Andrew Loomis Portrait Studies

Copy of Andrew Loomis Portrait Study

4" x 2"

I have some more small paintings to post but I first would like to spend some time on portrait studies. It is important to constantly study how different painters handle color, value and shape handling. James Gurney mentions in his amazingly informative blog the necessity to copy other artists to truly understand the way that artist's method. The study above is from Andrew Loomis's "Creative Illustration". He has a page of four portraits with different tones, colors, hues and the skin's effect with each palette.

I made a black and white photo copy of Loomis's four small portraits on one letter size sheet. I matt mediumed it. Then tried to copy the colors and tones he was using. This is the second one I did. I found the reflective light to be the most exciting part of the painting. Afterwards I found another image of the portraits online (the link above) and see a different color combo that has much more depth. That's what I get for using a bad color photo copy for my reference!

Blueberry Tart

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Oil on Illustration Board

This was a dessert I bought from a South Philly bakery that was topped with blueberries, stuffed with pastry cream and dusted with powered sugar. The main goal was to quickly represent the temperature of the blueberries and build up the structure enough to show preliminary steps for alla prima painting.

Abandoning my normal use of a little Liquin or Galkyd I used a homemade mixture of Liquin, Turp and Linseed Oil. The washiness of it is not normally how I prefer to lay down initial paint but I thought the use of a thinner medium was a valuable lesson to impress upon the class, especially for those students who prefer a transparent representation.

The Fancy Strawberry Man

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Oil on Masonite

I used this as a demo on alla prima painting desserts. It happened to be after Valentines day so the local bakery had all sorts of fancy looking strawberries. I usually go for the cannolis myself but I couldn't resist the "cuteness" of it.

Origami

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Oil Paint on Cold Press Illustration Board

This was a study on angles and light. I found this origami in the prop closet and decided to give it a chance. It was pretty fun to do. I'm trying to score some more so I can play around with some more angles and patterns.

This painting is also listed in Etsy's Art>Painting gallery for today only. Check out my shop for more updates.

March Madness! It's Small Painting Month!

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Oil on Masonite

So Philadelphia got over three feet of snow this winter....whatever. It just makes me appreciate the first flower of spring so much more.

Spring is also the time when I get to introduce students to oil paint. I have been working digitally for so long that going back to the basics gets me giddy. I have so much fun on the demos I do. As you saw in February I had introduced eggs as a beginning. Well now we get into other items like, paper, fabric, portraits and food. Enjoy.

Not Just a Donut....

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Oil Paint on Masonite

It's not just a donut....it's a Dunkin' Donut. Toasted Coconut to be exact. This was a small alla prima demo I did. Illustrators usually have a mess of preliminary work to do from thumbnails to sketches to revisions to color comps to finals to reproduction and sometimes to design layout.

It isn't very often that we get a chance to work alla prima. It's fun to play with paint for an hour or two while studying light and form on objects. It's especially fun when you can eat it later. My favorite part of working this way is the free nature of the product. If the painting doesn't work out....who cares? It didn't take that long. Move on....

Egg Month! Ow....My eyes.

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Oil on Illustration Board

What's in that paintbox? Every once in a while I will acquire a new color that I rarely use. In this case I found a tube of Cadmium Orange and decided to take out for a demo.

The magic of compliments. Adding blue to orange turned the shadows green. Using a bright saturated color keeps one in practice of the age old theory that opposites really do attract.

This will be the last of the egg paintings. Not to worry. More fun little studies to come.

Egg Month! Complimentary colors within white

Oil on Illustration Board

In honor of my snow day (Philadelphia's snowiest winter in history....75 inches and more to come) today I am going to spend some time talking about white. It's clean and simple...well it's simple until you try to paint it. It does make sense after doing it a few times, like everything, it just takes practice.

It's rather easy if you don't think too much about it. White takes on the color of it's surroundings. A white egg on a purple background will have a lot of purple and a warm compliment of purple. A sunset landscape will take on the color of the sun and it's compliment. I have a few links that shows some artist's use of white. Take a gander and really look to see how they work with it. Michael Whelan Greg Manchess Andrew Wyeth

Egg Month! You Failed!

