[Vera Coberley]

Looking at your Capistrano Canyon study, it seems that compositionally and rendering wise, you’re heading in the right direction – nothing to be embarrassed about! Looking at Payne’s work, there is quite a value contrast between foreground and background, which evokes atmospheric perspective, along with the background’s cooler, bluish hue (not just the shadows, but actually the lighted areas of the shrubs, as well). Value wise, your background isn’t quite that distinguished, and it still seems fairly yellowish-green (I know that photos don’t always show reality)

[Vera Coberley]

Just wanted to say ‘Hi’ and let you know that I’ve enjoyed reading your notes and looking at your paintings – many lovely works! I know it can feel unproductive when the results are not what you expect, but it’s all part of the learning experience – you are figuring out what doesn’t work.  Not sure what size of canvas you’re working with. I was just introduced to creating little 4″x6″ oil sketches (“quick studies”) based on photo references you pull up on your phone. The small format forces you to forego detail, and the effort is so minimal that you don’t feel that bad if things don’t quite work out. It’s a nice way to get exposed to a variety of landscape challenges.  If the photo is decent, you pick up on things like value composition, interesting color combinations, texture, etc. Anyway, keep up the good work, and I hope to see more of your landscapes soon!

[Vera Coberley]

Day 46 More portrait value block-ins. Stuck to pretty much 30 minutes with the first one. It turned out a bit dark. Grew frustrated with losing features after applying value masses, so I got a bit “fiddle-y” with the second one, but I’m not sure it’s much better. Paid too much attention to the dark side. I’m not doing too well with staying focused on the next most important feature!

 

 

[Vera Coberley]

I did one run through Ray Bustos’ anatomy course – you may find the classes on head and shoulders useful. There are also some lessons in the Russian drawing course that I plan to tackle at some point – the planes of the head (Asaro head), and the shoulder girdle. I also want to do some skull drawings and solidify my knowledge around that. But right now, I’m so excited about oil paints – it will all have to wait!

[Vera Coberley]

By constructive, I mean thinking about the underlying 3D shapes of the head – the front plane, side plane, eye sockets with eye spheres. Especially in the earlier classes of the Huston head drawing course, he basically puts in a light wireframe, as I recall, before fleshing out the details (but in later classes, he omits that step). This is similar to the beginning drawing classes you can find on NMA, where you lightly draw in all sides of the object, even the hidden ones, just to make sure “it all adds up”. In the Todorovich Grisaille class, we sketch in a little wireframe (long axis, eye sockets, etc), but then it all gets overlaid with a mass of paint – it’s more about “which major value shapes can you identify”? Construction (at least the implicit knowledge) comes back into play as you refine your value shapes to build volume. I think in general, lightly sketching in the long axis of the face and marking the major landmarks (brow ridge, lower eye socket, bottom of nose, lower lip, chin dip, chin …) is a good place to go. I keep reminding myself to start with the eyes, as I tend to render them askew, and it’s probably the first thing anyone would notice. That way, if I mess up too badly, I’m only a few minutes of effort in to the work 🙂

[Vera Coberley]

Nice work, good sense of proportions and subtle shading! The bottom right portraits seems to have just a little bit of distortion – the perspective of the mouth doesn’t quite seem to match the rest of the face, and my brain can’t quite figure out what’s going on in the transition space from right cheek to hair (the reverse C shape – it may be hair, but it doesn’t seem to connect to the rest of the hair). I’ve heard several artists state that when they draw or paint portraits, likeness is a minor consideration for them (unless when painting a commissioned portrait), so maybe don’t feel too bad about not meeting resemblance (and I did recognize the female model on the left right away).

I second Boris in trying the Todorovich class – I just started it. My portrait’s aren’t as developed as yours, and I’m still enjoying the class and learning a ton. Todorovich does not seem to follow a constructive approach – at least the Grisaille lesson is all about seeing value shapes. It’s nice to have some constructive tools in your belt to check the shapes, but it’s not a primary focus of the class.

[Vera Coberley]

Day 45 Doing 30 minute value block ins. Time flies.

[Vera Coberley]

Day 44 Portrait Draw-Along. Yeah, it’s flawed …

[Vera Coberley]

Claar, your post and painting inspired me to get back into this class! (I’d snuck a peek a few months ago, but back then I didn’t have any oil experience nor any portrait experience, and it seemed too intimidating). Such a fun and educational class indeed! So encouraging to hear that even painters with lots of experience aren’t sure about every brush stroke, and that mistakes can still happen and are part of the process

[Vera Coberley]

Day 43 Started the Todorovich portrait painting class. Practiced value scales in oil, plus some experimentations in paint handling. I seem to be able to see and achieve a finer gradation on the dark side compared to the light side.

Although I’ve come to “hate” (at least avoid) watercolors because of their unpredictability, I’ve come to appreciate moments of guided randomness when it comes to oil – the white paper shining through a transparent layer, or two colors mixing in streaky fashion under a brush or palette knife

[Vera Coberley]

Day 42 Some “Expanse” fan art

[Vera Coberley]

Day 41 Sktchy Portrait in Ballpoint. Very splotchy pen on very non-absorbent, smooth paper – lots of unintended smears and blobs. But freeing, as well.

[Vera Coberley]

Day 40 Done and submitted. This was definitely “above my pay grade”.  What went well: using Gamblin oil medium instead of plain Gamsol – paint stays wet longer, and makes it easier to correct strokes. Gaining some experience with painting wet on wet – when to scrape off, when to paint over, how to paint over. Mixed enough background color to allow me to touch up as needed. Happy with the values, both at the composition level as well as my ability to match the goal in color. What I need to work on: constructing forms in perspective (it’s easier to correct in graphite or charcoal). Mixing colors in terms of hue – I couldn’t quite hit the colors I was seeing, and I’m not sure I could mix the same color in subsequent efforts. Unfortunate tangents – I’d tried my best to avoid these in the actual composition, but they crept back in during implementation. I should note potential collisions going forward, and keep an eye out for it during painting.

The silver coffee filter gave me hell in all aspects – form, color, value. Oh well, I aimed high.

I plan to paint smaller studies going forward – one or two objects, limited palette, picking a particular area of study.

[Vera Coberley]

Wow, this turned out really nice! Great value control!

[Vera Coberley]

Thanks for the feedback, Taylor!

Day 39. Will it come together before tomorrow’s April submission deadline? There is a silver metal coffee filter in the front. I took a pass at it, but the color was all wrong, so I scrubbed it out. I really think I need to tackle it next …

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