Leslie Lee's Art

Studying Heads at Gabriel's Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 05:32:00 +0000

Another 8 weeks with Gabrielle before I bow out of class for the spring/summer when too many Fridays are already scheduled with events. Last week Gabe did a demo painting a model for the whole three hours while we sketched. I'm glad for this instruction at this time, when I am finishing Noah's Guitar and interested in doing other portraits soon.

Gabe likes to do his sketching in purple paint.

Gabriel Lipper and his quick portrait of Al.

My sketch, from the other side of the room.

Today we worked with a different model and Gabe spewed information about proportions and planes of the face.

Positioning the eye ball first then wrapping the lids around the orb.

My effort for the day in conte crayon. He needs some more hair...and wider mouth and...? I do love having a model to work from. More next week.

Noah's guitar continued

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:05:00 +0000

I've started another painting in my class with Gabriel Lipper so I'm not moving along with Noah's Guitar as fast as I might, but here's the latest progress:

I think this is where I left off in my last post - still trying to get the rubber out of that guitar neck...

Catching the age of a child is really tricky. Noah might look like this when he's about 13, but now he's not quite ten.

There's something about the angle of his head that isn't right but I can't quite figure it out.

SOooo' I can muck around for hours trying to "find" him (and hone my drawing/painting skills, yes) OR I can do what a purist would call "cheating" and I call a means to an end. I suspect this is done more than most painters will admit but I will share it with you rather than pretend I'm an ace at portraiture.
Here's what I did: I measured the head in the painting (6 1/2"). Then I opened the reference image in my computer and cropped the photo down to just the head- crown to chin. Then I printed the image choosing the size of 61/2". Now I have a photo I can lay over the painting and see where I have gone astray. Watch the video:

Ah HA! the reason he looks older is because I've made his features too small! And, I've made my classic mistake once again of making the right eye too low. That's why the angle of the head looked off.

Ok- I've got this photo so why not rub some charcoal on the back and transfer the position of the features right on to the painting? Who's to know? Who cares? Not me and hopefully not you.

Now this looks more like the photo - with plenty of room for my interpretation or "style".

It's interesting that I can see bits of his sister that I had not noticed before. I'll let this dry before I do any more, so if I muck it up I can at least go back to this and try again.

And in the meantime there's a very interesting fretting hand to work on.

Stay tuned - there will be more. Did you like the addition of video in this post?

Delicious Distractions

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:23:00 +0000

You all need to know something.

We have a new dog. He's eye candy - a beautiful tri-color Assie mix with bright eyes and huge ears. He is sweet and smart and playful when it's time to play and mellow when it's not. I'm teaching him how to catch a frisbee.

He is a joy and a distraction. Here he is in my studio being Extra Good:

We named him Friday, partly because I found him at the shelter on a Friday but also because we knew he would be as loyal to us as Robinson Crusoe's Man Friday was to him.

We only had him for two days before we hauled him off on a 5 hour trip to Portland for my grandson's 2nd birthday. I love this photo of the two of them:

They are both "distractions" from my studio work. And a huge source of joy in my life.

Protest SOPA and SIPA

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:22:00 +0000

What if you could not access my blog because SOMEONE decided I swiped some of my content, or maybe because I've got nudes posted here.Tell Congress and President Obama TODAY that We The People will not tolerate the proposed internet censoring of SOPA and SIPA. Click here to take action.

Noah's guitar

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:46:00 +0000

Remember the pictures of my grandniece Sophie playing her violin and then a couple years later, her flute? Well, her little brother Noah, now nearly 10, is also a musician. This Christmas I snapped some photos of him playing his guitar and when I was trying to boot myself back to work in the studio this was the image from which I most wanted to make a painting.

As usual, I'm not going to say a whole lot here. The photos tell the story with only a few comments:

I'm using an old painting nullified with a couple coats of quick-dry titanium white. (Remember! never gesso or acrylics over oils)

the tone of the picture is mostly reds, so I'm sketching in red

I'm not using the background in the photo so here are some small value studies to figure out the composition.

Thinner on the darks...

heavier on the lights...

I always think it's kind of funny when another painting jumps into these photos.

Oooh that guitar has a rubber neck!

better, but not right yet

Having trouble getting this beautiful instrument lined up right!

