Jim Serrett Studio

Exploring Color Palettes

2012-05-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

How a painter lays out the colors of their palette and the colors they choose is an insight into their painting process. A artist looks at the arrangement of paint piles on a wooden palette as the musician looks at the strings of a guitar. They represent the creative possibilities of describing the visual world through color. Color is described by three qualities hue, value and chroma, together those three components are referred to as a “color note”. So when you look at a thing and say I will describe it with paint, you are actually saying, I will create in some abstract pictorial space that exact shape in hue, value and color with a brushstroke. Or more exactly a color note.

My palette charts are based on a limited palette of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, and ultramarine blue, which offer a surprising range of color and value relationships on their own. The pure color is on the left with two steps of white. I have written about earth palettes and limited palettes here before, you may want to read those articles also.

The greatest masterpieces were once only pigments on a palette.
(Henry S. Hoskins)

These color notes come from an array of pigments spread across a palette, learning to control and understand that palette is important. Building knowledge of their relationships and how colors interact is much like (using the music analogy again) learning the scales. Most students start with a limited palette of colors and as they become knowledgeable of how they interact, expand the palette slowly.

The idea is to develop a method of working with color that becomes intuitive, color mixing should be a non-cognitive action so that you can find a color note quickly and effectively without interfering with your creative process. Clapton never stopped in the middle of a guitar solo and said, “Crap, where’s the key of C ?”

Expanding on this core set of earth colors I selected colors that would give me further variations on the primaries, a warm and cool in each family with some colors of convenience and modifiers such as sap green and raw umber. The experience of making puddles of paint and experimenting with them to learn which colors are cool or warm, transparent or opaque, and how they relate to each other is an important part of understanding color harmony and color mixing.

This last palette is a classical palette I have come across a few times and experimented with, how historically accurate it is I am not sure. However Gamblins Oil Colors, which is a very reputable source sold this set of colors as an Old Master Palette. With lots of warm earth tones and contrast this palette really has that old master feel to it. I could see Titian or Rembrandt using this palette. A good resource for the history of paints used by artists is Pigments Through the Ages.

Everything that you can see in the world around you presents itself to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colors.
(John Ruskin)

Links
Three Color Palette
Earth Palette

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim Serrett

The Odd Couple

2008-12-30T13:44:00.000-08:00

The Odd Couple
Oil on panel 8x10

I really like the similarities of the shapes, and the color contrast. The reflective imagery and light help move the eye around the piece. Again I am looking for the simple unique beauty that can be found all around us.
Enjoy, Jim
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Google Art Project Updated

2012-04-16T15:06:00.001-07:00

Most artists I believe, are familiar with the Google Art Project launched back in February 2011; based on Google’s Street View technology we were able to wander virtually through 17 partner museums by clicking on the gallery’s floor plan.

In their second launch Google has added another 151 galleries and museums to its Art Project, the platform features over 32,000 artworks from 46 museums. One nice feature is the ability to select either "Museum View" or "Artwork View" for each museum.

The updated interface and new search features allow the user to find artworks by period or type of artist. You can look at the collections within one museum, or the collective inventory of one artist in all participating museums. Above are the results from selecting "Artist", then Albrecht Durer, which gave me 45 works that I can scroll through or play as a slideshow.

The image quality is excellent, and the zoom tool will make you think you are actually there. The "My Galleries" tool allows you to create/save/share your own virtual gallery (look out Pinterest) from some of the most prestigious museums in the world. I promise you that hours can vaporize on this site, just keep reminding yourself of how great an educational tool and resource this is.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Bottle Collection + Earth Tone Color Chart

2012-03-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Jim Serrett Bottle Collection Oil on panel 8x10

The painting on my easel is a study of bottles done with an earth palette.
I have really enjoyed working with these limited palettes; they have an innate natural harmony and subtlety.

The chart is the studio palette I have been using for several recent works. The color chart is comprised of just four hues, yellow ocher, burnt sienna, burnt umber, ultramarine blue, and white. These low key earth palettes will make you look closely at building color relationships and thinking about color saturation.

Much of the subtly in these color families can not truly be seen or appreciated unless you actually mix one of these charts. For example ultramarine blue mixed with burnt sienna or burnt umber produce two beautiful mixed blacks and an entire range of warm and cool grays. This is what I used in the study Bottle Collection and in the chart for my mixed black or shade.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Bunch of Grapes WIP

2012-02-25T14:26:00.000-08:00

I have really enjoyed these grape paintings, they have been truly demanding. The color complements are fascinating, a very complex series of color triads that produced a natural harmony.

Seeing the bunch of grapes as a whole or mass and dealing with the individual reflective effects is not easy. Funny, is it not, how things you think will be a breeze to paint turn into some of your biggest challenges.

Painting for me is all about solving a set of visual problems, solve those visual problems and a likeness of your initial impression will emerge. Even so there are times I just have to sit and observe my subject and decide how much more to push, or should I even dare to push it more. Have I said everything I needed the image to say?. Is it saying what the image was suppose to convey? Have I kept to the “big” idea that attracted me in the first place? Am I done? Sometimes I think it is best to leave the entire visual stimulus, and return later with a fresh eye and mind. So for the time being this will be a work in progress.

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
Leonardo da Vinci

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Grapes WIP

2011-10-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

Like most artists today I get much of my art “fix” online. I have a multitude of blogs, online magazines, and forums I read, browse and contribute to regularly. I truly enjoy seeing the creative process, and most painters do not have any issues with showing you how they produce work or come to their ideas and concepts.

In fact through this medium the web-blog, I think artists that share their process and join into the creative commons have helped secure a footing in the contemporary world of art for representational painting.

