Academy of Realist Art Boston Portrait Painting Class

Hey everyone I wanted to announce that I will be Teaching again at The Academy of Realist Art Boston with the addition of a new class. Along with teaching the Portrait Drawing Class I will be teaching a Portrait Painting Class.

Classes Start The 14th of January:
Portrait Drawing from 10-1pm
Portrait Painting from 2-5pm
Click here to contact the Academy of Realist Art for information and enrollment.

In preparation of this course I decide to make a panel with the stages of a Portrait Painting. Granted there are as many ways to paint a portrait as there are artist painting them. So the goal of this demo was to paint a portrait in a systematic way of learning that could appeal to artist at all levels.

With any well done painting DRAWING is the most important aspect the will make sense of all of the Hue, Value, Chroma questions that one will come across as the painting progresses. In this class students will first be asked to make a linear construct or "cartoon" on paper before transferring it to canvas. Like they say,"well drawn is well painted."

Block-In

First off I like to start with a block-in of the head. In a general way I tick off the largest height and width and measure their relationships to each other. At this stage every line is an approximation that I will be willing to move or change at any time. I feel that one must start somewhere and if there is nothing on the paper there is nothing to correct. 

I personally spend a lot of time on this stage of the drawing. I constantly refine the tilts and examine proportions to create a convincing silhouette. As simple as it my look it is the bedrock of what I will be building my portrait.

Blocking in the Features 

After spending a considerable amount of time on the block-in I have enough information in place to work on the features of the face. Keeping in mind that the refinements of the initial block-in are not fully completed I can still proceed knowing that my majors tilts have all been addressed. Starting with finding the angle and orientation of the center line I can then start measuring the heights of the other features. I like to start with making a mark where the Eyebrow Ridge is considering it is made bone and not likely to move. My next Measurement is from the Brow Ridge to the bottom of the Nose. In addition I'm constantly double checking how the features relate to the exterior block-in making sure all the puzzle pieces fit together in harmony.

Once all of the features are discovered vertically I can then run a plumb line in the orientation of the center line to find the width of all of the features.

Articulated Block-In

Here above you can see that I have taken the block-in and articulated the construct to bring out the character of the sitter. I used the same approach in blocking in the shadows as I did with blocking in the head. In a general way I sketch in the shapes of the shadows later to be refined like the exterior construct. When establishing the terminator line or "bedbug line"of the shadow I try to conceive in my mind what planes shifts or underlying forms are producing certain light affects. I image how the light wraps around the forms and try to replicate that impression on my page.

Finished Cartoon

After articulating the shadows I toned them in to compare the shapes to the whole. Once satifiy with the drawing it is ready to transfer.

The Transferred Cartoon

A couple days prior I toned some linen with raw umber and mineral spirits. I wiped it down until I could lighten it to about a value 6. Once the tone was dry I then transferred my cartoon to it.

Raw Umber Wash Heightened with White

Compressing my values I washed in a semi-transparent tone for all of the shadows. In relation to the shadow tone the background was slightly darker so I mixed a value appropriate to it.  With Lead White I scrubbed in the light areas keeping in mind their relationship to the forms and planes. Any value residing in the half-tones I left the pre-tone of the linen. I then leave this wash drawing to dry before I apply the color

Controlled Palette  

So I mixed several strings of color I believed I might find in this portrait. The strings to the left consist of Van Dyck brown and White for my neutrals. Then I have a grey/green consisting of Van Dyck Brown and Golden Ocher. To the right of that I have a grey/red made from V.D.B. and Light Red. On the opposite side is a mixture of Golden Ocher, Light Red and V.D.B. Next is only G.O and L.R. and last is a mixture of only Light Red and White. From this seemingly dull palette of mixtures I'm able to get a surprisingly beautiful natural variety of colors. 

Planar / Ébauche 

I approach my Ébauche Thinking about the Planes of the Head. I start with the shadow and then move to the half-tones. When I imagine shape of the planes I mix a hue with the relative value to the plane adjacent to it. At this point I'm not concerned with blending or modeling the form. If the values are correct then sense of the form turning will happen as a result. 

Finished Planar / Ébauche 

At this time I'd like to talk a little bit about paint quality. The Ébauche is meant to be thin sketchy wash.   In this Stage I dilute the paint with a mixture of 1 part linseed oil and 3 parts turpentine. I typically dip my brush in my medium cup and then wipe the excess oil off the brush. The remnant oil on the brush is usually enough to thin the paint.