Trying to keep the shapes simple in the face and hands.

Yes! I like this hand!

Still working on getting that neck down.

Almost, but not quite.

I'm back in class with Gabriel tomorrow so I won't be working on this, but I'll share again soon.

...and the winner is...

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:02:00 +0000

As a promo during my show at Stonehenge we offered a drawing where anyone who came to see the exhibit could throw their name in to possibly win a Leslie Lee print of their choice. How lovely that the name drawn was my friend Gyllian who now lives in Canada, but still was there for me on opening night. Gyllian is a most lovely, interesting person and creator of Hope Bearers "Repairing the World". Check it out. Given Gyllian's sensibilities I'm curious to see what image she will pick for her print.

Solo Show at Stonehenge Studios in Portland

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:53:00 +0000

Yesterday the first solo show I have had in a decade was hung. Tomorrow night is the opening. I am in that "what if nobody comes" phase which will heighten progressively throughout the day until 5:30 comes and I'm talking to visitors and old friends who show up. Then for the next few days I will wonder why so and so didn't come. Didn't they get the announcements? Do I have to re-do my entire email list? Such a silly cycle. Oh well, it's all part of the game.

I wrapped these painting up two days before Thanksgiving when we drove to Portland for our annual feast with family and friends. Having not seen them for over two weeks I wondered how I would feel as they were unveiled in the gallery space; not bad as it turns out. I really do like this group of paintings, twelve of which I have completed in the last six months. And, since we have been hanging out in Portland all this time I am ready to get back in the studio and make some more as soon as we get home. I don't have any shows booked but I got a glimpse this time of how good it feels to be able to pick and choose my best work to exhibit instead of including the not-so-greats just to fill a show.

If you are in the Portland area or know someone you think would enjoy this exhibit here's the info and a preview.

Everyone who comes Dec 9 -Jan 4 can enter to win one of my giclee prints of their choice so come on down to SW Corbett and throw your name in the hat! If you mention that you heard about it on my blog you can enter twice and double your chances.

Garden of Earthly Disasters

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:37:00 +0000

This summer Dennis and I were asked to participate in a project initiated by the Jefferson Nature Center in Medford called Shifting Patterns. Eleven artists attended an intense education on the subject of Climate Change and then were asked to respond with a piece of art. The intention was to possibly convey the subject in a way that was more "right brain" than charts and graphs and dire climate models. The pieces were presented by the artists in a series of public forums last month.
I had a lot of ideas about artistic metaphors that might express my alarm over what I had learned, but when it came to put brush to canvas I realized what I really wanted to do was rant. The result is below, and after that some close ups of different sections. The painting is 34 x 24 oil on canvas, mostly done with a pallet knife.

I feel like the subject of Climate Change is so overwhelming that most of us prefer to put bags over our heads rather that confront it. The text reads: WTF? / idk!

And who is left to try to hold the whole thing up? The youth of today and their subsequent generations.

Corporate board meeting and recycling truck spewing trash. I rather enjoyed this venting of all my pet peeves!

If you'd like to see this painting in the real I have sent it off to the benefit show for SITKA Art and Ecology Center that will be at the Forestry Center in Portland next weekend. Info here.
When I get it back ( I guess I should say if) I think I will add two more panels on either side; one on the left in sepia of the scene pre-industrial, and one on the right a drawing in blueprint of the future where the challenges are being met by those future generations.

More figure studies

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:34:00 +0000

Figure studies at Gabriel's

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 04:58:00 +0000

There are 6 other still life studies from last term but I'm more interested in sharing the figure studies we are doing in this 8 week session. What a joy to be working from a model again! The first week we did drawings only- big loose gesture drawings and a few 20 min. poses.

The 2nd week Gabe encouraged us to paint small -5 x7 ish and concentrate on form, not detail.This first 50 minute pose I used a larger panel and wasn't too excited about the pose:

The second pose had more dramatic lighting and I chose to create a smaller format on my panel. I like the way I could then let part of the drawing creep out beyond the boundary but keep the painting inside.

No class next week but I'll keep you posted. I'm working on some of the unfinished earlier paintings as well.

Still life painting at Gabriel's studio

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Tue, 10 May 2011 05:02:00 +0000

Back to oil painting!!