This painting is still in process, I am focusing on the treatment of edges, attempting to keep every thing very soft and atmospheric.

Grapes - WIP - oil on panel, 11x14

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Interview with Jacob Collins by David Yezzi

2012-01-27T09:37:00.000-08:00

Jacob Collins, Self Portrait, 11x9

Jacob Collins is certainly one of the most accomplished realist painters of our time, his contribution as an educator is unequaled. A driving force in the Realist Revolution to revive the art of traditional painting, Collins through his schools and ateliers (Grand Central Academy / Water Street Atelier) has already trained a generation of new artists racking up an impressive list of alumni.

Collins at times seems reluctant to take on the role of leader for the movement but I can not imagine where the state of contemporary realism would be with out him.

Jacob Collins, White Peonies, 16x18

In this great article from The New Criterion's David Yezzi interviews Jacob Collins about his life, work and the world of figurative art in which he covers Greenberg, the new aesthetic and kung-fu.

Jacob Collins, Reclining Nude Morning 32x56

An interview with Jacob Collins by David Yezzi - The New Criterion

Links

Adelson Galleries New Works by Jacob Collins

Jacob Collins Website
Alumni of the Water Street Atelier

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Thanks for Listening II

2011-12-31T14:49:00.000-08:00

Another year over, wow, is time accelerating? It seems to have gone by so fast and

has certainly been quite a year, one filled with the deepest sorrow and greatest joy.

I guess the ying and yang of life.

I just want to take a moment to express my appreciation to all.

Thank you for your support and interest in my work.

As I look back over the year’s efforts, the paintings that succeeded and those that did not. I ask myself the questions, have I improved? What have I said visually? Do I resonate those qualities I admire in painting/art? What I do know for certain is that the more I learn about painting the more I need to learn. It is the continued ongoing study and observation; of the nature, of the visual world that makes art so fascinating and intriguing.

It has been a great year.

Those of you that purchased work, my sincerest gratitude.

Happy Holidays and have a great New Years.
Jim

"If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint."
Edward Hopper

“For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.”
T. S. Eliot

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Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Earth Palette

2011-12-22T11:05:00.001-08:00

Jim Serrett Grapes on Block in Box 11"x 14" oil on panel

Like most painters I am fascinated by color palettes, those used by both contemporary artists and the Old Masters. Most artists have a set palette they work with and maybe a hand full of convenience colors they use occasionally. The pigments an artist chooses for their personal palette are an insight into their thinking and creative process. I have always been a real fan of limited palettes for the simple inherent color harmony they produce. I have written about them before on my Pochade Box site. However I find myself continually returning to the first limited palette I was introduced to, a simple four color palette of red, yellow, white and black that is characteristic of the classical color palettes.

With the "Grapes" painting I used a very basic earth toned palette, consisting of the three primaries and black and white.
Yellow Ocher (light yellow)
Raw Sienna (med orange)
Venetian Red (red-orange) and
Ivory Black (blue)
Mixtures of ivory black and white tend to read as blue.
( You could leave the raw sienna out and accomplish the same by mixing ocher and red. )

I developed this little color chart by random mixtures of these earth pigments, notice how “blue” the black mixture reads when next to the warm complementary earth tones.

These were my core colors and the majority of my mixtures began with them. In the painting I did add other colors to the palette as I worked, mostly other earth tones which I also related to as red, yellow orange – Naples Yellow (yellow), raw umber (dark yellow-green), burnt umber (dark red) alizarin (bluish red). Still a fairly monochromatic warm earth palette. I used the Alizarin Crimson and Naples yellow to punch up a hue, which in relationship to these subtle earth tones was very intense and quickly gave me a new appreciation of the high chroma pigments.

In this comparison you can clearly see the limited earth color palette in the pixellated image.

Many of the Masters used similar limited palettes, based on a yellow, red, white and black substituted as a blue. Rembrandt, Velasquez, Goya certainly used something along the lines of a earth toned primary palette. And of course Anders Zorn’s legendary four color palette of Yellow Ocher, Cadmium Red Medium, Ivory Black plus White. One could argue that many painters before the 19th century just did not have access to many pigments. But after the turn of the century and a whole world of tube colors at the artists reach these pigments remain.

The earth tone palette is perfect for matching the colors of the natural world. Painting from direct observation with a limited palette will force you see the subtleties of each color note you mix. You will pay closer attention to the color bias and its temperature. Using a earth tone palette you can work with color and still emphasize tonal values. This “family” of closely related earth tone colors lend themselves perfectly to producing light and shade and is one of the reasons that great artists, Rembrandt, Titian, Rubens, and Hals have produced such a large spectrum of colors from such a small core of pigments.

I see this simple harmonizing core of earth toned primaries inside almost all of the major representational painters I admire.

One of my favorite artists, Winslow Homer's palette was based on a low keyed palette of earth colors augmented with some umber and a blue.

Interesting that Edgar Payne, one of the most noted and misunderstood American landscape painters (this man was not an impressionist no matter what the “plein-air” crowd wants to believe, just look at his theories and practices) used a mixture of red, yellow, and blue as a harmonizer, which he referred to as the “soup” in his paintings. A neutral gray tone that is made from a mixture of Indian red, ultramarine blue, and a bit of yellow.

Why, because Payne knew just like the old masters that the best way to create harmony is by complementary mixtures, being that by each color mix having a bit of the colored "soup", assures a unity and harmony overall in the painting. Painting, especially “color” is about relationships, what happens to one color when next to another, how does it effect hue, value, chroma? Obviously there is a infinite number of colors we see in the world and attempting to match all those color notes let alone harmonies without some type of color “theory” would be overwhelming. Now, before we go off track here, I want to say there are endless books written on color theory. And I highly recommend Michael Wilcox's books on color. There are many other good ones in fact, but trying to understand color and how it works with out pulling out some paints and brushes is like trying to play the piano by looking at it.

