I’ve been focused on these painting for the the Future Generations Art Prize for the past month, so the hair tutorial was put on hold. Now with the deadline behind me, I’ll try to finish parts 2 and 3 of the tutorial for you guys soon. Meanwhile, here are some images of my painting “The Student” that was part of the same photo shoot as “Chopping Lessons”.

I didn’t take any progression photos because I was so focused on the painting, but here are some closeups.

As soon as I heard about The Future Generations Art Prize, I began planning the paintings I would submit. The show will be held in my birth country, Ukraine, and the grand prize is 100K! An opportunity I couldn’t miss out on. I’ve been wanting to do a large Ukrainian themed painting for a while, and this seemed like a great time to finally do it.

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Concept Sketches I went through a few ideas and decided on a father teaching his son how to chop wood. My first concept felt too centered and boring, because both figures were facing the camera and the entire scene was symetrical. So, I did a few more small thumbnails, just focusing on the 2-value breakdown. Just concerned about the composition at the point. The details of the story would be worked out during the photoshoot. I chose #4 for the final painting.

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Photoshoot I hired my models and bought some old clothing from the local thrift store. I had the two models do separate photo shoots, so I could focus on each individually. I had them take many different poses from various angles to have options. In the end I went with the same poses as in my concept sketch. Then I needed to find some reference for all the objects in the environment. I was lucky to find a really nice lumber yard not too far from my house with a pile of wood and a cabin. Even though the cabin was not of a Ukrainian style (vertical wood rather than horizontal logs), I used it for perspective and to borrow some colors. I took pictures of my grandfathers old bike as a secondary story for the boy.

Final Sketch I put all the elements together in this final drawing study.

Painting

Looking back at my tutorials on drawing the head, I realized that I covered individual features, but completely left out hair. This tutorial will is split into 3 parts: The Basics, Types of Hair, and a Step by Step drawing. I’ll start this first part of the series with common mistakes that I see all the time.

Common Mistakes when Drawing Hair

Forgetting about the volumes

This is the most common mistake I see from newer students. There are over 100,000 strands of hair on our heads. This thought can be very distracting from the goal of 3-dimensionality. So, some people forget about volume and draw a bunch of lines. But, lines don’t create the illusion of volume. Gradations and value differences that show plane changes create the illusion of volume. Don’t draw a bunch of lines. Instead, focus on the volumes.

Too Much Texture

This one is similar to the first, but this can still happen even if one pays attention to the volumes. Too many repeating lines everywhere (in the lights, halftones, and shadows) can get very distracting. There need to be areas of rest, especially since you want the focus to stay on the face not the hair. I usually show the texture of the hair in the lights and choose to keep the shadows simplified. But it depends. If I’m drawing blonde hair with a strong light source, I might choose to blow out the lights and show the texture in the shadows.

Impatience - Bad Design

There are so many random little shapes in hair, that good design is a necessity. All the shapes can be intimidating and it’s easy to get impatient and sloppy. I’ve found that confidence is an important element for good design. Approach the hair with purpose and a sense of know-how.

Sharp Outlines

I’m referring the the outer edge between the hair and background and also the connection between hair and skin. Unless the subject has a perfectly combed or gelled hairstyle, there will be stray strands that soften the edge between the background. But even if I see a sharp outlined edge, I will cheat in softer edges for variation. This also adds depth and atmosphere and connects the subject to the environment.  Variation in edge is also important in the areas connecting the the skin. Drawing a sharp outline will make it look like a wig or a clip-on beard.

Consider the Form Underneath the Hair

Spherical Skull

Most hair styles you will draw will be affected by the skull underneath. So, it’s important to think of the ball when working on the overall value changes.

The groups of hair wrap around the form underneath and inherit the same light patterns. In the example below, I made sure to shade the large group of hair to resemble a ball, before I added all the texture on top. The left side of the hair mass is all shadow, while all the highlights are on the right:

If you’re drawing hair other than the hair on someone’s head, like a beard or an animal, consider the volumes underneath. For example with a beard, think of a block with a front plane and two side planes.

Adding Volume to the Hair

Hair strands are grouped together into locks. Very much like ribbons. It’s important to simplify and think about the geometric shape of the locks, before adding the texture. Adding the texture of the strands should not take away from the illusion of volume. We can  simplify a lock of hair into its basic form using 3 essential elements: highlight, halftone and shadow.

Here’s an example of a lock of hair simplified to its basic form:

It doesn’t look like hair, but it does look 3-dimensional. To make it look like hair we need to add the 4th element of texture.  This includes the separations between the smaller groups of hair, a few lines representing strands, and breaking up the contours. Now that we’ve established the 4 elements necessary to create the illusion of hair, let’s look at each individually:

Shadow

Whether you are drawing straight hair, curly, wavy, short, spiked, or dread locks, there will be shadows. I like to approach shadows first with flat graphic shapes. It’s important to get an attractive, well balanced separation of light and dark before beginning to render/shade. Try to find ways to connect as many shadow shapes as you can. Even with curly hair, where you have a lot of little shapes, it’s important to connect them. Otherwise you’ll have too many floating shapes which can be distracting. This goes back to good design.

