Paint piles for each of the large shapes in your painting. Here's one take on the basic idea.instead of mixing each brushstrokeįirst 20 minutes of a 3-hour session carefully observing the model (or still-life, or landscape) and preparing The main benefits: it saves serious time and improves value/color accuracy and harmony. The practice of premixing has been around a long time, many artists do it in various ways. A simple, perhaps obvious, strategy.but worth a mention. Here are the table of contents and a few random pages from "Drawing Dynamic Hands":Īnother technique I tried at last Saturday open studio.premixing piles of paint. Hogarth published several other books on drawing which might also be worth a look.
Each page is loaded with well illustrated advice on how to infuse more gesture and energy into depictions of the hand. If you draw or paint people, you should consider getting this book.unless you're already a hand master. And I found a great book on the subject, "Drawing Dynamic Hands" by Burne Hogarth.Īmanda's hands, 17x14", charcoal, 20-minute sketches from life I am watching Rob Liberace's dvd "Anatomy: The Arm and Hand" (it's pretty good).
My daughter,Īmanda, has been hand-modeling for me (below). I'm working to improve my hand mastery in several ways. Hands are as expressive as the face, and they can make or break a whole piece. Requirement of any figurative artist to be able to draw and paint hands Paint them, and in the end they didn't look that great. Kirk's hands, 17x14", charcoal on Strathmore 400 paper I like the active/passive contrast they provide. Had and worked up some value studies to think through the anatomy and value changes (below). A small amount of extra room will fix that.Īt this stage, I also work through other suspected issues. The current cropping makes him look boxed in. I'm always a little surprised by how closely the final painting resembles it, so that comp needs to be right.įrom the framed color comp above, I see the need for more air around the subject. If something goes wrong on the big piece, test changes on the compįor all these good reasons, I take the extra time to paint the color comp.Use as a constant value/color reference during completion of the big piece.layering and area sequences, transparent areas, etc.) Get a peek at how the painting will look framed, that makes a huge difference.Finalize the composition, background, edges.Define the light patterns and color temperatures to produce convincing form.Work through the palette to be used in the.I use color comps for all the following reasons: Portrait of Kirk (color comp), 12x9", oil on linen I don't want to get bogged down in the big painting with problems I could have spotted in the color comp. More experienced artists skip this step, but I find it useful. Portrait of Kirk (underpainting), 18x24", oil on linen board That front arm/hand is still giving me trouble, so I'm working through it with some additional drawings. Not worried about the background at this point.
I picked out the lights with a rag, Q-tips (plain or dipped in OMS), and a kneaded eraser, and laid more paint in for the darks. Next, I laid down a mid-value stain of burnt umber diluted with OMS. Using a piece of tracing paper coated with graphite, I traced the image onto my canvas, reiterated the tracing with pencil, then applied a sealant. I enlarged my drawing of Kirk to the final size (18x24") using a photocopier. Here are a few examples of how other artists apply the ing the direct method: Nelson Shanks and Teresa ing the indirect method: Jacob Collins and David Gray.įor my portrait of Kirk, I used a burnt umber pick-out technique. And the color of the underpainting can lend a niceĬontrast to the final painting, where it peaks through as a warm layer I use the underpainting to transfer the drawing and value relationships grisaille, monochrome underpainting, burnt umber pick-out.much has been written about it, so I won't belabor the topic here, except to point you to what I consider a thorough discussion by Jan Blencowe, if you would like more details.