A new eight week session at Gabriel Lipper's studio has begun. This time we will be painting "ala prima" (all at once) one small still life in each of our eight 3 hour classes. We are to bring our own set-up so on the way out the door last Friday morning I grabbed an eggplant, an onion and a half a lemon from the 'fridge and off I went. This was step number one towards a really bad painting: not thinking about what I was going to paint. Why I thought this combo would work is beyond my second-thought self. Even adding a metal pitcher from Gabe's stash did not help and down the hole of frustration I went... I didn't like what I was painting and it looked that way!

On the way home I realized under this muck was a perfectly good canvas primed in red and I would use it to make a better painting. I snapped a photo and scrubbed it all away. Whew.

On Saturday I went to watch Gabe do a demo for an art event.

On Mother's Day after a nice chat with my daughter and making a rhubarb pie, I began again.

Establishing the planes of the pear and napkin folds with changes in value and color temperature.

Checking the values.. see how in the painting the pear is much darker than it really is?

Hmmm. That hard horizontal line of the napkin right above the pear was not working for me.

Is this better? Sort of looks like a pear that sprouted plaid wings. Dennis said it looked kind of desolate, when before it was sort of "cozied" into the napkin.

I tucked the pear in again but darkened the background to soften the horizontal line.

Signed off! I enjoyed doing this painting; I hope it shows.

And here's the lesson about that distracting napkin shape applied to the painting of Dennis and Liam:

Here's the last image I posted for that painting. I've been working on it but the changes didn't warrant posting. I'll update you on this work soon.

See how distracting the peach color of the chair is? I didn't, until Gabe encouraged all of us to look for shapes in our paintings where there was too much contrast in value or color in places that weren't important to the center of interest.

Changing the chair to melt into the background allowed the faces to be more important. Just like changing the background to minimize the contrast with the napkin helped bring focus back to the pear.

I hope you are enjoying these "learn-along-with Leslie" posts. Let me hear from you on my Leslie Lee Art page on Facebook. (and please hit the LIKE button!)

Until next time...

What happened to May?

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:48:00 +0000

Oh the Month of May that went away! It was a busy time, mostly due to getting ready for and attending Ceramic Showcase, a show Dennis and I have done every spring for over 25 years. Since I'm not doing ceramics anymore I participate by painting with under-glazes on cups that Dennis has made. In this photo they are not yet fired.

It's a lot of fun to do these and they are very popular, priced at $40 to $50 each, so I know people are appreciating the paintings and not just looking for a coffee vessel!

Portrait expanded

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 04:43:00 +0000

Looks like I missed posting what happened in last week's class. I was busy re-working my application for the Hallie Ford Fellowship which was due last Tues. Considering who was selected last year I may never be "out there" enough to be in the running for these things but it didn't cost anything to submit and it was an online application which made it easier, so why not? Composing my Artist's Statement did make me think long and hard about what I do and why, especially when it needed to be condensed to 2000 characters. In fact, it's so short I will share it with you:

"I have been a professional artist of all my adult life. I was the last of four girls and the Wild One so my parents let me choose my own route. I chose “artist” early, made lots of messes and continued on to earn a BFA in graphic design at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri returning to my native Portland, Oregon to begin my career.

When I married and was temporarily relieved from having to earn a living I began taking classes in ceramics, which had been a favorite medium as a child. Having time for this steady focus propelled me into 25 years as a ceramic sculptor, recognized in 1994 by a Ceramics Monthly cover story. By then I had (re)married a potter whose home we later sold to build new ecologically conscious studios and a home in southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley. In the middle of this adventure I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. During chemotherapy I did not have the strength for clay work and began painting, which was the silver lining of my cancer experience. I never returned to clay.

As a painter my aim is to draw the interest of the viewer with appealing imagery which then invites, through metaphor and allegory, considerations of the individual, the family, society and the natural world. My interests range from confronting global concerns, to simply capturing beauty I think may be overlooked. I paint from life or use reference photos I have taken myself. The stories are always my own.

The success of my work lies not in my competent handling of oil paint (so far I am self taught with much to learn), but rather because people react to how my images illuminate their life experiences. Nothing delights me more than to have a viewer interpret a painting in a different way than whatever inspired me. I have witnessed hearty laughs from some and spontaneous tears from others viewing the same image. I am fascinated by this universal/individual response which I intentionally go after by providing not the script of a story, but the seed of one."