What Edgar Paynes "soup" tells us is that gray is the combination of the three primaries red, yellow and blue, understanding that gray can be warm, cool or neutral is important to understanding its use as an unifying color.
The method or genius of a limited palette is that the complement of each color is the mixture of the other two colors, no easier way to use and harmonize color than to mix it from the primaries.

As I meander around with this discussion I thought it might be helpful to state what benefits I see in a limited earth palette. First everything we do as painters is directed to developing knowledge about how to manipulate hue, value and chroma.

1.Earth tones are not neutral; they are cool or warm and are the duller and darker; version of yellow, orange and red. (lower chroma)
2.Color must be seen in relationship - you must always look at the effect one color has on another. Verbally saying that, “that is a red apple” is much different than visually saying that.
3.Black is a Color - it can be abused, but no matter what your high school art teacher told you, you can use it as a modifier.
4.Mix Neutrals with Complementary Colors - Mix any two color complements in unequal parts with white and you will create a range of neutral grays. These grays will have an innate harmony and unity.
5. Keep it Simple – a limited palette will force you to do more with less - Mixing paint using only the primaries and gray will force you to look at each color note, and ask what is its hue, value, chroma and temperature

Eugene Delacroix's Palette

I think it boils down to this, as artists/painters we must develop an instinctive understanding of the colors on our palette. By developing a personal color palette with the fewest number of colors, based on core color that we subconsciously understand we can most effectively bring expression to the subject we see.

Virgil Elliot in his book "Traditional Oil Painting" touches on this subject recommending a beginning palette of Ivory black, white, yellow ocher (or raw sienna) and red ocher (or other red earth) saying, “As the student becomes familiar with the palette and more confident in its use, the palette is expanded gradually by the addition of burnt sienna, raw umber, and cadmium red light, or cadmium vermilion. At the appropriate point, ultramarine blue is added, and so on, so that no lesson overwhelms the student with too much new to learn at once.”

One of the most interesting physical palettes that exist is that of Delacroix’s.
It was documented that he would methodically mix dozens of color on his palette.
The arrangement is unique and inundated with beautiful neutrals and earth tones.

"I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will."

Eugene Delacroix

Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830 Louvre

Links

Great site ran by artist Aaron Miller, about artist palettes.

http://oilcolorpalettes.blogspot.com/2010/07/aaron-millers-super-limited-palette.html

Fantastic info and demo about the Zorn palette by artist Michael Lynn Adams.

http://www.michaellynnadams.com/zorn-palette/

Virgil Elliott

http://virgilelliott.com/

Elliot, Virgil. Traditional Oil Painting. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2007
Michael Wilcox, Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Practice, practice, practice

2011-11-20T13:54:00.001-08:00

This work is available – click here for purchase information

There is no doubt that the answer to developing as a painter requires a lot of perseverance and practice, practice, practice. Small studies from life are an excellent means to improve painting skills and focus on the simple truthful depiction of the thing observed.

This work is available – click here for purchase information

I learn a great deal from repeating subjects, I have no idea how many pears or apple I’ve painted. But each time I paint one I feel I have seen something new and unique and tried to express that in the final image.

An artist must be engaged with the image in front of them. It is that personal direct experience with a subject which will develop the thinking process and aesthetic sense in a artist.

After nearly twenty years of “wall dogging” advertising art, I am pretty certain that paintings done from nature are at a minimum more interesting and beautiful than those done from photography. However I am completely certain that painting from life is a thousand times more challenging than painting photorealism.

After all that “is” just paintings of photographs.

I think we forget that this is hard work and a tough road at times.
That only by perfecting our understanding of the craft of painting, learning traditional methods and techniques and pushing our skill level, will an artist develop the language necessary to express themselves.

This work is available – click here for purchase information

We see nothing truly until we understand it.

(John Constable)

John Constable The Complete Works
http://www.john-constable.org/

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

A Darwinian Theory of Beauty

2011-09-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

Denis Dutton: a Darwinian Theory of Beauty on TED

I've watched this video from the late Denis Dutton several times. Dutton has some very unique insights on the aesthetics of beauty and the animation is really entertaining.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Red Pear Two

2011-08-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

"Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision-it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so." - Charles W. Hawthorne –

Oil on panel - 8x10

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Lucian Freud and John Wayne

2011-07-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

My father was deeply moved when John Wayne died back in 1979.

I have to admit I really did not understand why? I mean, you could always tell he was acting and his films were usually very predictable. I think for my Dad it marked the end of an era, somehow knowing that John Wayne was on his horse with a six-shooter, that everything was right in the world.

Lucian Freud is like that; his passing definitely marks a period in art history.

Surely one of the most important figurative artists of the 20^th Century, he repeatedly pushed the envelope and painted with an intensity that can only be described as uniquely Freudian. His paintings are often like a car wreck, you really don’t want to look, but when you do you are mesmerized. His work may not appeal to all; his life seemed to be one full of extremes where his eccentric behavior often received as much press as his work.

However this was an artist, as John Wayne would say had True Grit.

The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.
Lucian Freud

New York Times article - Lucian Freud dies at 88.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Three Wise Men

2011-06-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

After finishing this alla prima piece I notice the little Magi drama happening between the pears and x-mas bulb. I chose these object because I liked the colors, shapes and forms together. I really did not see any subliminal narrative in the study until the end. Three Wise Men - Oil on Panel - 8x10

And with that let me say that the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

A lot of life (good and bad) has gotten in the way of my posts here.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Underpainting Techniques – Demonstration Four - Copper Pot Video

2011-03-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

The Copper Pot painting is another exploration of traditional oil painting techniques.

