Unfinished painting--I've been having so much fun painting this semester that I signed up for a Wednesday night 6-wk Continuing Ed painting class at the New York Academy of Art. Yikes--those artists are For REAL. More than half the class had MFAs! Geez--here I've been congratulating myself when what I draw looks like a person. So I took down a lot of notes and tried to keep up.
My teacher was John Wellington. He teaches a style of painting more in the Academic tradition--think Prud'hon, Velasquez, Ingres.... Think underpainting! Think the opposite of everything I've done so far! Think careful and tidy! I thought the opposition to my natural tendencies would be a good challenge.
I'm both impatient and slow, so this approach was pretty much guaranteed to drive me nuts, but I liked learning it a lot.
Because I like to glop paint on so thickly that the underlying layers of paint never show through, I had to change everything I did. I learned a lot. This painting started with a warm brown-red wash, then a semi-transparent grisille--the monochromatic painting/drawing of the model in cool Viridian green. Then a semi-transparent pinkish glaze on top of that for the flesh tone, but, as you can see in the extended arm or the belly area of the portrait above, you have to let the green underneath show through!
It's all in blending the edges.
Which is to say, it's all in the materials. I learned how to use medium, what round badger brushes are good for, and the amazing difference that expensive paints can make in this kind of painting. Also, I learned the cheap cotton duck canvases I've been using are crap. This painting is on portrait linen, and it was very very nice and smooth to work on. I can't afford to make it a habit yet. I may try painting on gessoed paper--it's cheaper and I learned how to prepare it in this class.
Posts
2 comments:
Hi Renee,
I'm the guy who registered you for the class at the New York Academy of Art. It looks like we've studied with alot of the same people (Ruggieri, Parks, Archambaul and Wellington).
I think your painting looked great!
Regards,
John Cichowski
hello John! I remember you!
How funny that we've had so many of the same teachers, especially considering how very different all of those teachers are from each other. I've thought I've had such a wandering path--sounds like it's a path that others have shared.
The very best parts of this painting are the demos that John W did for me. You can probably recognize his hand on the belly shadow. I'm never ever touching it again. I still stare at the parts he did and wonder "how the hell?!" And I know I watched him do it.
I'm going to try to look up your email address...
Post a Comment