So I suppose my desire to start a story is what has moved this painting of Dennis and Liam away from a straight portrait and into something a bit more intriguing. Remember when I said I liked the dots that showed up in the background from lens flare? That sparked an idea of having images floating around in all that darkness in the background. Somehow the long neck and face of a giraffe wanted to join in and the title "G is for Giraffe" presented itself. So then where are ABCDE and F? Ape, butterfly, cat, dog,elephant, frog all heading out after their page was turned. Here's how the idea got onto the canvas, sans ape.

White chalk was used to sketch out the animals. This was about the 4th try.

Next I sketched them in with paint so I wouldn't loose them.

I also worked on the baby's face, added his hand and clarified his stocking feet and the folds in Dennis' jeans. This is where the painting was before class today.

This is where I ended up after class. Gabriel and I discussed the fact that the baby's face had been brought out of shadow and was now competing for attention, which is a problem with double portraits. I had raised his hood to do this, so I brought it back down which also helped the proportion of his head and cast shadow again.

Then Gabe had me mix a gray that looked dark on the palette but light against the background. This gray is my "white" for the animals. It's a cool color so we warmed up the darker colors with ocher so I'd have two temperatures to work with in defining the animals. My goal here is to have the animals be "there" enough to make someone seeing this painting from a distance want to view it closer. It might then take much longer to get the alphabet bit - a fun surprise, I hope.

These last photos were taken in natural light on the porch, so they look different than the shots taken in the studio.

This child is not Liam. With luck I will still find him in there somewhere.

It's supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow so my gardening plans may be out for the day and more painting in .

Portrait of Dennis and Liam con't

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:19:00 +0000

Here's what happened today. This looks much more like Dennis, having shortened his jaw. The poka dots are from the photo but I kind of like them... hmmm...

Values are looking good.

Liam's face was also too long. Checking against my reference I could see how the nose and mouth needed to be moved up.

Still not there, but moving in the right direction.

Parting shot until next time.

Classes with Gabriel Lipper

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 04:35:00 +0000

You know how sometimes you just can't figure out what's keeping you from getting where you want to go, doing what you think you want to do? I have a have a dozen, maybe more, paintings started and sitting around in my studio staring at me. I put them on the easel and look at them and put them back where they were. What have I been waiting for?
Evidently this is what I was waiting for: classes with Gabriel Lipper. I've been spending too much time alone with only my inner critic to guide me and even though I've been aware of this guy for a few years I did not investigate if he taught classes until recently. A week after I inquired a new session started with emphasis on portraits and there was room for me!

Gabriel's studio is a big barn of a place he shares with a couple other artists and this is where he teaches classes on Friday Mornings from 9-12. It's messy and full of works in process and finished which he readily talks about if it pertains to the issue at hand. Gabe is gabby and full of life and experience and knowledge, and for the first time ever in a painting class I feel like I'm learning something every moment I'm there. The other students are a good mix - some older, some younger, some more advanced than me, some not. It's great!

I have never been able to paint alla prima (all at once). My colors just got muddy and the brush strokes lost. In this class we are not finishing a painting all in one session but the approach is as if we were. For the first time I am experiencing the truth that color can be almost anything if it is the right value, and that changes in colors of the same value but different temperatures can define a change in plane. This is especially important in painting faces.

But enough bloggety words - you came for the pictures!
Here's my reference photo of Dennis reading to our grandson:

The first issue at hand was to change the composition so that Dennis' head was not popping off the top of the frame. I chose a canvas that was a taller proportion so there would be more room at the top. This brought his face down where the top third and left third of the canvas meet - a good spot for the focal point. Adding more dark also adds to the feeling of the two of them in their own private pool of light, which is why I snapped the photo in the first place.

This is a complicated picture and I wanted to get on with the painting rather than spend two days trying to freehand the sketch, so I traced the general "map" of the photo :

Then I photographed the sketch and reduced it to a 5 x 7 image so I could use it in the little image projector I have. (Last Thursday morning I woke up at 5:50 am and realized that if I didn't get up and project this image while it was still dark I would not have my canvas ready to paint for Friday morning's class. So up I got! That's another great thing about taking a class.) After projecting the basics it was easier to do the detailed drawing that would be the foundation for the painting. Even so it took me most of the day to do this:

In class on Friday I first fixed the drawing with spray on fixative and then gave the whole canvas a thin coat of blue gray acrylic for a quick drying tone. Knowing that most of my colors would be warm it seemed like a cool undertone that would show through here and there might add some "snap". I made it as dark as I could and still see the drawing.