With a grisaille the artist develops form and value, separate from color.

By glazing color over the grisaille (monochrome underpainting) the shading (values) is already established, creating the correct values essential to realism.

The indirect method or the process of painting in layers allows for a wide range of approaches, techniques and effects, starting with a grisaille. The artist has a full arsenal of painting methods at his disposal, scumbling, sgraffito, frottie, scraping, rubbing, blending, hatching, impasto, velaturas and glazing. A range of painting techniques that makes complete use of the unique characteristics of oil painting.

In two earlier posts I went over the charcoal study and grisaille underpainting which you may want to review.

As I start working with color I establish local colors for each object describing them by (hue and chroma). Hue is a color’s characteristic, where it lies in the color spectrum, and which temperature it leans towards, warm or cool. Chroma is the degree of brilliance a color has, from intense to dull. The first passage of the color lay-in is thin enough so the grey underpainting will show through and modify the hue producing (value).

The basic values will be established by the underpainting, but unlike direct painting, (alla-prima) the hue and chroma can be modified by any of the techniques listed above. The temperature, chroma and value can continually be manipulated by transparent and semi-transparent passages of color. Thus, what is so interesting in this approach is that the actual color lay-in can be either duller than the final envisioned color and the chroma increased with consecutive layers of glazing or the first color lay-in done in higher chroma and toned down with further layers. Sort of sneaking up on the exact color desired.

The painting was continued by building layers of more opaque passages in the light areas and semi-transparent (velatura) passages in the halftones. Blending and dry brushing (scumbling) those into each other, and then adjusting all those passages with glazes, continuing this process in several layers building the (chiaroscuro) or light and dark modeling. I finished the final overall layer with glazes and scumbles for more subtlety of color and tone.

Overall I’m pretty content with the end result, certainly there are areas I don’t think work as well as others. But I was at a point where I was tweaking little details and not improving the big picture or relationships. I really wanted to interpret the light effect (chiaroscuro) and interesting relationship within those restrained colors and neutral tones, which I feel read well. I believe the scumbling technique worked wonderfully, but think the halftones transition into shadow could be resolved further. An area that I can learn to improve with practice, the success of this work or any is always the knowledge and experience I gain.

I have begun to see glazing as a much broader and dynamic process, and the subtle and unique difference in the optical effect of glazing, veluatra and scumbling.

But one has to realize as they practice these methods, that the masters approached a painting with a tool box full of techniques, they combined them, modified them and manipulated them at will, like a conductor leading an orchestra. These were not tricks or gimmicks like you find in “how to” books on painting but an instrument they used to interpret form so they could concentrate on the bigger idea, what they where saying with their art.

They understood the language of their craft before they spoke.

Glossary and Terminology of Techniques

If we look back at what our predecessors did we need to understand the terminology they used if we are to develop an understanding of it and put it to use.

Modern painters can easily discuss these techniques using simple language about paint, such as dragged, dry brushed, stippled, blended. Clear glazes that are like looking through color glass or semi-opaque glazes that are like fog. But if you rummage around in old dusty art books you’ll find that the terminology was very different from today.

I have tried to make these definitions as simple and clear as possible, but I must admit it was hard to pin down some terms in text. What complicates the effort is that the really good writing on classical techniques usually have no illustrations, and many of the descriptions seem to overlap. So these definitions are the sum of my research and trial and error painting efforts.

Unless you are so fortunate to be studying with a living master, this leaves us with really only two methods to get a handle on these processes, one is to understand what those terms mean in a modern context and translation, and most importantly, go see these works in the real. And two, pull out the paints and try to paint those effects. This is how I arrived at these terms, understanding that all painting approaches are not seen individually but in combination.

Glossary of terms

Alla-prima – Italian expression loosely translated “at first try”. Direct painting (wet into wet), a method which is completed in a single session without previous preparation or latter layers of paint.

Blending – in basic term the smooth transition of one color to another, in broader terms (sfumato) softening edges of paint after they have been applied, usually with a clean brush or finger. Characterize by da Vinci’s practice of blurring the outlines of the model.

Body Tone – or mass tone, designate the value and color of an object that is illuminated by light and part of the light pattern, a color modified by light, or in line with light.

Chroma – is the colors intensity, the degree of brilliance of a color, from intense to dull.

Chiaroscuro – The contrast of light and shade and the distribution of these elements in a painting that form pattern and composition. First and best exemplified in the work of Caravaggio (1569- 1609) and later the Dutch master Rembrandt.

Frottage – Thick paint rubbed or dragged over a dry paint. Generally applied by painting bright colors over darker ones, to complete areas of light, shining parts or highlights. The master Titian used this technique often with great skill, often applying it as a half-impasto in bold strokes to bring high reflection to silk, or metal. Most often seen in the finished layer of a painting.

Frottie - or frottis Fr. - frotter (to rub) Transparent to semi-transparent glaze rubbed into the ground in the initial phases of painting, generally the first color layer done directly over top of a drawing, in either a single color or as the local color of each passage.

You can produce a complete monochrome in this way, or lay-in all of the ground colors of the picture until it has much of the effect of the complete painting. It quickly covers the white of the canvas with local color or mass tone. A process probably first introduced in the French Academy, eloquently utilized by the master painter William- Adolpe Bouguereau.

