Exercise for this week was to do an underpainting using burnt sienna, raw umber and titanium white. So a warm, a cool and a cool white. This mastercopy will be covered over with the Zorn palette next week, but I was amazed at the variety of color that I got out of such a simple palette; it could almost pass as a full figure painting. The initial painting was done with burnt sienna and raw umber and no white.
My friend asked me how we got the initial outline drawing. I wanted to scale my figure up so I drew directly onto the canvas and then inked it with a thin sharpie, but we've also done direct transfers to get the outlines. I've had trouble with transfers (not from a moral point of view) but because the proportions seem to be clunky and always a little off despite the fact that it's a direct transfer. Our teacher for these last two weeks is Mitchell Price who, like all the teachers, has been fantastic. He's very intelligent, knows anatomy like the back of his hand and has a real gift for teaching the process in a manageable way.
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This semester of grad school is going by very quickly and I'm really learning a ton of information. We're working with the live figure this year and doing some mastercopies as well. Below is a gallery of a few of the drawings that I've been working on; the first two are life drawings and the next two images are of a Prud'hon mastercopy. The mastercopy has been very challenging and is teaching me a lot.
I'm very grateful that this MA in Studio Arts program exists because I'm learning techniques and skills that I've dreamed about for a very long time. We're going back to the MET tomorrow and I'm excited to start painting in the next few weeks. I'm getting back into the swing of school again and have been working hard. We're working with figures/portraits this year and I'm very excited about it. We also have to come up with an independent study (thesis) proposal which I'm also currently working on. We're also going to the MET tomorrow with Juliette Aristides to look at some master drawings and the Winslow Homer exhibit.
If anyone out there is looking for a masters degree program and also is seeking a true academic/atelier training then you should check out the Florence Academy's program. I'm really pleased with the whole program so far and they're some great new additions to the teaching staff: including Gregory Mortenson, Mario Robinson, amongst many others. I'm pretty excited to start reading two new books that I just got. One of them is probably familiar to most painters: Oil Painting Techniques and Materials by Harold Speed, but the other one may be less familiar: Inspired by Light by Ken Howard. I'm going to start reading these tonight and will share my thoughts in a later post.
I recently discovered the work of Ken Howard and was interested in a book about his technique so I searched and found this one. When I purchased it, I wasn't sure if the book contained "technical" information about his process, materials, etc. but I'm happy to say that this book contains the technical information that I was seeking. There's sections on drawing, watercolor and oil painting. It feels similar to Everett Raymond Kinstler's, Painting Portraits and his other book, Painting Faces, Figures and Landscapes, both of which I enjoyed. I'm happy to grow my library with these two additions and I can't wait to dive into them. |
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