As soon as the acrylic was was dry I started painting and this is how far I got in class last Friday. Gabe was encouraging me to find the planes in the face and define them with changes in value and temperature without trying to match the subject's actual color. This was another photo reference I took of Dennis that gave me more information than the first photo with the deep shadows:

When I got home I also took a B&W to see if the values really were working. They are...sort of. and then I painted some more:

After lunch and a half hour nap I went back to it.

Needed another reference for the hand. Good thing I live with my model! The cat is playing Liam's role.

...and then I was pooped!! The plaid shirt really wore me out.
This doesn't look much like Liam, and Dennis sort of looks like our friend Bjorn, but I have confidence that I'll find them eventually.

I'll give you an update soon. Since I'm doing this for class I will have to follow thorough on it and will share it with you. An THEN I'll go back to the other paintings with new eyes and you can see how I finish those as well.

Sarah

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 04:53:00 +0000

Sarah was expecting her first baby to arrive in a week when I took this photo of her in her new hat at my daughter's house. I thought it was interesting that after I got home I felt more compelled than usual to print out the photo and get going. I enjoyed communing with Sarah for most of a whole day as I started the painting. The next morning I thought about her and what I wanted to do with the painting throughout my yoga and meditation. Just as I finished my practice my daughter called to say that Sarah's baby had arrived and all was well! No wonder I was so intent on her!

So- I think I will just run these photos without much comment, starting with the reference photo. Hope you enjoy the process. I enjoy your comments.

Number 6 of six quick shots. I knew this was the one I was looking for.

Darkened in Photoshop to see the shadows better.

This is a 16 by 20 canvas (...I think)

Day one finished the under-painting establishing the values.

Because it's obviously winter, I wanted the light to be cool.

This meant the shadows needed to be warm and it all felt a bit counter-intuitive at first.

Color change is from shooting in daylight and then under lights.

End second day.

Back to daylight.

End of third session.
I kept the file size on these photos fairly big so you can click on them and then zoom in to see the brushwork

OK- Here's a really big correction. Look at the eyes. See in the picture above how the eye on the right is higher and closer to the nose than it is in the picture on the right? This is a mistake I make again and again and it makes faces really wonky. At least now I know to be on the watch for it.

More paint on the surface, leaving the brush stokes. More contrast and sharp edges where the hat is in shadow against her cheek.

Hopefully this all brings focus to her face rather than the hat where I kept the edges soft. That hat is tough competition! End of 4th session.

Just a little time today but more detail and highlights in the features. I like the way her eyes are sparkling now: A Mama-to-Be - "glowing".

Wish me luck as I continue.

See you in Portland this weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:13:00 +0000

I will be at the
Da Vinci Art Fair
with cards, prints and painted terra cotta cups. Great Gifts!

Sales support local artists
and the arts programs at da Vinci Arts Middle School.

December 4th & 5th
Saturday 10-6 pm & Sunday 10-4 pm

2508 NE Everett Street, Portland Oregon map

Brothers 3

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:40:00 +0000

My wonderous nine month old grandson arrived here on the 26th to stay while his parents are in Japan. Skype is a wonderous thing even when the connection falters. We will return him to Portland on the 3rd, have a nice reunion and come home on the sixth. THEN I will paint again.

Until then here's what happened on the painting of the brothers.

I started defining the background with some tree branches and leaves, lightening the area behind the taller boy's head and breaking up the big dark space on the left. I also lightened the tops of the rocks to keep that lighter diagonal moving.

Here's the squinty eye take on how the values are working out according to my plan which is still visisble in the background.

Had to spend some time on these beautiful faces before I ended this session. I think I've caught the younger- now if I can just keep my brushes OFF, except for his hair which needs work.

At the end of this session I realize than in my desire for a light diagonal I have made the water look like milk. Ah, three steps foward, two steps back. And so it goes.

The next day I take the dog and return to Beaver Creek, where this idylic scene began. The water does not look like milk; it is a mirror.