Glazing – transparent pigment diluted with medium. It is the application of darker transparent paint flowed over a lighter, opaque dry under layer. Glazes can be worked together and modeled wet into wet, rubbed in, lifted out with a brush, wiped out entirely and left in the crevices of the underpainting or canvas, brushed into with varying degrees of thicker paint “wisps” of color and value, and overlaid in various degrees to modify the underlying paint (like layering veils of glass) to add harmony, depth and luminosity to the surface. A glaze is a dynamic procedure applying paint made of undulating degrees of thickness, opacity and translucency. Not merely a flood of color.

Grisaille – ( griz-eye’) fr.- grey a underpainting done entirely in monochrome shades of gray.

Hatching - strokes or cross-strokes in wet paint that blend at a distance.

Hue - is a color’s characteristic, where it lies in the color spectrum, and which temperature it leans towards, warm or cool.

Impasto – Italian meaning (paste). Thick opaque paint applied with a brush or knife that stand visibly proud of the surface.

Local Color – The hue of an object, not modified by light, shade or reflected color.

Scumbling – is the complement of glazing. A style of glazing that is scrubbed or dry brushed over top of dry or almost dry paint using a film of opaque or semi opaque color. The scumbled layer is thinly applied using a brush containing very little paint creating a delicate veil which only partially obscures the underlying color producing an optical blending. Generally with light colors over dark it can be used to soften colors or outlines and even model form, modifying the transition from light to dark. Or create a hazy, atmospheric “opalescent” effect.

Value – is the relative degree of grayness, dark to light.

Velaturas – Italian (veiling). A velatura is a glaze with some degree of opacity. A semi- transparent glaze, tinted with a small amount of white that allows the undercoat to appear as though a milky or foggy haze, often referred to as the half-paste or semi-glaze. My understanding is the application of a velatura is sort of the middle ground between a glaze and a scumble, the major difference in the viscosity of the paint film, it being fluid and with more medium. Its effect is to soften and unify the appearance of the underlying layer.

“Look at nature, work independently, and solve your own problems.”
- Winslow Homer

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Bibliograpy

Eastlake, Sir Charles Lock. Methods and Material’s of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters. (1847) reprinted New York: Dover Publications, 1960

Elliot, Virgil. Traditional Oil Painting. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2007

Palmer, Frederick. Encyclopaedia of Oil Painting Materials and Techniques. Cincinati, Ohio, North Light, 1984

Parkhurst, Daniel Burliegh. The Painter in Oil. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1898

Reprinted Dover Publications: New York, 2006

Ridolfi,Carlo. (1594-1658); The Life of Titian, translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter E. Bondanella, Penn State Press, 1996

Sheppard, Joseph. How to Paint Like the Old Masters.

New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1983

Speed, Harold. The Practice and Science of Oil Painting. London: Seeley, 1924. Reprinted as Oil Painting Techniques and Materials. New York: Dover Publications, 1987

The Reluctant Gardner

2009-03-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

Anemones, oil painting on panel, 8"x10"

The Reluctant Gardner

A personal note about this site: All of us have responsibilities if we are going to live in society, to it, to ourselves, to each other. We have to pay our bills, feed our families, think of the future and care for the ones we love. If you want to be an artist it becomes a difficult juggling act. That is what so many artists, that are struggling or frustrated say the problem is.

There may be a great deal of reality in that thought, but the real truth is that many artists are not connecting life with their art. They treat it like two separate entities and they attempt to move down two different roads hoping they arrive at the same point on the map by chance! However difficult it might be to balance work and life, you must develop a synergy.
The artist Lynton Lamb spoke of this problem with a most interesting parable.

“For serious artists, painting is a permanent attitude of mind. It is a scheme into which the general run of experience fits. However difficult it may be to reconcile work and life there remains a sense in which, as Saint Paul said, “all things work together.”
If painting is a relaxation quite separate from his ordinary living, it will not be strengthened by daily experience, it will be weakened by its contrary direction.
It will become something outside itself, to be maintained by visits: like a distant allotment garden into which he occasionally inserts an artificial flower.
Preparation for Painting, Lynton Lamb, 1954

What a wonderful analogy, if you’ve ever had a garden, you know that just a few days without tending and you have weeds. Neglect it long enough and instead of a ripe, bountiful, succulent harvest you have scrawny, tasteless nearly unrecognizable objects. We do the same thing with our art. No one has ever developed a skill without practicing it and none have mastered it without applying it to their lives. For this artist, at least for my art, I must tend the garden every day. Which means making choices that help me spend time with the work I have passion for and not letting physical obstacles stand in the way.

Besides, I’ve never judged an artist on the amount of money he or she spent on an easel. But I do when someone tells me they want to be an artist but don’t have the time or means, and drive a giant SUV, live in a McMansion, and eat at the best restaurants every night.
At times it seems that we have it backwards, we claim to be creative people, but do not apply that same imagination to other parts of our life. Often letting needs and wants of our daily existence dictate our artistic life. There are better choices based on what you want out of life.
I truly believe that anyone who has the desire and motivation to be an artist “can” be.
They may never hang work in the Louvre, but they can find a niche or an arena where they can produce a living. The pie is big enough for everyone who tries, without eating beanie weenies everyday. Is not that really our goal, to continue making art?

There are more ways today for an artist to reach their audience than ever before in history. If they can’t, that is just inertness. The market for competent, reasonably priced art is larger and more varied than any market since the first artist scratched an image on a cave wall. How does the painter approach this opportunity? First by producing work they believe in, and by selling that work at a price that will allow them to produce more work. Whatever that price may be, just don’t price yourself out of the market. Think of it this way, in millions of homes people spend thousands of dollars on the rug under their feet, the couch they sit on, the big screen television they watch, and on their wall have a thirty dollar picture?
Remember it is about synergy.

