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11-20-2005, 07:37 PM
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#1
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BOARD ADVISOR
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Whitaker head painting demonstration
During my recent workshop at the Scottsdale Artists’ School, I did a head painting demonstration, working on it a couple of hours each day. By the end of the week, some parts of it were half finished. My style has evolved toward a very high degree of finish detail, which takes a long time.
I could just as easily have begun drawing with a stick of compressed charcoal. More often though I start with a brush as I did here, using a #8 filbert and Gamblin’s Asphaltum brown. I thinned the paint throughout with Graham’s Walnut/Alkyd painting medium. It’s just about as sensitive as Maroger medium. Practically the entire painting was done with hogs bristle filbert brushes, usually numbers 2,4,6, and 8. The bigger the brush, the better.
My wife Sandra took these photos and the first four show Monday’s progress. Here I’ve just started.
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11-20-2005, 07:38 PM
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#2
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BOARD ADVISOR
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The support is an 18x14” Claessens 13 double prime canvas panel made by New Traditions. I toned the surface with a wash of Mars black mixed with both turpentine and Galkyd resin. I lectured as I worked, which slowed me down just a little. Paint consistency is very important. It mustn’t be too stiff or too runny. I use a drybrush technique at this stage for control and also to allow the weave of the canvas to do interesting stuff as it comes through the paint. Most of the techniques employed just take patience and lots of practice to master. However, playing with brush and colors is fun. Do a lot of painting and your paint manipulation naturally gets better.
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11-20-2005, 07:40 PM
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#3
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BOARD ADVISOR
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I pulled my strokes with a light touch, usually turning the filbert on its side to get a thin line. Using more pressure, I scrubbed in some shadow masses. The paint load on the brush is still fairly dry, the brush pressure and scrubbing doing the work of making an even tone. The fun part is painting. The hard part is looking. The idea is to get the angles correct and the line segments the right length. It’s fairly easy, but in practice I find myself getting tired quickly and thus stop looking carefully at the model. That’s when I get in trouble. That’s when we all get in trouble!
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11-20-2005, 07:41 PM
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#4
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BOARD ADVISOR
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Figuring that the class might need an extra day correcting their basic drawing and knowing that their paint would be too dry to wipe off at the beginning of their second day, I ended the session by showing them how to correct form over their drybrush drawing using darks, a mid-tone color (in this case a near-flesh) and a light. Paint is user friendly. We can always cover and thereby correct our mistakes.
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11-20-2005, 07:44 PM
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#5
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BOARD ADVISOR
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Tuesday morning I began using color. I always try and get a feel of how a color segment leans – warm or cool -- and then patch it on using a light touch. I try and avoid blending, since it usually subdues color down and takes the life out of the work. I try and make the colors just a little stronger knowing that subsequent layers of paint can tone them down. Besides, a stronger start is better than a weaker one. If I start weak, I end even weaker. We have to justify our existence by painting portraits that are better than photos, more lively than photos.
This shot shows the painting at the end of the session.
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11-20-2005, 07:46 PM
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#6
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BOARD ADVISOR
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The painting was dry Wednesday morning, thanks to the use of Raw Umber paint (a quick dryer) and the quick drying Graham walnut/alkyd medium. I continued to add patches of color, building shape and correcting form. My paint application is rich, but relatively thin. It is easier to blend if your wet paint isn’t too thick. I’m beginning to pay closer attention to correct values now too. All this paint-over-paint creates excitement and visual presence on the canvas.
The dark stripe at the top is a shadow cast by the easel clamp.
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11-20-2005, 07:46 PM
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#7
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BOARD ADVISOR
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Thursday I stopped to look at the model. I was chagrinned to see that the ear was in the wrong place, too big too high and the wrong shape. If I listened to my own advice, I’d make sure of structural details before I have to spend extra time moving an entire painted ear!
The work began to go forward much more slowly. Seeing me paint now is about as exciting as watching grass grow. I began to pay attention to smaller forms, eyes, nose, mouth.
A student had to go home early and wanted to see how I laid in a background, so I did a background demo on the left side of the canvas.
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11-20-2005, 07:47 PM
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#8
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BOARD ADVISOR
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Friday was my last day. I worked a bit longer than usual while some folks watched and some worked on their own paintings. This is the way the canvas looked when I took it home. The head is somewhat over 75% life size – a favorite size for me. I was well into fine-tuning the eyes, nose and mouth. I’d begun to do preliminary work on the hair. The basic shape of the new ear was laid in.
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11-20-2005, 07:48 PM
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#9
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BOARD ADVISOR
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This is how it remains. The face is about 50% finished, the ear and hair about 20% along. It takes me around 16-24 hours to paint a head like this and bring it up to my current standard. I used to be a loose painter and got a lot more work done. I don’t know what happened. Art leads us down interesting pathways.
Like many other things I do, I will not finish this. The model stays in Scottsdale, I go back to Utah. After working from life, it would be drudgery to work from a photo – which I didn’t take anyway.
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11-20-2005, 07:49 PM
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#10
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BOARD ADVISOR
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Those of us who paint look at pictures differently than ordinary viewers. We like to get our noses up close to see brushwork and textures. That’s why I’m including this shot. I work my paintings from very loose to pretty tight. The challenge comes in building finished form without destroying life. They always remain as loose as possible – even if they are loose on a very tiny scale. The eye delights in knitting form together. My brushstrokes never entirely disappear.
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