My reasoning for painting this thin washy layer is to establish in a quick way all the colors and there relationships to each other. One might be saying to themselves this seems quite laborious to paint with so many stages. But for an inexperienced painter all of these stages can help the artist develop a stronger structure in which to finish there painting.

Form painting

The Form Painting Stage is when I repaint the whole head piece by piece to a finish. For some reason I almost always start with the neck. I slowly and carefully crawl over the form modeling the area section at a time. It helps a lot to have the Ébauche underneath, it allows me to think more about the modeling and less about the color. I try not to rush and move on to another part until the original section is finished. Whenever I catch myself moving ahead I take a quick break to regroup then I continue with patience. Often times when I rush I find I end up creating more work for myself later on. A lot of mindless feathering of paint doesn't amount to much but mud. So out of countless mistakes I've to be a little bit more deliberate with my paint application.

Teaching at The ARA Boston

Portrait Drawing – Instructor Brian MacNeil Saturdays Oct. 1 – Nov. 19 cost $300

In a systematic way students will learn to accurately construct, draw and render a portrait from the live model. In the first half of the course students will concentrate on understanding the structure, forms and planes of the head. In order to bring out a likeness of the model careful attention will be paid to proportion and the anatomy of facial features. In the second half of the course students will learn to observe tonal relationships, compress these values and use them to render the form conceptually. Lectures and demonstrations will be given to assist the class in mastering the use and application of drawing materials. Individual attention will be given to each student helping them to progress at their own speed and level.

Contact The ARA for more information.

The Cliffs at Platte Clove

Hey everyone, I'm back posting after a long break. Since my last solo show at the Royal Gallery I have been trying to improve my work by more studying and experimenting with new processes. Recently I have been taking a figure painting class at the Academy of Realist Art in Boston. They have a great atmosphere there and wonderful instructors. I will eventually post my male figure from there once I finish the back ground.

Besides my work at the ARA I have spent the last month in the Catskill Mountains drawing and painting with the Hudson River Fellowship. We have entered into a pretty rigorous daily work schedule of waking up at quarter to 6 a.m. and painting till sunset, along with painting the sunset. I have numerous drawings and painting to show you all but I'll post them at a later time.

The Cliffs at Platte Clove is one of the first paintings I completed on this trip. The Painting was done on a masonite panel I prepared at home and painted on location in two days.

My View of the Cliff

I started the painting blocking in the drawing with a half and half mixture of Burnt Umber and Burnt Siena. For the most part I worked the paint into panel with a dry brush and for the washes I mix the paint   with a little mineral spirits from my brush cleaner.

My Underpainting in Umber

I took a quick break to let the under painting set up am dry before I started to paint over it in color.

First lay-in of the Background

The background was laid-in with a mixture of Cobalt Blue and Naples Yellow to achieve an atmospheric base to work into later once my foreground subjects have been addressed. This was a fairly thin layer of paint so that bits of warmth could show throw and create some more interest to the eye.

Lay-in of the Foreground

At this point I would like to note that from the time I started the drawing to lay-in of the foreground the lighting had changed drastically. Essentially I started drawing in over cast conditions and now I'm noticing patterns of dappled light dancing all around the rocks. I'm realizing at this moment that these are experiences I would have missed if I where to just snap a photo and go along on my way. Because of these new influences on my subject I have to start making decision on what will be in the painting.

Modeling the forms of the Lay-in

At this point in the painting I decide to call it a day and pack it in till tomorrow. I have noticed and observed many changes throughout the day and I prepare to capture them when the come back around in day 2 of the painting. One thing I noticed was the reflected light was very warm in the morning and as the sun pasted over head the green of the moss bounded right into the shadows cooling them down considerably. Also my once cool atmospheric background became bright yellow towards the end of the day. All this and more to consider when I return to finish this painting.

Start of the Second Day

After sleeping on the ideas I came to the conclusion that I like the scene at mid-day. At this time of day there was still the background I like and I could have the best of both world with a little green reflected light creeping into my warm shadows. 

Modeling Moss

After laying down a base color of the rock I could next add the darker bits of moss growing from and around the cracks of the stone.

Light on the Tree

There was a moment where light was hitting the tree just right. I decided to stop what I was doing and paint the light effect While I had the chance.

Painting the Foliage

With a tiny brush I painted each leaf one stroke at a time paying close attention to the shape, character and direction hoping to ad life and motion to the rather still scene. Along with painting the foliage I started bouncing around the painting trying to refine and finish what I could.

The Final Shot

Thank you for visiting and stay posted for more work from my time at the Hudson River Fellowship.