With my new reference photos I rework the water. It's better and I look forward to retrning to this painting.

Happy Halloween!I'll be back in November.

Brothers 2

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:56:00 +0000

One of the things that happens when I take photos of a painting's progress is that I don't always have the camera on the same setting. If I use the auto I get much cooler colors than if I shoot with manual settings. So don't think the color is swinging wildy, it's probably just the camera.
Here's where we left off:

Wow! There's the color shift I was talking about! Here I'm thinking about the size and angle of the bow and arrow and not liking that they are parallel to each other.

Let's indulge in slightly smaller brushes ,change the angle of the arrow and work on the boys...

The skin tones are a challange. I have a tendancy to add too much white and I'm thinking at the end I will probably add an orche glaze to warm things up a bit. It IS summer, after all. the faces are starting resemble

their owners.

A little more definition in the rocks. I've put in about 4hrs...we'll call it good for the day.

Brothers

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:18:00 +0000

The Roses were a good warm-up; this week I'm on to the painting for my niece. I'm doing this from a photo which I will not post in it's original form because it was taken about 8 yrs ago and one of my grand-nephews is not so happy about anyone seeing this image of him naked!!! ( He's threatened to sue if I do the painting, but I'll take my chances.)
The first thing was to change the color photo to a high contrast black and white to get better see the big shapes.

Next I added on to the left side to make a better composition. A general guide is to have the center of interest be at the junction of the painting's thirds. I've drawn lines here so you can see that the lines cross near the boy's faces. In the original shot their faces were close to center. The re-do has more drama, don't you think? The red spots were an idea about having them gathering fruit or something, but I abandoned that idea for metaphor about brothers which came a little later.

This brought me to the point of a rough in on the 24" x 24" canvas. I projected the image and made a quick charcoal sketch of the main elements. (There is lots of controversy about weather it is "OK" to do this, which I don't care much about. I think the main issue is that people use images that are taken by others, project them as is and then put paint on it. The composition, color and subject were all done by someone else so the result is hardly "original". Not the case here so I am guilt-free.)
I sprayed the sketch with fixative and let it dry overnight, then I did a quick color wash with ochre acrylic.

Then...I chickened out and painted the October Roses.

A few days later I came back to the Brothers and did another color blocking with acrylic. I chose the violets and blues because I thought they would give and interesting under tone to the greens, and yellows and pinks I planned to use. By this time I was hot to get going and the thin acrylic allowed me to do that because it dries so fast. If I'd used oils, even thinned with turp, I would have had to wait a day rather than an hour. Oils can go over thin acrylic, but acrylic over oils will peel off.

Here's how it went:

I'm including my reference photos in these shots so you can see if I'm sticking to the plan as I go along. Having them on the wall behind the easel helped me just look at the the shapes and values, not any detail.

These are the brushes I'm using. No need for any details at this stage! The sketchy marks are the bow the smaller boy will carry and the arrow his brother is holding. The angle of the arrow should stop the eye from following the arm right our of the picture.
Do you get the metaphor?

A check with this black and white at the end of the day shows me I'm losing the strong light diagonal, from bottom left to upper right. I'll have to keep an eye on that as I proceed.

October Roses

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 04:24:00 +0000

Look who is back in her studio! It was a short summer and a long fall, but enough is enough. It's time to start painting again!

I did the rough-out of a painting I've been promising my niece for about a decade but felt I needed a warm up before I could dive into it. A couple of days ago Dennis shooed one of our resident triplet fawns away from my favorite rose bush so I decided to cut some for us to enjoy before they disappeared. They were on our breakfast nook table in a blue glass vase and since all I wanted to do was stare at them and breathe their sweetness I decided to paint them. This was bold decision. Flowers, especially roses, are hard to paint (for me anyway) and they only behave for a day at most before they droop and fade and you can't figure out why that shape you thought you'd nailed doesn't seem to be there anymore. BUT they were SO pretty...and so I began. Here's how it went:

Keep it loose...find the big shapes...define the color scheme ( complimentary: yellow-violet). Was SO happy to be painting again! Lunch, siesta, and back again...

The black and white photos help me monitor the values.

starting to get droopy!

Got to stop. I'm SO tired. I can see that the flowers don't have enough change in value to give them any volume but I have no more energy and the light is totally different. I set the vase outside hoping at least the bud, which is my focal point, will still be recognizable in the morning.

