while painting!  I snapped several photos of Rusty.  This is from one of them.  I have some work to do on the foreground, but otherwise, I'm close to calling it done.  20"x16" oil on stretched canvas

Painting a Cherub

How can I resist a face like this?  What fun. It's oil on 12" x 9" canvas panel.  It is painted over a really badly done landscape (by yours truly of course), so I feel much better about it now...even though it was a cheap canvas!

About 3 hours total in three brief sessions. 

Water, water everywhere....

and not a drop to drink!  But there's plenty to splatter on my painting, my shirt, my neighbor's painting, my reference pictures and ...well, you get the idea.  Watercolor is SOOOOOOOOOOOO different than oil painting.  You'd think that there would be some crossovers.  After all, both use brushes to put color on a surface...and even the names of the colors are the same!  But as I am learning in Jeannie Vodden's watercolor portrait workshop, common color names is right where the similarity ends.  As I've mentioned before, I am not completely new to watercolor, but it's been so long since that earlier foray into washes and sable that it might as well have never happened.  As I watch Jeannie's carefully applied washes I marvel at her control...the way she moves the color down the paper, adjusting it as she goes - warm here, cool there - never breaking the momentum.  Back at my station, my oil painting hand takes over and I work back into washes and marvel at the unplanned blooms that result.  My wash dries before I'm done washing, and although I know I can't do it, I inevitably work back into still wet passages.

I know that Jeannie's careful, even meticulous style is not something I'd ever master, but she is a great teacher, patient, full of information freely shared, and very encouraging while being totally honest. I'm enjoying the workshop....now if only I could paint a watercolor.

Here's a little sketch of Howard Rees.  I started out using Jeannie's methodology, but in the end, I went back to my oil roots and violated just about every rule in watercolor.... transparency and spontaneity be damned!

First some light "rainbow washes"

Then glazing to add form

Then revert to Oil Painter

OK, so I need to re-work on one of the eyes a bit.  So would someone tell me how to do that in WATERCOLOR??!

Red Rock Country

Once again, the Southwestern Art forum on the Wetcanvas website supplied the challenge and the photos.  I combined two beautiful pictures taken by artist John Tubbs and posted on that site...one a beautiful shot of yellow gold clouds over the mountains and the other of a gnarled pine in Bryce Canyon.  I combined the two photos in Adobe Elements after flipping the pine for composition purposes.  I reused a canvas with an old plein air painting on it...something I'm going to do more of simply to try to keep from adding to the stacks of paintings everywhere I look around here. 

This painting is quickly done in two short sessions.  I didn't follow a logical progression by first painting a complete sky and cloud background, letting that set up and then painting the tree.  No, that would have made too much sense.  Instead I worked on the tree and sky simultaneously, creating a nearly impossible muddle and a zillion 'sky holes' to paint.  The painting is not done, obviously.  I'm not sure if I'll spend more time on it or not.  I really like the composition...I took a lot of liberties with the photo reference and I think the painting composition is more than the sum of the two references.  On the other hand, the subject matter could be much more refined and finished.  In the end, I might just stop here and use this as a reference and study for something larger.  We'll see. 

It's oil on canvas.  16"x12"

Portrait of a Redhead

The online art 'community', Wetcanvas.com, has a forum on portraits that I visit on and off.  With the rain and cold weather, it's beginning to be more on than off.  There is a monthly 'challenge' in the portrait forum where someone posts several photos and everyone is invited to paint one or more in their favorite medium and style.  I haven't done many portraits this year and I felt the urge to get back to it.  This month featured an unusual looking redhead and I decided to give it a try.

establishing "landmarks"

I had a stretched 20" x 16" canvas of fairly smooth texture and I had toned it with a raw sienna previously.  I started out in the usual way with a direct sketch using a small brush and a reddish brown mix slightly darker that the canvas tone.  I sometimes use a gray for sketching, but more and more I like a warm tone closer to the colors of the subject.

I sketched carefully, trying to get the 'landmarks' in the right places. This is such a critical step in a portrait.  I try not to rush it, but I am an impatient painter and it's always a struggle to resist plunging into the 'good stuff' too soon.  As I write this, I realize that I didn't do much measuring during the early sketch, and, predictably, this lead to some problems later.   Portrait painting is a process with definite steps.  The earliest sketch is a critical early step.  Rush it and you'll struggle to find a likeness for the rest of the painting.  I did.  

Developing forms and establishing darks

My favorite part of any painting, portrait or landscape, is the drawing.  I love to draw with a brush and often I am tempted to quit at that point!  With landmarks established (incorrectly in several places) I begin to draw in the shapes more fully, still using the reddish brown mix.  I added shadow areas as if sketching with a pencil.  It would probably be more 'correct' to just begin to add the darks and halftones in color rather than shading with the sketch color and brush, but more and more I've begun to take this extra step in the sketch.  Because getting a likeness and accurate drawing is dependent on the spaces between landmarks - hairline to eyebrow, eye to hairline at temple, bottom of nose to upper lip, and so on - putting in the shadows and halftones this way helps find any areas that are badly drawn or that have missed the likeness significantly. 

Adding lights

Now I begin to add color, starting with the darkest darks.  Since these are primarily in the hair, I mix a burnt sienna, cad orange and add ultramarine for the darkest areas. Although I shouldn't have, I couldn't resist adding some lights in the hair to begin to give it body.  The darks in the face should have been added next - the left side of the face, under the nose and lower lip - but with the shading from the sketch defining these areas and giving them shape, I ship right to some of the lightest lights.  Once again, in hindsight, this is 'out-of-order' in the process.  The correct approach would have been to paint the darks in the face, follow with the mid-tones and finally add the lights, but being a bit out of shape painting portraits, I wander haphazardly.  I know better, but sometimes it's easy to deviate from what we know and instead, do what we want.

At this point I am conscious that the shape of the face in not correct and that the head seems slightly wider than the model's.  It's inevitable that this will happen when the sketch phase isn't done with patience and accuracy.  I decide that I can correct that by moving the ear in from the right and by continuing to work on the shape of the forehead, cheek and jaw by negative painting with the dark passages of the hair in shadow.   At several points in this painting, I wipe out whole sections with a paper towel dipped in OMS.  The smooth canvas makes this much easier, thankfully. 

Finally, I add a simple background after adding in the midtones and lights in the face.  I really don't like the blue after I put it in.  I think the warmer background was better, but I'm committed at this point, and since it's just a study, I'll probably leave it as is.....

"Mairen"  Oil on Canvas  20" x 16"

Rainy Day in the Studio

A plein air trip planned for Sloughhouse was rained out today, so I retreated to the studio for a couple of hours while the rain came down.  I used a photo generously posted in one of the "Monthly Challenges" on Wetcanvas.com.  I liked the light coming from the single source to the right.  The rest of the painting was very dark.  I tried to stay loose and throughout the painting.  The canvas panel that I had handy already had a tone of raw umber, so it was quite light.  I started by making a quick sketch with a brush and burnt sienna.  As I went along, I wished I had spent a little more time on the sketch.  It might have made what followed easier.  I blocked in dark areas with burnt sienna and a bit of ultramarine blue.  I did a lot of negative painting in this one, painting around shapes such as the stirrup and belt. I also tried to add thick darks in spots...and that's where a more accurate sketch would have been helpful.  During most of this painting, I kept thinking about carving the saddle out of the dark background. 

The photo has a little light reflection in it...it was photographed with only overhead florescent light which washed out the top portion somewhat.  In particular, the rope appears much lighter that it is in the painting. Total time, about 1 1/2 hours

Saddle  12" x 9" Oil on canvas panel