Tree Stump of Platte Clove

I found that I really enjoyed making paintings of forest interiors during my stay in the Catskill Mountains. I was amazed at some of these trees that grew on the ledges and cliffs near the waterfalls. Their Roots seemed to grow wrap around anything it could to sink itself into position.

Burnt Umber Wash Drawing

With this painting I started as I often do with a Burnt Umber Wash Drawing. I threw on the basic gesture of the stump and worked on articulating the smaller roots later on. 

Shaping the Wash Drawing

I drew in the stump using two brushes and Mineral Spirits. One brush contained the oil paint to put on the panel and an other clean brush with mineral spirits to carve away wet paint and shape the drawing. 

Premixing Color

I did a great deal more premixing of my pigments in this painting. I made many different varieties of brown for the roots of the tree. I made mixtures of green/brown for the sun facing parts of the tree. Yellow/brown made up much of the lighter values of the stump. I noticed that as the roots entered the ground they abruptly became a warmer red/brown. As the shape of the roots rolled and turned into the shadows the browns became very much neutral. So to save my self time and extra labor premixing became very usefully.

Applying Color

I very thoughtfully and carefully applied my color choices paying much attention to the forms I encountered. In this painting I didn't want to have to come back and repaint any of the areas a second time. I had only one afternoon to work on this painting so what ever information I could gather had to be accurate. 

As I'm painting I am constantly checking and reworking my drawing. My goal was to capture as much of a likeness without driving myself completely crazy. The one thing I noticed about working on a painting piece by piece is that I had to constantly reel myself back from rushing to the next section. Patience is definitely the key to better painting. 

Painting the Ground floor

After Painting in much of the roots the stump seemed to be floating in air. I felt at this time it was a great opportunity to put in the ground floor. I started by applying a glaze of Burnt Umber and painting into it with various mixtures of Burnt umber, Burnt Siena, Yellow Ocher and White. After sections of the ground floor where completed I could then paint green foliage springing out of the earth.

The Final Study

I had added a neutral grey to bring out the forms of the stump. If I had another day with this painting I would had loved to paint in the entire scene. As a study for some foreground element in a larger studio painting this will suffice.

Elka Park Rock and Leaf study

Hey everyone I have more work to post from my time with the Hudson River Fellowship. This time I decided to make a rock and leaf study. I pretty much set up right in the middle of a creek for this painting. My easel was in the water and I stood perched on a rock hoping not to be too careless and take a surprise swim. I choose this spot because all day it was threatening to rain and close by there was a bridge to take shelter under. This painting was originally supposed to be a grisaille study in Burnt Umber. Later as I got into the work It seemed to make more sense to paint it in full color.

The Scene of the Rock

Burnt Umber Wash-Drawing

I started the painting with a rapid wash-in drawing in Burnt Umber. This allowed me to get the general composition and placement of the subject. To shape the forms I took a clean brush dipped in mineral spirits to pull away the paint from the panel.

Pulling the Shapes of the Leaves

Reinforcing the Drawing

After pulling out the general shapes of the leaves with Mineral Spirits I continued to rework the drawing.  More carefully I went back into the painting with the Burnt Umber trying to realize the correct shapes and forms of the leaves.

The Finished Under Painting

I worked the Under Painting to the point where I felt I had enough information to guide me in the over painting. If this was to be a  gallery painting and not a study I would have spent more time in the early stage perfecting the drawing and better interpreting the tonal relationships.  

Premixing 

I spent a little bit of time premixing some of the major notes of color I saw in the rock and leaves. I don't always do this but for this I really want to control may values from getting out of hand.

First Application of Color

I really didn't have a solid plan of action on starting the color. I figured I'd start in the darker values of the rock and then see where that would take me.

Further developing the Painting

As I worked I found my direction slowly developed the painting. By starting on one section and then working on the adjacent pieces the painting started to take shape. 

More Developments  

At this stage of the painting I am still not too interested in the small details. I really wanted to focus on the major tonal and color shifts that where taking place. Once I have constructed the body of the forms I can then lay the fuzzy moss and varying edges.

Toning Shadow Areas

Transparently I applied more Burnt Umber to the areas that appeared to be cast in Shadow. I would later paint directly into this glaze to achieve a smoother transition from Light to Shadow.

Finished Lay-in of the Rock

Painting More Moss 

Along with painting the moss I started to introduce darker values into the shadows. I again painted the shadows transparently but this time using a mixture of Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue Deep.

The Final Study

The Skull Demo

The Specimen

Hey Everyone, I wanted to take this time to post another painting demo base on how I paint red fabric. Countless times people asked how I did it, what colors that I used and what was my painting process. Well to start this is a technique that I learned while studying still life painting at The Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. After cast painting learning to render red cloth was our first task to tackle in still life.
The idea behind painting red is having a wide range of value  maintaining a high chroma throughout. That being said how does one lighten red without changing it to pink or orange? Any addition of white will not only make pink but lower the chroma. Orange can work well to lighten red only a couple of values while maintaining its chroma but not 100% convincing. The way in which I was taught was a type of glazing technique. In the nature of glazing, applying a thin and darker value over a light ground will with most colors retain and heighten it's chroma. So in this demo I will be using the lightest value ground I can think of, the white of the oil primed linen. The majority of the glazing will be done with transparent and semi-transparent reds.

sight-size set up

I started the drawing for this still life using the sight-size method. I find it the easiest way to check my proportions, angles and form relationships. I can simply flick my eyes back and forth to check for drawing errors and then change them just as fast as they are noticed. Instead of drawing with oil paint directly on the linen I opted to start  by using pencil on paper. I find I have more control over the composition of the painting before I transfer it onto the linen. Starting in this way is also beneficial in this painting in order to maintain the white of the ground. Any stain or residue of color on the white ground will detract from the luminosity of the future red glazes.

The skull transferred to linen

After I have transferred the finished drawing onto linen I can then start the underpainting. I carefully wash raw umber into the background and skull being mindful no to contaminate any of the areas that will be red.

The Raw Umber wash drawing.

When the Raw Umber wash was dried I toned the background and shadows with Ivory Black.

Wash drawing toned with black.

The next stage is what they called the first painting stage at the Angel Academy. This is the stage where all of my first guesses are made in establishing all the other colors and tones. This is the first time that I visit the red cloth area. I used Scarlet Red from Winsor and Newton for the first layer in rendering the cloth. I don't use any medium to apply the red, I just scrub it in with a bristle brush. The important thing to keep in mind is to apply leave a thin even layer.

First Painting Stage

I continue to rework the skull and background elements trying to resolve drawing errors. Because I was able to state in a general way the the colors and tones I'll be using I can start to render and bring to a finish the small forms. At this time I'd like to finish as much as I can to let the red I just applied to dry thoroughly. Each layer must be dry so that older layers do not lift.

Refinements of first-painting.

I used Cad. Red lt.,Cad Red med. and Alizarin Crimson to scrub over the dry bright red base. I started with Cad Red lt. first working from light to dark. My brush was almost dry so that I could incrementally darken the cloth with the most control and not over work any of the areas. For every darker value red I added I had to let the previous layer dry. The shadow areas of the red I used a Persian Red base and glazed with Alizarin Crimson and Ivory Black.

The final Product.

With a lot of time and patience you can arrive at an impressive affect that is difficult to achieve with Direct painting methods. I hope that I could answer some of the those technical question people have asked me over the years. If anyone has any other question feel free to leave a comment. Thank you very much.