Next day. I painted for a while before I remembered to take any photos. Got some darker tones into the blossoms and juiced up the background, defined some of the leaf structures.

I feel pretty good about this knowing that in a couple of weeks, when it is dry, I'll take another look and probably do some glazing and brighten some highlights. I'll post again when it's finished. In the meantime there's that other one I started... and I feel braver now.

Our Home and Studio- what's not working here?

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:15:00 +0000

This is the point in almost every painting where I could just turn it to the wall and walk away. The initial buzz is over and I start to struggle. Something is not right with the buildings in this one but I can't figure out what. Terry Miura, who taught a painting workshop here a couple of years ago said, in effect, " Figure out what's wrong and then fix it, don't just muck around hoping it will get better." So I work on the hills and sky a bit more and leave the buildings until the answer comes.

Every time I stop painting I scape up all the mixed colors and keep the blend in a pile on the pallet. It's a mix of all the colors I am using and so makes a great neutral that will naturally harmonize with the current color scheme.

I do like this glass pallet! It actually makes me want to clean up at the end of each session.

The next day I avoid the buildings further by starting to do something with the trees. I put in the white birches and suddenly see that the house porch looks like it is floating above the studio building and the ground where the trees grow. What the ???? It was tempting to think the problem would just get covered up by the trees, but with bare branches I couldn't count on that. Nor would I have heeded Terry's advice!

It took Dennis' fresh look to see the problem is simple perspective: See how C and D would converge if extended to the left before E or A met them? and how line A is straight across and above the roof line of the building on the left?

With proper perspective all the lines would meet at a "vanishing point" on the horizon, and you can see below how I corrected the roof lines so they work. The roof of the house porch now meets the roof line of the studio so it no longer "floats". If I had paid better attention to the grid I made when I started, I would not have had this problem. Once again, good planning always pays off.

With this issue resolved I could go ahead with the painting:

...and at this point I will leave this painting for now (after I put a sold sign on it) and return to it with a fresh eye after I attend to some other projects. I'll let you know when it's "finished".

Hope my learning process aids your understanding! Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

Our Home and Studio- the color

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:40:00 +0000

The next day I was excited to get some color on this canvas, but before we get started I want to show you my new glass pallet and color layout.

The glass is an old bathroom shelf which is nice because it's sturdy and has rounded edges. I backed it with kraft paper which is a good neutral background that allows me to see the colors I'm mixing without the distraction of old paint stains on the pallet. Because this is a new arrangement for me I wrote the color positions and made a spot of each color on the paper, then I just taped the paper to the glass around the edges. This limited color set up was suggested in a painting video and I thought I would try it. Clock-wise: Aliz Crimson, Cad Red Light, Cad Red Deep, Cad Orange, Cad Yellow Deep, Cad Yellow Light,(Rembrandt brand recommended for all the Cads. Do you agree?) Titanium White, Veridian, Cer. Blue, Ultramarine, Brnt Umber, Ivory Black at the bottom. The blob in the middle is Gamblin Gel Medium with some Gamblin Liquid Alkyd mixed in to help things dry a little faster.

Another good tip from the video: keep an old phone book handy to wipe off you palette knife. VERY efficient and saves on rags.

I liked the mood of the afternoon winter light...

...used a big brush and tried to keep the strokes loose and varied, moving from the shoulder instead of the wrist.

I did not like the hills in the backgound. Too green? Too dark?

Squinting at it upside down let me see the hard line between the sky and the hills...

...so I softened it and bingo! the buildings popped into focus. More tomorrow.

Our Home and Studio- the set up

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:36:00 +0000

As you know, we are selling our place and making that happen is taking up a lot of my time and energy. Draining might be the word. I was starting to feel like I work in an office, on a computer all day. The remedy was obvious: get back in the studio! If I'm hung up on our property then paint it. Last year I painted a watercolor of my daughter's house, with a SOLD sign outside, when she had to sell it .

I figured the Universe could use a clearer picture of what needed to happen and she got offers within a week! Maybe I'll put a SOLD sign in this new painting of our place as well. With oils I can always paint it out later if I want to.

