A portrait from life at NHIA

[Rob Sullivan]

Not a whole lot of time for me during this class: one student missed last week and I had to catch her up a bit.

Though this isn't totally relevant to moving this demo along, I'd like to include this bracketed "aside," just to illustrate how specific students' problems can become:

[It's an interesting circumstance with this particular student, because I kept noticing her laying down paint and then wiping it off again - not because of a mistake; it looked like she was trying to blend layers or something. The whole head was becoming one middle value. Then it dawned on me. She had mentioned that she took a "Renaissance Painting" class last semester in which the instructor had her painting a grisaille and then laying in color in translucent glazes. (From what I understand, the Renaissance artists used a combination of glazing and opaque layers. The only artist I really know of to truly glaze everything was Maxfield Parrish - and he had to essentially develop a personal system in order to do this; it was truly unprecedented.) I finally had to demonstrate on her painting how much paint we needed on there to truly "build" the lights into the head. She is (fortunately) a pretty direct person, so I just came right out and said, "...and this class is not Renaissance Painting." At the end of class, she was over that hurdle.]

Now, back to the demo---

I began by altering the "drawing" of her features even more - pushing toward a better likeness. Coming back fresh to the subject, I always can see this aspect of the portrait better as opposed to an hour into it, where I'm focused more on color and value.

I built up value and warmth in the top planes even further in the lights. Notice the difference in contrast between this week and last. I dry-scumbled some more warm colors in the forehead plane. This is essentially brushing "dry" paint over the dry surface. Oftentimes, I use my fingers to "push" these highly chromatic colors into the surface after a bit of scumbling. It gives the surface a porcelain-like translucency. Please don't have a sandwich while doing this. This is one of the dangers inherent in using cadmiums. Don't worry about me - there's a sink right there, and I wash up immediately.

I noticed that I knocked out that little bit of light creeping into the shadow plane on her cheek. Too much, I feel. I'll add that back next week - though subtly. I painted in the headband loosely, hoping I could get away with leaving the underpainting to describe the hair underneath the mesh. I'm not sure that it's working yet. I hope to get into her eyes next week, and refine some specifics there. I'm going to hit the whole thing with some retouch varnish the day before class to push the darks into their proper values, so that I can refine contrast properly. [As many of you know, dark flesh tones/earth colors dry quite flat, and the value moves up almost a half-step. The retouch "refreshes" those darks.]

I'm posting a closeup, just so you might see some of the transitions more closely.

[Rob Sullivan]

So, Monday night I sprayed the painting surface with Blair retouch varnish. There are other brands, but Blair is the best in the spray can. I used Grumbacher once and it shot out of the can in a stream and went SPLAT onto my painting! Real nice. No more Grumbacher. [I usually brush on Holbein retouch when I finish a painting, by the way.] Tuesday morning, I had a nice, even, grippy surface upon which to work.

As I had mentioned in the previous post, I remind the students to try and look for any major drawing issues in the first posing session of the class (Kirsten sits for 20 minute intervals with a 5 minute break in between). When seeing the model and the painting together after having been away from it for a week, things that one might have overlooked suddenly become (sometimes painfully) obvious.

This reminder in and of itself seems obvious - but, if you don't address this issue first thing, then it becomes more difficult to pinpoint problem drawing areas once you engage in color mixing and hue shifting and correcting values, etc. Perhaps it is less difficult for the consummate professionals to shift gears constantly - and it is something to which one should aspire - but for most students of the craft, attacking one problem at a time is enough.

That being said, I had an issue to tend to in regard to drawing. I noticed her left eye was not on the correct axis according to the perspective of her head. I had painted it as if her eyes were level with mine - but they are not. I'm looking slightly down on her (no model stand, just a stool), so the near (right) eye should be lower than the far (left) one. When comparing my painting with her, it became clear that the right eye was correct, therefore, the left eye was too low. Also, her forehead plane was a little too flat on that side, so I fixed that up, too. (Note the differences between the last post and this post. I posted a closeup, as well, so the changes are easily seen.)

After tending to these things, I went back into the top planes, separating them further by adding white mixed with just enough cad orange and yellow to keep it warm. I also did some detail work in the eyes, adding catchlights and some dark accents. Notice that the eyes' catchlights (specular highlights near the pupils are not blazingly light as one might see in a magazine photo. Here, they originate from the fill light coming through the window across the room. So, in coming from a secondary light source, they are not terribly strong, and should be recorded as such.

As usual, I am teaching throughout, so that's all I was able to complete. There is one woman in the class who has painted a good deal, but it's mostly self-taught from National Geographic photo portraits. I must say, she has shown great improvement from those pieces (which she had shown me) which I attribute mainly to just working from life. What better reference is there? I'm happy for her progress.

I should mention that I have the students working on a home project of a self-portrait. So far, there are great results. It's great fun, this class!


P.S. A fellow instructor commented that the background texture (which is just underpainting) competed too much with the subtle rendering in her head. I'm thinking about adding a smoother background tone, but part of me sort of likes the underpainting, too. This is like a cliffhanger episode: What will he decide?!?!

[Rob Sullivan]

Well, I missed a week due to illness. Not only was I sick, but the model called me to cancel that day, too - so I guess it worked out okay.

We all worked hard toward a finish. I added the cool-neutral background, and added hair detail. Yes, the addition of a more unified background does make a difference! Just goes to show how important it is to seriously consider a good critique. Look how it made the front plane of the features come forward. It also allowed me to soften the outer edge of her hair, giving it a bit of atmosphere. I also cleaned up her neck a bit.

As with most of my work (and I'm sure a lot of you feel this way about your own work), I can see areas that need improvement. But, this session is done and I must let it stand. Any improvements will come on the next painting. That should be the goal with each consecutive painting, actually!

The most important things that I wanted to get across in this demo are really the basics: the importance of light plane vs. shadow plane values; color mixing in the light and dark planes (chromatics vs. neutrals, respectively); and, of course, maintaining the integrity of the drawing (structure).

Looking back at the teaching process, I found that these were the issues that I helped the students with the most. In a way, it runs concurrently with, say, simplifying one's palette: whittling away the unnecessary in order to avoid over-complication. If these basic things are brought to the fore (especially if one is having difficulty), then most painting issues can be resolved. It seems to me that 95% of the time, forgetting to adhere to one, two, or a combination of these three principles are responsible for problems in painting.

My responsibility is to teach these principles properly and have the student apply them practically (i.e. - by doing, not just watching me do it). Through correct repetition, the application becomes intuitive, and other esoteric issues can be addressed more completely - such as character, likeness and mood. At that point, you're well on your way to becoming a successful portrait painter!

If you are interested in any of my classes (I also teach still life, Illustration, and figurative drawing/painting), contact The New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester. You can download a Lifelong Learning catalog from the site as a PDF. You may also find me at Sanctuary Arts here in Maine. They, too, have a downloadable catalog. Additionally, feel free to private message me here, or e-mail me (just click the profile on the left!).

Thank you so much for checking out this demo! I sincerely hope it provided you with some insights into the portrait painting process.