Both are acrylic on gessoed water color paper

Some days are better than others. Some paintings are stronger than others. Some days I wish I would have went to veterinary school. Some call it writers block others call it a creative stint. I call it bored and antsy. At this point I painted my fair share of eggs and wanted to try a fun color. The green was working but I got bored and wanted to peek around at the students work which was coming out better than mine.

Lesson to be learned. Don't fall in love with your paintings and never expect a masterpiece from a study. Underpainting was cool. Overpainting....not so much. Failed.

Egg Month! Warning: This is not an egg

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Oil on Masonite

This was a quick demo on reflective surfaces and glazing. After drying I coated it with galkyd. Alot of times when painting in oils the paint dries dull. Varnishing will bring life back into the colors.

Egg Month! Light Source and Illumination

Oil on Masonite

Using a light source is detrimental to a painting. Having a specific light evident can create volume to the human eye. If you aim a light onto your subject you will see the highlight, mid-tones and shadows more clearly. If the subject is white or light against a dark background it is possible to achieve a glowing illumination. This illumination will also expose the temperature which stimulates the eye and tricks it into seeing a two dimensional object as a three dimensional object.

Some examples of this technique outside the egg are as follows.... Michael Deas's - Paramount Mark Ryden's - Ghost Girl Kinuko Craft's - Scent of Magic Donato Giancola's - Lady of Shalott

Egg Month! Underpainting and Overpainting

Acrylic Underpainting (Bottom)

Oil Overpainting (Top) on Illustration Board

Question: Why do an underpainting if I'm going to cover it with color anyway?

Underpainting is beneficial to do for several reasons:

1. All value and drawing problems can be figured out in this monochromatic stage.

2. When overpainting you concentrate on the color and temperature not the value. To match the overpainting color squint at your underpainting and chosen color and you will see the value relationship. This I learned from the esteemed Professor McGovern at Uarts.

3. Underpainting can be done in acrylic to assist in fast deadlines.

4. Underpainting can show through to assist in color and temperature.

Under-paintings can be any color. If your key color is going to be red try a green underpainting. That green can show through in the shadows to create a complimentary temperature change. If your unsure burnt umber is always a good bet. It can take on a cool or warm tone depending on the overpainting color.

February is Egg month!!

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Acrylic and Oil on Illustration board

They're incredible. They're edible. They're really great to teach smooth tone transitions and painting techniques with.

Every spring I teach a pictorial fundamental course which introduces oil paints to sophomore illustration majors. The main focuses are composition, lighting, mood, color, value and handling a paint brush. The egg offers a perfect matt finish that absorbs and bounces light while reflecting and collecting environmental colors.

This guy was sitting on a blue paper. I under-painted it in acrylic burnt umber and overpainted it in oils using scumbling and glazing.

In these small exercises I teach different gessoing techniques as well as acrylic and oil under and over painting. So this week will be dedicated to some of the egg studies and little tidbits on working with eggs.

Someday I'll do a Faberge egg. I just know it!!

U is for Underdog

Graphite on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

As a child one of my favorite cartoon characters was Underdog. He is a canine caped superhero who has a girlfriend named Polly Purebred. This is a drawing of my trusty sidekick Roscoe...attitude and all.

Q is for Q-bert

Graphite on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

He's tentacley. He's cute. He has duck feet. What else could you possibly want from a baby monster?

This was inspired by tor.com's month of Lovecraft which celebrated sci-fi/fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft's novels. Irene Gallo, art director from Tor, hosted a blog challenge for artists' renditions featuring some of Lovecrafts characters.

I wanted to name him Henry....but H was already used in my alphabet. So I named him Q-bert after one of my favorite Atari games. Ah, Atari. How I miss the simple one orange button.

The next alphabet entry will feature the infamous Roscoe P Coltrain as a model. Stay tuned.