Head Painting Finale

Jackie- Oil on linen; 9" x 12" by Greg Newbold

Just finished up finals for summer term and I thought I would post the study I did on the last day of class. Once again I was using the Anders Zorn palette. This one took about an hour and a half. Sorry for the sporadic nature of posts lately. Things have been pretty crazy around here, but I hope to get the blog back on track soon, and with a shiny new Mac!

Steven

Steven - 1.5 hour life study - 9"x12"; oil

Here is another head study I did for my head painting class. This one took a little over an hour and a half and once again used the Anders Zorn palette that I described in a previous post. I premixed a number of hues and values with the three color palette Focusing on the "secondary" colors and hues and then went at the painting very directly. This model was painted under natural light and the subtle warms and cools were an interesting challenge. There are things I wish I had time to refine such as the eyes, but this was a fun exercise.

Color Blocking Exercise

 

In my head painting class I had the students (and myself) undertake a color blocking exercise. The canvas was marked off in a grid of one inch squares. Rather than worry about the drawing of the head, the goal was to mix the average color and value for the zone that fell within each square of the grid. If you squint, you can see the face. I was surprised how much more I concentrated on creating the exact color and the painting took nearly as long as I usually spend on an actual head study. Once again the color palette was the Zorn palette of cad red light, yellow ochre, ivory black and white. This was definitely a hit as far as exercises go and several of the students have opted to do it on more than one day. If you have never done this, give it a shot.

Zorn Palette Exercise 2

Malaysia - Oil; 9" x 12" by Greg Newbold

A few posts back I talked a bit about the palette used by Anders Zorn. I explored this palette a bit more last week during class and was much more pleased with the result this time. I pushed the color further to see how much more range I could pull from the limited colors of Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Ivory Black and White. It was also interesting to practice painting a more ethnic model. I focused on  premixing my colors a little more and putting the paint down very directly. I spent about an hour on this study as I have about a dozen students I am helping during the three hour class block. Even given the time restraint, I am pretty pleased with the result. The range of color continues to surprise me and I am looking forward to playing around with this limited palette more in the future.

Zorn Palette Exercise

I am teaching a head painting class this summer and after about of week of monochrome exercises, we moved on to limited palette. I decided to introduce the students to the possibilities of color that Anders Zorn's limited palette.

 I have always been impressed with the color range Zorn was able to achieve with just two colors, Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Red, plus black and white. There is some discussion as to what were the exact colors on the palette (Vermillion or Cadmium Red for example) as well as if additional colors were used, but for the purpose of this exercise, I used just those four.

I mixed up a number of hues for the benefit of the class before we got started in order to demonstrate what is possible. Above is a Richard Schmid style grid palette that shows the range of color you can get with these four colors including a surprising greenish gray arrived at by mixing the yellow ochre and black.

I gave it a shot in class, never having used it before and enjoyed the process. Between helping the dozen or so students, I managed a little more than an hour on this one. I think I will push the clarity of color a little more in upcoming classes, but I really liked the subtle shades of green and violet that I got in the shadows.

Inventing Color from Black and White Reference

I did this as a demo for my Illustration 1 students to explain how I make the jump to a full color palette when working from black and white reference. I think this is a valuable exercise for any artist as it forces you to think outside of the box instead of relying on whatever colors are in your photo reference. This challenge was probably as beneficial for me as it was for the students. First, I found a photo that I had taken  at the Getty Museum of a Roman sculpture.

I liked the way the light played across the various planes of the head and the structure of his head was appealing. I knew that working from black and white would force me to think about the basics of color so I set a couple of parameters for myself. One was that I would consciously create a temperature shift from light to shadow and that regardless of the colors I chose, meaning that if the light source I defined was cool, I would paint the shadows warm and vice versa.  I would also maintain a strong value pattern from light to dark. Given these guidelines, I also wanted consciously chose colors that I do not normally work with, forcing myself to invent palettes out of my comfort zone.

The results were delightful and surprising. I found myself fully enjoying the experimentation and being excited by the way certain colors looked against others. Although in some respects the color palettes are not natural, I think they are all believable for the reasons I set as parameters from the beginning: the value patterns were maintained and the color temperature shifts from light to shadow. Each of these versions also has its own unique mood as well. This is an oversimplification of the concept of temperature shifts and they can often times be more subtle than what I did here. Creating color studies like these can be valuable in defining what you want to achieve in a particular piece. These head studies are 4" x 5.5" and I took about an hour and a half to paint each one.

Bill Perkins Workshop Day 1

I am off to day two of Bill Perkins painting workshop. Me and 20 of my closest friends (the room is pretty tight) are enjoying working with Bill Perkins (former Disney artist among other things) painting in oils from life and learning more about color theory and application.

Yesterday we produced five different studies from different lighting and color situation. I will post more on that later. All the studies are between 30 and 45 minutes so we really have to work quickly. Needless to say, I am not getting them to a finish level that I enjoy (yet), so they really are more color impressions for me.

Bill started us with black and white and kicked off the session by doing this study in 30 minutes. More to come later including thoughts from the notes I took.

Alexandra

Alexandra - 9" x 12" - Oil on canvas panel

Yesterday was the last day of my head painting class for summer term. I think all the students enjoyed the class, learned a lot, and made good progress. Here's one of the head studies I did a week or so ago toward the end of term. I like the neutral background and the slight tilt of the head. It is difficult to get different and interesting poses sometimes with the somewhat limited pool of models the school provides. We loved painting Alexandra because of her exotic latin looks. This study took about an hour and a half. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Joe

Joe - Oil on canvas 8" x 12"

Another study from my head painting class. This one was a lot of fun since Joe had a shaved head and the subtle shapes of the skull could be seen as well as the gray blue shade of the scalp where the hairline began. I become a bit more confident in my oil painting with each successive study.

Head Painting Progress

Matt - 12" x 16" - Oil on masonite - study

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am working with my head painting class to capture the head in oil within the given three hour block. It has been a challenge to get the whole head down on the board. I did get one last week that came together pretty well. It's not perfect proportionally (the ear position is off) and I wish I had another hour to polish it, but I like the fresh quality of the paint and the more confident brush strokes (I only spent about an hour and a half, so didn't have time for anything but!).

Strong Starts

Lisa - 12"x16" Oil on masonite study

John - 12"x16" oil on canvas panel study

Sherin - 12"x16" oil on masonite study

I am teaching Head Painting this semester at BYU and I am enjoying it a lot. I have had the pleasure of painting alongside the students as well as helping them improve their paintings. I usually get something started and so far have only been able to get the whole head knocked in a couple of times. I am trying what Morgan Weistling describes as the "inside out method". I start with the minimum if indication lines to map where the head will sit on the board and then pick a strong shape (usually an eye) and then work outward. I try to use the exact color, value and stroke shape to describe each feature and then measure each successive feature against the previous one. In this way I build the face. Between running the class and helping students, I have maybe an hour to an hour and a half to paint these, but I beleive it is valuable for the students to see someone work everyday in class. I haven't gotten fast enough yet to  make the pictures look much like a finished painting, but I am having a lot of fun and getting better. I'll post a more finished one later.