Halftone

When drawing hair I first think of halftone as a gradient between the shadows and highlights. Later on this is where I’ll add most of the texture to separate smaller groups and strands.

Highlight

These are the shapes that will be most eye-catching, so good design is most important here. Same principles apply to highlights as shadows. Try to connect them as much as possible only leaving a few lonely highlights. And try not to make each highlight the same. Give them variety in length, thickness, edge, and value.

Texture

Some tips when drawing the hair texture:

• Get the illusion of the strands. Don’t try to draw every single strand.
• Have confidence with every stroke. It’s better to draw a quick confident strand slightly out of place, then a wobbly stroke in the right place. Don’t be timid. This happens when drawing strands that drop down the forehead. People don’t want to mess up the face. But, it doesn’t matter if it’s in the perfect spot… Hair moves.
• Start the stroke at the root and let it taper towards the tip.
• Generally, lines should be lighter and thinner at the highlights.
• If working with graphite, use a combination of softer duller pencils and harder sharp pencils. For example a dull 4B for larger soft gradations and a sharp HB for more defined shapes. Watch out - sometimes a pencil that is too soft will cause the texture of the paper to show through. This ruins the illusion of hair texture, since hair texture is made of long flowing lines and paper texture is usually small repetitive dots.

Part 2 and 3 coming soon. Look forward to ‘types of hair’ and a step by step tutorial.

Finished my entry to OPA this weekend. I submitted “Sunset at Pine Tree Forest” and this painting of a mountain man.

For this painting, I knew that the powerful value contrast was very important. I wanted to keep the colors muted (staying in the grey and brown range) and exaggerate the values. So I did a value comp in Photoshop.

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Working Out the Values with a Comp

This time I simplifying the values to only 4. Sometimes I will go to 5 values organizing it like this:

1. Shadow - Reflected Light
2. Shadow - Core Shadow and Dark Accents
3. Light - Dark Halftone
4. Light - Light Halftone
5. Light - Highlight

If you’re not familiar with some of the terminology, reference my tutorial on Direct Light.

So, with this value comp I decided to combine the highlight and light halftone values to get a simplified 4-value study.

Detailed Close-ups

Career Goal  - Participate in 10 Painting Competitions

At this point in my career I need to start getting my name out there (one of the many reasons I started this blog). Participation in competitions or juried shows can get you noticed by major magazines and gallery owners. It can also get you some commissions. Not to mention many have large cash prizes. I don’t expect to win any because of the extreme skill out there, but I do expect to meet many people and learn a lot from the experience.

10 is the goal, but I feel that I’ll end up applying to more. I’ve gathered a list of competitions and still adding more. If you know of some important painting competitions or juried shows I’ve missed, please share with everyone in the comments. If I get a list that I feel is complete enough I’ll start a new ‘reference’ section on this website.

So here’s my list so far along with the approximate submission date according to last year’s deadline:

1. January 25 - OPA - National Juried Oil Exhibition
2. February 1 - Torrey Pines - Art at the Pines (only for San Diego residents)
3. March 1 - Portrait Society of America - Competition
4. April - Scottsdale Artist’s School - Beaux Arts
5. May 3 - Artist’s Magazine Competition
6. June - Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery - Outwin Boochever
7. July - American Impressionist Society - Annual Juried Exhibition
8. August 30 - Blossom II ~ Art of Flowers
9. November - ARC Salon
10. December - CAC - Gold Medal
11. December 14 - Portrait Society of America Members Only Competition

If you plan to participate, keep in mind that OPA, CAC, AIS, and Portrait Society of America require you to be a member. So, start planning early.

Personal Goal - Exercise daily

That means 365 consecutive days of exercise. I’m going for at least 15 minutes of some kind of fitness activity. I’ll try to keep most days short and intense, but every now and then slow it down. To keep it fun and fresh I’ll do whatever I’m in the mood for that day. I could go to the gym, use my p90x DVDs, run, surf in the summer, go hiking, exploring, swimming, etc… The point here is to develop a habit of daily exercise.

Even though this is an art blog, I don’t feel like I’m getting of topic because exercise is an important part of mental clarity, stamina, and performance. Exercise will improve all aspects of your life, including painting.

I’m 25 days in to this goal and I can already feel the results. Yesterday’s painting session lasted 4.5 hours and I felt more focused in the end then in the beginning. I didn’t want to stop, but it was 4 pm and I needed to eat lunch. Usually, after 3 hours I start noticing myself slowing down and getting lazy with decisions and mixing paint. I’m liking the perks of this exercise thing.

Clove Oil

For the alla prima wet-into-wet oil painter - I recommend putting a few drops of Clove Oil around the edges of your sealed palette container (not directly in the paint) when you’re working on a longer studio painting. This will slow down the dry time of the oil paint. You can return to the painting a week later and it will be as wet as if you didn’t leave at all. 2 weeks isn’t uncommon either. It also keeps the paint on my palette wet forever. Clove oil along with an air tight seal (more on my masterson pallete) is the perfect combination to keep your paints fresh. I have a glob of white on my palette that has been wet for over 3 months… Amazing.

