Timed Life Painting
Human Proportions, new window
  7-1-11, I switched to oil paints, oiled down the canvas and drew with the brush. It was fine but there was too much oil down and I couldn't erase correctly with the brush. I don't want to use turpentine to erase after having oiled-down, it should be done with oil and that blurred. This first one was done with burnt sienna, next I have to figure out a palette for opaque pigments.
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I think I have the opaque colors correct and set up on my palette now. Permalba white is at the bottom. Top left to right: Permanent Pigment cad red, Blockx Venetian red, Rembrandt nickel titan yellow light, Mussini burnt Sienna, Blockx French ult. blue light. That's my opaque five color portraid palette. I don't have to clean my brush unless I have blue in the mixed color, I can go from one color to the other. It's very fast, I draw with the middle tone and add the highlights and shadows. I'm thinking about using a pre-mixed middle tone and changing it for the personal skin tone and lighting. Three other colors are needed for a full color painting, the transparent primaries but there not on the palette yet. |
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3 minute and 10 minute pose
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75 Minute Pose.
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I'm trying to get my colors down to a minimum and still be able to paint fast. Warm red oxide tints to a warm red with more yellow in it than cad red tints to. Red oxide and ult. blue make a brown and a warm or cool dark. Cadmium Red and ult. blue will mix neutral grays and darks but not brown. Nickel Titanium Light is close to the lightest Original Naples Yellow Light that the Italian portrat painters used to use. This light antimony color is still available in Italy but only the darker versions are available on the world market. Burnt Sienna tints to a warm with more yellow in it than cadmium red will make. Burnt Sienna mixed with blue will make a very good brown or black. So it's five colors I want to work with. My friend Craig who has been doing this for a long time uses cad. red, yellow ocher, burnt Sienna, ult. blue and black. The head oval: The eyes are in the center top to bottom, five eyes wide, the bottom of the nose is 2/3 down from the top. The pupils and the space between the lips which is the bottom center of the top teeth makes a perfect triangle. Yesterday was 8-12-11 and I started a mirror self portrait and took a picture. It's painted using a six color palette.
8-13-11, Day 1, today I made my palette smaller, Cadmium Red MedLight, Red Oxide and Indian Yellow orange side, I dropped the Nickel Titanium Light because I can make it. I also dropped the flesh color because I can make it. I'm considering dropping Bt. Sienna also because I can make it. Plus ultramarine blue. The blue and red can make a dark neutral or anywhere between. Blue and trans. yellow will make a green, transparent yellow, red oxide and blue will make the Bt. Sienna hue but it's not translucent. Brown can be made with red oxide and blue or burnt Sienna and blue. The warm flesh color is Cad Red and Transparent Indian yellow with white. That's it, 5 colors. I cant' make magenta, cyan or a bright green but it works for portraits. I put the painting, paints and brushes in the freezer so they won't dry overnight. 8-17-11 Day 2, I used some magenta today, I needed it, the cool florescent lights remove the yellow in the ambient light. Tomorrow I'll paint without red since I can mix that color too. I put some Indian Yellow brown side on the palette before sticking it in the freezer tonight. The painting will be left out to dry normally. The next morning I tried out the yellow brown side transparent as a glaze which remove the red and pink, it adds such a verity of color in the same basic hue maybe I'll keep it. From the balance point, between the two protrusions of the clavicles on the chest comes two ligaments that span from the clavicles to behind each ear. The clavicles move with the chest while the ear connections rotate with the head, streaching one and relaxing the other. Between the clavicles is the deepest recession pit of the neck that is also stationary with the clavicles. The man's adams apple is above the deep neck pit and remains stationary while the head rotates on the backbone part of the neck. I made corrections on the dry painting with carbon, a charcoal willow stick starting with the center line and eye line. Photographed it. I can remove the line with water or add it to the pigment I'm painting in oil with or just add oil. Big changes in the face but I like them. The mirror's distance away from you and the mirror distance to the painting, and you to the painting, yikkes. Just don't move anything after you start. 8-24-11, Again I think I have the palette, TopLeft = red, red oxide, TransYellowOrg/s, btSienna, Bottom Left = magenta, transYellowBr/s, Nickel Azo Lemon, cyan. This time I really have it, These 7 colors can paint anything including fast portraits. This painting was done with all 7 colors. There are other options, paint it with red, blue and white and than add a transparent burnt Sienna glaze to add yellow warmth. Or paint it with Burnt Sienna and blue which will give a Sienna tint, warm browns, neutral blacks. While it is short on magenta and red I can glaze it with red or red oxide which have more yellow in it so it will mix more browns.
 The face above was painted with white, red oxide and ultramarine blue, acrylic, 2007. The bust below is with my portrait palette, 9-4-11. 1. Cad Red Light, 2. Blockx Venetian Red, 3. O.H. Brilliant Yellow-Reddish (warm middle flesh tint), 4. O.H. Transparent Indian Yellow Org/side, 5. mixed cool middle flesh tint, 6. Mussini Burnt Sienna, 7. Mussini Ultramarine Blue Deep. This is really five colors, the sixth color (warm flesh is easily mixed but I have it in a tube.) I can add these pigments to the 3 transparent primary colors which will paint a full color painting including a portrait, but this portrait palette is much faster. I find a good middle tone by mixing Venetian Red and Bt. Sienna. This makes the dark, middle and light colors of a portrait. The tones of this painting are with those mixtures, except for the cool highlights which have added blue and the areas pushed redder. There are also areas where the transparent yellow as a glaze were handy. This is the palette, 5x7 glass with paper taped under it. You can see the mixed warm middle tone and the tubed warm middle tone, they are very simular. At the middle left of the palette is the cool middle tone. At the bottom I have the 3 transparent primaries, including the transparent yellow brown side that makes the brightest yellow. I really didn't need this color for the portrait.  I should spend some more time on this picture, it's still very rough. It's dry now 9-25-11, I'm working on my Angel painting now, I just spent a week studying bird wings. My Portraits here, new window. 
   Katherine posing for two hours, non-stop. That's why I like college models, they're like the Energizer Bunny. That foreshortened leg was a bear. I think I have it down to 5 colors, Cad Red, Red Oxide, Transparent yellow, Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue. Maybe Magenta and Cyan if I want a full color background.  |
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