Here are a few postcards from the CrossCurrents regional fine art exhibit a few months back. This was before my recent shoulder surgery that made everything in general a little more complicated.
Here is a recent drawing I did from one of the many reference photos of busts and sculptures I shot on trips to the National Gallery in Washington D.C. This is Lorenzo De Medici (Magnifico).
I Used Generals 2B charcoal pencil on this crazy paper that looks like canvas, but feels like plastic. I got the paper at the ad agency I used to work for. It was on a pile of sample pieces of paper that a sales rep had dropped off years before. It was going to be thrown in the trash, so I salvaged it. Really tough to get a wide variety of values with it, but sometimes that can be good since all you need is three values for an effective drawing.
Sometime I will draw directly from sculptures while in a museum, but I always shoot reference anyway. When shooting reference like this in a museum, never get up close, and preferably don’t use your phone. The image gets skewed too much I feel. The right way to shoot sculpture busts is by doing what good portrait photographers do— stand back as far as you can and use a long zoom lens to bring your subject in close.
The lens I use is 210mm, but you don't need to be that far away. Another tip is to try to include something in the frame that you know to be true, like the edge of a wall or doorway to the next gallery. That way you have a plumb line of sorts to guide you when processing and straightening the image as needed before drawing it.
Lorenzo De Medici was loved by some, hated by many, and ruled late 14th century Florence like a mafioso at time when the city was losing influence to Rome. But dammit he kept bread prices low for the working class! His family home is now a police station, which is probably why our tour guide wouldn’t take us inside.
As promised, below are a couple progress shots of this little 5x7 painting I recently completed. The pic below shows pretty much my view of the subject as I sit at my easel. The surface for this is a hard, pre-primed board that I taped to a piece of black foam-core so I can paint the entire surface to the edges. What is behind that, is just an extra easel that I placed there to keep from getting blinded by my spot light hitting the subjects as I look at them. I didn't use a box for this set-up and my eye sight isn't great so I like to sit as close to the subject as possible when painting from life. This 5x7 board has been around my studio for years - Notice the lines of another still life which I never went forward with drawn under the paint. Centuries from now someone will x-ray the finished oil painting, notice that, and scholarly essays will be written about it... O.K. probably not!!
Below is the initial color block-in. I like dark rich backgrounds, so that old sheet in the setup became dark and rich. The pear is plastic, and I'm using that as my excuse for it looking more like a light bulb at this stage. The truth is, I am sadly out of practice drawing with my brush. I would much rather set down a loose but accurate pencil or charcoal under-drawing and go from there. I wanted to try something different this time and not do that. I would have loved to finish this piece in one sitting. I really respect painters who can do that. However, my working method over the years has been to go back, rework, and glaze certain parts that need tweaked.
Below is the final oil painting. Perhaps I will be happier with this result once I "oil out" the painting, which will make the sheen uniform across the entire surface. Basically that process consists of putting a bit of Winsor & Newton Painting Medium on a foam brush and quickly brushing it over the whole surface making sure it is all covered evenly.
Notice the odd looking areas of the background to the left of the cup handle, and to the right of the pear. Uneven application of painting medium when I was reworking those areas caused that. "Oiling it out" should fix that. Finally, in two to three months it should dry completely and be ready for my solo exhibit next October.
Of all the still life subjects I have collected at antique fairs over the years, this early 20th century French bust of Victory is one of my favorites.
Recently I lit it and rendered it in charcoal on a piece of tan canson paper. The base it sits on in the pic below is actually a marble lazy Susan and not part of the bust itself. I use that a lot when doing busts like this because its so easy to turn and sketch at different angles before starting on a final piece.
Here is the final piece that was inspired by some John Singer Sargent charcoal portraits I saw recently.
