Female Nude Study

Although I would love to study from the live nude. There is really no way to do this at home. So I'm using a reference photo and just trying to practice my modeling skills in gray scale. I realize that flesh tones are complicated and I'd like to try full color in the future, but for now this one will be in B&W.

Added more detail to the cloth wrap

Added detail to left hand and arm

Cloth and right hand detail

Pink Rose

The Pink Rose was my attempt at learning and experimenting with the classical Flemish method. I chose this pink rose because I thought it would be an easy way to start since there is basically on two main colors. I started with a pencil sketch and worked from a reference photo. I had lots of fun learning and doing this painting. 

Pencil sketch (8.5 x 11)

Burnt Umber Layer

I enlarged the 8.5 X 11 sketch on a photo copy machine to 16 X 20, traced the line work and transferred it to a canvas that was prepped with several coats of Gesso to an egg shell finish. I went over the graphite transfer lines on the canvas with a black ink. I no longer do this cause I think the black ink is just too heavy. I now just go over it again with pencil and pick up smudged graphite with a kneaded eraser. Next I lightly rub linseed oil over the whole canvas, which is called as oiling in. This will cause some of the graphite to smear but you should still be able to see the line work. The first layer of paint is a light coat of yellow ochre over the oiled canvas which will seal in the pencil work. Let this dry completely. The next layer of oil paint will be shading in the mid-tones with Burnt Umber only. 

Dead Layer

After the Burnt Umber layer is completely dry, begin the next layer by once again rubbing linseed oil on the canvas but this time only apply oil in the area you plan on working on. In this case, I did the rose in one sitting and oiled-in only that portion of the painting. Make sure not to use too much oil. Mop up any  excess oil with a make-up sponge, hands or remove some with a fan brush. Setup the pallet with a gray scale using Lamp Black and Titanium White. Use the Burnt Umber layer as your guide for modeling the dead layer. 

More dead layer work with the same process as above.

1st Color Layer

Oil-in the area you'll be working on and start in with the color. Don't worry about trying to achieve the final richness of color with the first layer of color. This is the nice thing about working in layers; you can always add another layer to get the deeper richer color. Make use of the dead layer in the same way the Burnt Umber layer was used to assist in modeling the dead layer.

2nd & 3rd Color Layers

 The rose has already received three color layers and I've added some final details like gain in the petals.  I still need to add some more color to the leaves but this it for now.

I added more color to the leaves and finished it with highlights. 

The Pink Rose is done!

16X20 Oil on Canvas

Apollo Cast Drawing

Here is my first cast drawing. This was a lot harder than copying from the flat. I attempted to use the sight size method but found that my cast was too small . In the end, I had to do my best and I scaled my drawing up as you can see in this first photo. Here are a few links for sight size method when you have good size cast:
Sight-Size Method by Ben Rathbone.

Here's my process...
1. I usually start with drawing a center vertical and horizontal line to help with measurements. I start by roughing out the form with straight lines on a lower quality paper in graphite. Straight lines like some of the first plates in the Bargue exercises. I like to use a low quality paper to make all my mistakes and make sure to get the proportions right. 

2. Second I'll start to smooth out the hard lines and put more detail defining as much line work as I can. Sometimes I'll block out shadows with graphite on the drawing to help me get a feel for shadow shapes. At this point keeping everything pretty light. Filling in some shadow might cause me to see something I missed and I can correct the line work.

3. Next, I trace the graphite sketch with tracing paper. Now I'm ready for the final piece and bring out the higher quality paper. I transfer all the line work from the trace to the high quality paper using graphite transfer paper and a red ball point pen. I use a colored pen so I'll know what I've gone over. Be carful with the transfer paper cause it can get graphite everywhere.

4. With a clean outline I can now start with charcoal. I usually start pretty light at first and lay in the charcoal a little at time. First block in mid tones then come in darker. I've tried vine charcoal but don't really care for it. Its too messy. I like to use general's charcoal pencils (form 2H ext hard to 6B ext soft), lots of blenders and kneaded erasers. 

Apollo Cast: Charcoal 18 X 20

Peppers

Peppers oil painting. I wanted to try and stay with some items that were simple in shape and color. Looking back on this I shouldn't have selected perishables. Of course I had to take photographs.
I don't have all the stages here but did take photos the basic stages.

1. The Burnt Umber under layer.

2. The "dead layer" is monochromatic and used to model the shadows without the complexity of color.

3. First color layer. I started to bring in the color slowly. 

4. Additional layers of color really brings it out.

11" X 13" Oil on Canvas

Marcus Brutus - Bargue Copy

Here is a Bargue copy of Marcus Brutus.

11" X 17" Charcoal

Sketch Book

Here is some sketch book work and a few Bargue copies. All these are done in graphite.

Bargue Copy Work

After reading from a few sites, I found that if I want to learn to render like the masters I should start from the flat and do some basic copy work and Charles Bargue was what everyone seemed to be using. I found the book and ordered it from Dahesh Museum of Art www.daheshmuseum.org. Its now available on Amazon and is an excellent book to start your copy work from. I highly recommend it!

I had never used charcoal before and I found the General's pencils to work the best from 2H (Ext Hard) to 6B (Ext Soft). Get some blenders and a few Kneaded erasers too. Vine charcoal, which although may allow you to get very rich darks, I found to be very messy. So if you do get some, use it sparingly. 

Here is a copy Plate 60 I did 2009. Looking at it now I can see plenty of errors. This is all part of the process. I started with plates 1 through 10 and then skipped around and copied what I thought was interesting.