To be successful as an artist you need all the skills you can develop and the only way to achieve this is by working. Painting is not an abstract of the intellect but a part of life that needs mental and spiritual concentration. That synchronicity is my goal, the more I paint, the more I learn about painting, the more I see as an artist.

Linda and I will be planting another garden this spring. I look forward to the time we spend together, the things she teaches me and the fruits of our labors. We gain so much from it, produce you can’t get anywhere else and moments together that are priceless. As I see it, it’s just another creative answer to help keep me painting and certainly healthier.

Enjoy Jim.
Sold

Thanks for listening.

2010-12-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

Here we are at the end of another year, and I wanted to thank everyone for their support and interest. Many of you took the time to leave some thoughtful and challenging comments on my work; I can not tell you how much it is appreciated. If I did not respond directly to your comment I assure you that my lack of response was either circumstances or procrastination. Which ever case, be assured I value each and every comment, again my sincerest gratitude.

The goal with my blogs (Studio and Pochade) has been pretty simple. To attempt to publish at least one article on each site per month, with some type of content that may be of interest to artists or art patrons. I make no claims to great expertise but do profess a great desire to learn as much as I can about the nature and language of my craft, painting. And I know the most important pieces of information I have been given have come directly from conversations and exchanges with other artists that are kind and generous enough to share their skills and knowledge. I hope I can share the creative wealth and pass along, in some small way those gifts.

Happy Holidays and have a great New Years.
Jim

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Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Underpainting Techniques - Grisaille - Copper Pot

2010-11-17T16:27:00.000-08:00

Work in progress- (WIP)
Update on the copper pot painting demonstration grisaille, ("griz-eye")

Stages:
1.   Transfer the drawing and ink in the contour lines. I seal the drawing with a thin coat of umber and medium. (imprimatura) And allow it to dry for several days.
2.   Using my study in charcoal as reference and direct observation. I start the (grisaille) under painting. I model the forms in values with a mixture of raw umber- ultramarine - and flake white.
3.   The goal is to describe light and shadow, paying close attention to halftones, that area where shadow meets light.
4.   I finish the grisaille with passages of translucent mid tones to soften some of the transitions and allow the underpainting to dry for several days

Here is the finished grisaille before the color layer. It appears a bit darker I believe because the mid-tone glaze (velaturas) was not completely dry. That layer brings a soft focus to everything kind of as if in a fog.

This is a early shot of the beginning of the color stage. I'll post more on it as it develops.

I have been diligently photographing the painting stages as the work develops, so that the finale of this project will be a video tutorial of the entire process. I have gained a new appreciation for stop motion animation, and can not imagine how someone like Ray Harryhausen made hours of movies this way.

You can find more information on underpainting techniques by looking under "labels" in the side bar.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Prints Available

2010-10-31T10:44:00.000-07:00

I am currently offering two fine art reproductions.

“Woodland Phlox” in a limited edition Gicl'ee.

“The Reluctant Gardner” as a fine art reproduction on canvas.

Only available from my studio site. Just in time for the Holidays.
A creative and unique gift for all occasions.

Happy Holidays, Jim

For more information click the above Prints / Gicl'ee tab.

Underpainting Techniques, Demonstration Three, Wood Poppy

2009-10-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

The “wipe-out-method”, ( Bistre Method.) with the layered approach.

First Image: Click above image for larger view.

I start the image by covering the white canvas with an overall thinned mix of brown made from umbers, almost a sepia tone. I lift out areas to build lights, and add more brown for the darker tones. The lightest lights are the white of the canvas instead of white pigment. I begin simply stating the pattern of light and dark, and editing them by wiping out and adding pigment back in as I refine my underpainting. Once I have my basic structure and design stated, I can proceed with a number of methods. You can have underdrawings that range from summary sketches to highly finished compositions. I could continue refining the underpainting with more browns, or move to more opaque paints of white and grey (Grisaille) developing a full monochrome underpainting for later glazes. Or work directly on top of this with full color.
My intent is to incorporate a little of all these indirect painting methods in this image. But the majority of this image will be done in a layer method.

Second Image:

When working in the layered method, a great deal of alterations (color modification and redrawing) can be done throughout the painting, and uniquely, one can easily incorporate different effects with transparent, semi transparent (glazing and scumbling) as well as opaque paints.

I refine the background with more opaque paint, keeping the edges soft and atmospheric.
I will want to merge the bottle neck with the cast shadow on the wall, but need to state the areas around it, to give myself good references
I begin to thinly model the darkest areas of the bottle to help better judge the lighter translucent parts of the bottle. I restate the petals with flake white. I want them read as a solid surface and later to have some texture.

Third Image:

I concentrate on bringing as much finish to an area as I can, relating one area to another, working the image as a whole, looking for more accuracy in shapes and color notes.
In each layer I bring the image a little more into focus, reexamining and correcting problems as I zero in on the finish I want.
That may sound contradictory, but the goal is to accomplish as much as one can at each sitting and paint layer, yet bring the image together as a whole.
The Wood Poppy, I work-up with color and some thicker impasto strokes, the stem and leaves get a glaze of greens with some opaque highlights.

Finished Image: Wood Poppy - 8”x10” - Oil on panel.

I continue working the image with layers by bringing areas into fuller focus.
Keeping in mind lost and found edges, where do I want things to be a bit softer (blurred), and harder (sharper). The pedals get some heavy sculpted brush strokes, and the bottle receives some glazes to unify areas and soften others. I build up paint in the highlights with some impasto strokes.
I’m pretty happy with the piece at this point and I think I’ve answered most of the visual problems set before me and will probably consider it finish.
However I really like to set a work aside for several days and look at it with a fresh eye before it gets the finishing signature.