Be careful though, if you want certain areas on your painting to dry for layering techniques, you might be waiting for a while. And if you know the painting will be getting shipped somewhere soon, I wouldn’t recommend it either. To be safe, plan on 4 weeks for it to be dry to the touch. Otherwise, I love this stuff. It does exactly what it’s supposed to.

The only source I know of to get pure clove oil is LorannOils.com, recommended by Jeff Watts. Watch out, the stuff you get from Trader Joe’s isn’t pure and I haven’t tried it. So, I can’t vouch for it. If you find another source, please share in the comments. Also, get an eyedropper since it comes in a bottle. Please don’t pour it on your paints!

It’s finally finished! Feels good to close this chapter, since I put so much time and effort into it. Scaling up to 24 x 36 from a 4 x 6 color comp was a bit tricky. There’s much more detail to put in, but I tried to stay loose at the same time. It turned out that the hardest part of the painting wasn’t the bears, or the rocks, or the sunset coming through the trees, but the leaves on the trees. More specifically, the trees in the center. It felt like painting mashed potatoes.

I’m really happy with the way the bears turned out and the feeling of warm light throughout the painting. Also, glad that the fallen tree isn’t too distracting.

Critiques and comments are welcome.

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And here are a few closeups:

I can’t wait to see the painting in person. The show opens Saturday, February 6 and will remain on exhibit through Sunday, March 7, 2010.

Thank you Mrs. Situ for permission to use this image.

“The Uninvited, Angels Camp, California, 1849″ - By Mian Situ

View all the artists at Autry National Center website
Visit Mian Situ’s website or the Situ Art Gallery

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One of the best things about painting a landscape is that it’s not a portrait. You have a lot more freedom to change shapes and move things around. If you move an eye a centimeter to the left, everyone will call you on it. “What’s wrong with her eyes? She looks cross-eyed.” If you move a tree an inch to the left, or even to the other side of the canvas, nobody cares. It still looks like trees in a field with clouds in the sky. I don’t mean that you can put anything anywhere and it all works itself out. The composition still has to be balanced and the perspective believable. There’s plenty of books written on that alone.

My point is, you can get away with a lot more in a landscape and I like to take advantage of that. As soon as I realized that I don’t have to get every shape the right size and in the right place, I loosened up and started designing my own shapes. The reference became just that - reference. Not the goal. I now approach a plein air painting with a lot more conviction and start with bold, confident strokes. I focus on designing the shapes and trust my design sense to make the right decisions. The more you do this the better your design sense will get. You can also develop your design sense by watching experienced painters. You will subconsciously pick up on small nuances of the way they design.

My method of painting plein air can be broken down into 3 steps - layin, under-painting, thick tiles to a finish.

1. Layin

So, I started the layin with confident, large shapes. Not worried about getting it exactly the way I see it, but just to create a balanced composition. I try to keep my lines thin, for better control of the shape designs.

2. Under-painting

At this point I establish the major colors and values of all the shapes. All the paint is thinned with turpentine. I’m going for a graphic look at this stage, disregarding the edges. It’s all about the value and color breakdown at this stage. I will focus on my edges in step 3. I will usually take a little break to let the turpentine evaporate from the under-painting. If there’s too much turpentine on the surface, thicker paint won’t have anything to stick to and will just slide around.

3. Finish

Start with the focal point 1. I am better able to concentrate on shape design and edge-work in the beginning of the painting session. Towards the end I can get tired or restless and start making poor decisions. 2. Sometimes I setup in a place I think is ideal, but after a few hours that spot isn’t so good anymore. During this painting for example, the sun came out after about 2 hours and hit my palette and face. The glare made it very hard to see the waterfall and the colors I was mixing.

Finish strong You might get tired and hungry, but you have to push through and finish that painting. “I’ll take a picture and finish it at home” usually doesn’t work. Try to develop your endurance to stay focused and make strong decisions to the end. It gets easier with time. As I get towards the end of the painting, I find areas that need to be simplified. If there are areas that are over worked, use the side of your brush and take out the details. Keep the viewers eye in the focal point.

The Zoo Trip

The zoo trip turned out to be a great success! The grizzly bears were very active, giving me many angles and poses to choose from. I ended up with almost 400 photos. Thank you, Hemal, for using your guest pass on me.

It took me a few hours to look through them all and test some of my favorites in photoshop. I ended up choosing this one as my favorite:

Photoshop the Bears

I use the Extract tool (filter > extract) to cut the bears out of the photo. Then, I copy them over to the landscape photo, resize them and play around with the placement. Brightness, contrast, and colors need to be adjusted to fit the lighting of the new environment. I also added some quick rim light from the sunset with a small brush and used the burn tool to darken the ground underneath the bears, representing a soft cast shadow.

After doing the gouache color study, I decided that I don’t like the rock in the lower left corner. So, I added a fallen tree instead.

I like this composition because all the shapes in the lower part point to where the bears are headed. And it tells a calm story - A sunset marks the end of the day for the bears as they retire for the night.

Next - Part 6: Finished Painting