Several days have past and I am glad to report that I feel much better, and since you all seem to really like seeing how I muck my way through a painting step by step I'll take you through this one as well. It's not finished but if I end up chucking it at the end, you'll be right there to see it happen.

I thought about doing this plein air, but it's too cold. I took two reference photos and taped them together to get the whole scene. Then I did a grid on the photos and the canvas to layout my sketch. I numbered the grid lines to make it less confusing.

Since I was really itching to dive into the color and enjoy getting something started it took some discipline to do a small value study first.

I should have done this first but in this case I don't think it would have mattered much.

Next I played around with some color options. I really wanted to do something bold to play up the light on the buildings and not stick to the "real" colors of the scene.

I used some pan watercolors and tried this scheme. I didn't really think about it too much but it turned out to be a split complimentary.

How about a split complimentary with purple?

I have to admit I was looking for something a bit more natural (there's that conservative part of me-again), but our buildings are NOT yellow and orange- they are earthen plaster brown. My color scheme in the corner is a triadic but the study has bright yellow in it... so much for color theory, eh?

A black and white of that color study reveals it to be pretty blah in value range so when I do the painting I better get that worked out first.

OK, I had my value and color studies and started on the canvas by blocking out the values making the lights lighter and darks darker than the study.

Let's check out the composition by turning it upside down. I fuzzed it a bit, but squinting will reduce it further to just lights and darks. The sky becomes a lake with trees reflected in it, the driveway a blustery sky, but the important thing is the lights and darks are not equal which keeps it pretty interesting. It's good enough for my purpose right now, which is to make a painting so I'll want to make another better one.

We'll see how the color work progressed in the next post.

Unknown Cowboy

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Lee) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:16:00 +0000

This is another Different Stokes for Different Folks challenge. Karin asked everyone who wanted to participate to send a photo of themselves which she then distributed to the group at random. No one knows who anyone is and the point is not to do a portrait but a good painting from the reference photo. Of course, wanting to capture a likeness is almost irresistible, but no one will know except the person who sent in the photo of themselves. The painting to the left is of me, done by John Wolff, who does not have a web site, so I cannot direct you to more of his work. This is a nice watercolor and it certainly looks like me. It inspired me to try a watercolor of the photo I received.
Here is how I went about the painting:

Session one:
Here's the dude I got.

The first thing I did was convert the photo to black and white so I could see the values better with out the distraction of the color. Then I made a grid on the photo and a grid on my paper and started drawing. I did this because I know that a likeness does not come from details but from the proportions of the face so I wanted to get that right. I also consistently have trouble getting eyes to line up properly, so I added and extra diagonal line for reference.

After I got the sketch done I added a few dots of latex resist to the right eye the tip of the nose and the stubble on his chin - all whites that I did not want to lose and were too small to avoid.

The guy removed all the background from his head-shot so I have no idea whether he is a real cowboy or not. I think not. I think he was trying to make things more interesting, which is the same reason I wore a red hat.

I'm thinking the black hat is way too bold and will overpower his face so I do some value sketches to see how I might switch things around for a better composition. I like the last one best, thinking I'll suggest some western landscape in the background.

Now I have to think about the colors so I do a couple of 2 x 2 color studies.

Speaking of color- the color of these photos varies wildly because the natural light in my studio was fading and I was using a study lamp for light.

I'm making the format bigger than I think I want it in the end. One of the nice things about working on paper is the option to crop the painting later.

Here are the first color washes and a B&W to check on the values. I find my digital camera very handy for this and can see things in that small format that I don't see when I'm looking at the painting. It's another way of "squinting", I guess.

A bit more color and I call it quits for now, leaving him as a Blind Bard for now.

Session two:

I allowed the painting to dry overnight before attempting the eyes. I didn't want the color to bleed and besides I wanted to be fresh when I painted this important element. I'm glad the latex is there to keep that highlight!

Time to check the reference and the plan. The left half of the face is still too light and the nose looks like it's sliding off to the right.

This is better but he's beginning to look a lot like GWB!! Is it the white hat or have I just seen that face TOO many times?

Here's where I decided to stop. I cropped it so his bright eye is about one-third down from the top and one-third over from the right, a prime focal point. Don't know about the red dots on his hat...hmmm.

Another adventure in watercolors! It sort of looks like him, but I won't be hanging out a shingle advertising portrait painting quite yet!