For a visual explanation of this process click the video below.

A couple of notes:

The layered method really requires the painting to dry between layers and sittings. So a fast dry medium works best, I used Maroger Painting Medium in this work. But there are many other medium choices, 1to-1to-5 of linseed, dammar and turps will work just fine. Just work thin to thick, lean to fat and when using mediums, less is more.

In all of these underpainting exercises I chose to use flowers in a small format. Keep in mind, if using perishable items such as these you will need a good drawing reference or a resource to replace the flower, lucky for me Linda’s passion for gardening is a endless resource. Also I am not attempting to produce floral for a botanist field guide, and I am just attempting color, shade and shape in the hopes of an illusion of reality with a spark of color.

Closing Thoughts, ... yes there is more … on technique, Titian and artist's today.

My original intent was to explore the technique of the Master Titian, his method of underpainting and building a painting. I have come to the realization that no single approach truly reflects this master, and that all the methods I have been exploring including this demonstration were employed and exploited to achieve his unique versatility. Titian certainly used the underpainting methods of the Flemish and Venetian schools, but also had approaches similar to that of the French Academic tradition.

He would work directly from life on the canvas, often described as attacking it with a brush. In his underpainting he would use tonal painting in warm earth tones, and use a scale of cool grays for flesh tones. Some areas such as the figure would be highly model into a grisaille, and others simply stated in umber. Painting on to it with a semi transparent paint “velatura” in a layered method, making revisions, with new layers and glazes, building textures and surface with “frottage”, sort of a dry brush of pigment over dried layers and finishing with high impasto for his highlights. Certainly very innovative in his painting approach, but keep in mind, Titian would live a long and productive life. Living to be nearly 90 years old, in some pretty inhospitable times, his life would span and compete with some of the greatest artists in world history. It must be comparable to being there when the first human invented the wheel. He was very inventive and fearless in his approach, seeming to have very little restrictions in his method, pulling from his tool box that which fit best to the problem and imagery at hand.

The artist Jose Parramon referred to Titian as the “founder of modern painting”. A statement I must agree with, for Titian certainly was testing the limits of his medium and thinking outside the box in some very revolutionary ways.
His mastery of techniques and procedures is definitely worth study, centuries of paintings and knowledge for us to copy and enjoy, the Master’s obvious gift to the world.
But it is not just the technical virtuosity we should emulate.
These artists were on a quest of discovery, to describe the mysteries and beauty of nature.
Through that inquisitive thinking, they made great contributions to our artistic vocabulary. They were not just practicing technical gymnastics, but deeply concentrating on the act of painting and the artistic dialogue with the principles of nature.
An Old Master such as Titian painted with intellect, curiosity, and passion.
.

This is what artists today need and must be imitating.

Explore – question – learn – enjoy
Jim

A quote by Titian, said while in his 70’s…………

“I think I am beginning to learn something about painting.” …. Titian

Misty Creek Video

2010-02-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

You can find more information on this painting here.

Charcoal Demonstration

2010-08-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

Video Copper Pot Study

This study is for the studio painting, Copper Pot.
I like to work out the preliminary drawing in line and value before the commitment to the painting. Searching out the composition and subtle relationships between forms, for me is the real key to any successful work. Even if that sketch is not a full finished image just simply a contour drawing, it is the ground work on which I like to work. In this image, the copper, shell and gourd tones and palette are so delicate that I decide to work out a full charcoal value study for this painting.
Charcoal is a wonderful medium, very painterly in its feel. It can produce very fine lines as well as tone, it produces a wide range of values very quickly, achieves very dark blacks, corrects easily when understood, can be very loose and spontaneous to detailed and controlled.

My drawing process is a very traditional approach, with small variations that are convenient to me. The materials I used are very basic and for the majority of the drawing they are, a sandpaper sharpening board, (used to shape the vine charcoal to a fine point), soft vine charcoal, blending stumps and tortillions, kneaded eraser, tissue or a small chamois cloth. Also, charcoal pencils 4B and 6B mainly for the block out and contour and Strathmore 300 series charcoal paper.

Plotting the drawing and blocking out.

To scale the drawing you need a measuring device, something you can move your thumb up and down and make visual measurements from quickly, for comparison. You can use a piece of charcoal or a brush handle works. I like chop sticks as they have a uniform thickness up to the point. In the rest of this demonstration I will be referring to this device as your “scale”.

After setting up the still life and establishing a viewing point (the spot you will use to make all your observation from), establish a vertical axis through the composition. Use a plump line or scale edge held at arms length. I placed mine at the edge of the bell shape of the teapot lid as reference. Along that line, plot the high points and low points of objects. Moving the thumb up and down its length to get the distance I want and make a tick mark with charcoal on the paper. Next establish some basic widths with the scale at arms length and mark the distance between points. Compare measure and develop a set of points you can use as constant reference, establishing one measurement that you compare the next measurement to and so on, growing a set of ratios. As you develop the drawing you will check your dimensions often. After plotting all your reference points block out the basic shapes with simple straight lines. Keeping it as uncomplicated as possible, keeping them simple makes it easier to rearrange them until you have their placement correct.

The Contour

With the image plotted and block out you have already established a rough contour of the composition. Refine the drawing by looking for the variations in and character of each line. Working each contour from simple to complex and rechecking their positions with your plotted points and landmarks. Continue refining and measuring against your scale. Continue checking vertical relationships, horizontal relationships, direction and angles using the ratios you have already establish. At this stage I have a very accurate line drawing based on relationships, actually drawing what I see, not what I think I see. For some this may seem some what mechanical, but as you work through a drawing this way it does become more conceptual and automatic.

I would say it took me more time to explain these steps in text than to actually do them.

Massing in – light and shade

To begin building values or modeling stage I tone the entire paper with charcoal. One can either use the side of a piece of soft charcoal or powder charcoal and level out the value with a chamois or tissue. Avoid using your fingertips, they can transfer oil to the paper and as you layer the charcoal cause areas that will not take more charcoal. Use a stump if you feel you need the control. As far as charcoal powder you can purchase it, however you will sharpen the charcoal sticks and pencils with the sanding board and create powder. I do my sharpening over a small tray made out of card stock and tape; dump the unused portion into a small jar and save it for the next piece.

In toning the paper I want a single value, about mid way on the value scale.
Every shape will be questioned by my scale (chopstick measurement) and its position related to the value scale. Ten being the lightest and zero the darkest.

Next I state the light pattern by lifting out with a kneaded eraser and suggest the shadow pattern with more charcoal. At this stage all of the drawing is covered with some value on which I can start analyzing values and comparing masses.

Develop the drawing thinking shape and value not line. Blend and soften the gradations of value. The kneaded eraser is great for this, roll it to a point and stipple and lift. Add more charcoal and blend with a stump. At this point all the passages become a add and subtract, back and forth approach of making minor adjustments.
Next model the halftones, those values related to the light family (those values where a form is in line with the source of light).
In a broad way you have already stated or massed these in but need to refine them.

We must take a long look at these values for they are often the most descriptive and most subtle. How fast or slow (long or short) they progress will depend on the object. Again return to our scale and judge these. I made a handful of passages over the drawing at this point working over the surface and adjusting the halftones in small veils of charcoal.

Next I made any contrast adjustments by looking at the dark family (those values where a form is not in line with the source of light). Again in a broad way you have already massed these in but just need to tweak them a bit. You might realize that at this phase almost all the information one needs to produce an image is in the simple analysis of form, objectively looking at masses and relating them to one another and that very little detail is really required to create form and dimension.

The final stage of the drawing is looking at the subtleties of our contour, those areas that are lost and found edges (hard or soft) being certain that they help describe the form. I look at the highlights which is the white of the paper and adjust it. I look at all the reflective lights and when I think they help describe the form I call the study complete.

You could certainly push this work further, continue refining and adjusting. But as far as a study for a work on canvas, I have a great resource and a better understanding to go foreword with. This process is a lot easier to complete than read about; I hope I’ve been able to describe it well enough. I produced a video of the process that for some maybe more instructive. Sorry about the poor audio quality on the video, visit The Avett Brothers site and click listen now to hear the great music by these artists.

Hope this has been of some interest, anyway, on to the painting.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Study for still life with Two Pears

2008-10-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

Charcoal, 14x16 – Study for Two Pears

This study is for a studio painting to be done in the indirect method. A traditional method of painting in transparent layers of color over a monochrome under painting.
It is my most preferred painting technique because of the illusion of three dimensional form it produces. But before I dedicate too much time to a canvas I will produce a sketch, to work out composition and design. Looking for simple shapes and patterns. Considering design elements such as, focal point, variety, unity and balance. A successful painting has an underlying structure. But at this stage I am not as much concerned about draftsmanship as natural organizing principles and if the image inspires me to move further with it. So the preliminary sketch is kept fairly simple, to the broadest forms
and patterns of light and dark. I will start with a quick contour sketch in graphite. And mass in large tones with soft vine charcoal, lifting out the lights with a kneaded eraser.
Not too much time committed here, but enough for me to decide if I want to develop this idea into an oil painting.

Grisaille, 24x30 – Still life with Two Pears

The under painting is done in values of grey, mixed from white, burnt umber and ultramarine blue. The canvas was covered with a mid tone grey and modeled with lighter and darker tones of that mixture. Since I have already decided on the structure and composition of this piece, I can focus my attention to the value relationship and draftsmanship I will need to convey the illusion of depth. Keeping the forms round and edges soft, and slightly out of focus. At this stage you can work in a vigorous and subtractive method; adding and removing paint as you move shapes around modeling light and shade. Fine tuning the structure and values, of the under painting. In the indirect method I have broke down the complicated production of a painting into smaller more manageable stages. And laid down a foundation, for the building transparent layers of colors. That will give the painting a rich resonate depth. And a true illusion of dimension and atmosphere.

One Pochade Box

2009-08-29T21:09:00.001-07:00

Since I first posted my, "How to build your own Pochade Box" instructions back in February on my other site Pochade Box Paintings,
I’ve had an amazing response from people all around the world.
That post is being read in 48 countries and has been translated into 28 languages. There has been an array of correspondences with artist on every continent.

But these are the first images I’ve seen of a Pochade Box built from these plans. This kit was built by Ruth Vines, a fine artist/graphic artist living in Florida, USA.
Ruth built a 10’ x 12” box with a Plexiglas palette.

Quote: " It was very easy to build, has more space than the small cigar box I have been using thus far (bought at ebay), and with the flatter mixing area I can finally do some knife painting. I put a piece of plexiglass in the mixing area, for easier cleanup".

Not only did Ruth do a beautiful job of making the Pochade kit, but she has already field tested it, producing some stunning work.
Check out Ruth’s work on her site.
http://www.krautart.blogspot.com/

Conquering the world, One Pochade Box at a time.
Enjoy, Jim.

Two Bulbs

2008-12-06T13:04:00.001-08:00

Two Bulbs

8x10

Oil on panel

I'm am always playing with lighting in the studio. Using different combinations, for shadows and balances. They are usually laying around so I figure I might as well paint them.
Again thanks for looking and all comments are welcomed.
Jim
This work is available. to purchase click here.