Sterling Boat: Session 9

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress

oil on panel

See the previous post about this painting here

Today was another 4-hour session and I worked mainly on the spout, handle, and top edge of the pitcher. I managed to take a better photo and so I replaced the photo in yesterday's post too so the color is easier to see. (I didn't send out notifications about yesterday's post because the photo was so bad, so if you are just seeing it today that's why).

In yesterday's post I mentioned "value bracketing" and got a lot of questions about that.

What I mean by value bracketing is taking the time in the first stages of a drawing or painting to block in the value range of each particular area, and then as the drawing progresses, to stay within that initial value range without fail. Some artists assign numbers to values and codes to color, to identify a range and remember to paint or draw within a particular bracket.

For an example of two different areas I mentally bracketed in my current painting, you can see these two areas of wax paper in my current painting are in completely different value ranges:

Top left corner - DARK value range

Low middle area - LIGHT value range

As the painting develops there will be days when I am working on one of these small areas for a whole session, without ever comparing it to another area, so it is tempting to exaggerate the value range in a given area. If I am not disciplined to stay within the value range I've already determined is appropriate, I will make the lights too light in the dark areas, and the shadows too dark in the dark areas.

In the light area of my wax paper in the cropped detail above, the shadows in the creases of the wax paper are bare whispers. In real life it looks like there are huge differences between the shadows in the creases and the bright highlights of white light reflecting off neighboring areas. If I attempt to "copy" that value jump I see, I will make the shadows far too dark and I will destroy the illusion of light in the whole piece.

Our eyes can perceive a much wider range of color and value than paint can ever depict. For example, pure white paint directly from the tube is nowhere near as bright at the lightest highlights on my subject. That's why even the most hyper-realistic painting is still just an illusion, a mere hint of what our eyes can experience in real life.

To capture the sensation of seeing a subject, the artist must preserve the feeling of the whole - how every part relates to every other part. This is so easy to destroy as we zoom in and work closely, because we lose context and we forget that the individual parts, no matter how detailed or realistic, are merely supporting roles to the whole effect.

So I try to depict each edge of each shape with only the smallest value and hue shift I can manage. If I copy the big "jump" I see between two neighboring patches, I will destroy the unity of the painting.

------UPCOMING CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS-----------
I teach Classical Realism drawing and painting classes and workshops in my north light San Francisco studio. I also offer workshops at other locations in the US. Please visit my Teaching page for more information and to register!

Sterling Boat: Session 8

Sterling Boat - DETAIL

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - previous stage
See previous post about this painting here

Today I worked on the wax paper - another 4-hour session. It shows how the wax paper slowly starts to look like transparent crumpled material, instead of only gradations of paint.

Painting is 99% drawing by the way. I never believed it more than I believe it now. If you want to be a better painter, study more drawing. I am amazed by how the same principles I teach the most beginning drawing student are the principles I must hold as my mantra all day every day: Look for the large shapes, bracket the values, work large to small and from shadow up to light...

It even applies to color, because you can't build a believable range of hue without understanding value bracketing.

Drawing is learning when it is appropriate to focus your decision-making on a particular scale: solve large problems first and smaller problems later. Use the problems that appear at a small scale to find solutions to the larger-scale problems.

Learning to draw is the discipline of ONLY tackling the problems you can solve at THIS stage of the artwork, without getting distracted or confused.

I've come to believe that drawing (and artmaking in general) is about organizing your thought process, and nothing else at all.

Sterling Boat: Session 7

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress

9 x 12, oil on panel

See the previous stage of this painting here

I finally got in a nice long 6-hour painting session today, and it was so exciting to finally be working in color.

It took me a while to get used to painting in color over the more fully realized grisaille (monochrome) underpainting, and after the first hour of working in color today I wiped my work away and had to begin again. But then I started getting a feel for how opaque/transparent to work and everything started to flow.

The photos actually reduces the color a bit (and darkens everything). I repainted the pedistal base of the silver pitcher in color, but in the photo it still looks monochromatic.

Once I get everything to this level of detail, Ill make a final pass with the super tiny brushes, which gives a painting the extra snap of realism. I'll probably spend another 8 sessions or so on this painting.

Now I'm off to cook the dishes I'm bringing to my mom's Thanksgiving spread tomorrow: ratatouille side dish, traditional stuffing, and cranberry sauce...

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Studio, New Classes and Workshops

As many of you know, I currently work in a very tiny studio, which I affectionately call my "art pod". While it's an ideal workspace for still life, it's a bit tight for students or models, so I have known that eventually I would need to upgrade.

Well, I am excited to finally announce that after months of searching, I have found my new space: a gorgeous 500 square foot studio with north light in the heart of the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco.

It's in a wonderful old warehouse with hardwood floors, enormous windows, and one of those fabulous old-fashioned radiators. I am currently setting it up for ideal classical study, with a dark neutral wall color and thick draperies to control the light.

Beginning in January I will be offering Classical Realism drawing and painting classes and workshops in the new studio. Please visit my updated Teaching page for more information and to register!

Surface Preparation

I spend the first 15-30 minutes per painting session preparing the surface of my painting-in-progress.

Like so many other aspects of this lifelong process of learning to paint, previously I could not imagine focusing on something so mundane and technical, but I find it saves me so much time and headache later that it's worth the investment. And now I actually enjoy the sort of easy, meditative process of cleaning and preparing my surface.

First, I only paint on a dry surface that has had at least 20 hours to set for underpainting medium, and 40 hours to set for slower-drying painting medium. Painting on a gummy or tacky surface just makes a mess. (The recipes I use for painting medium and underpainting medium are in my Materials post)

Next, I use a tiny folded piece of 12oo grit sandpaper to lightly rub the surface of the completely dry layer from the previous painting session. This loosens any lint or grit that dried into the previous layer, which can then be lifted off by lightly dabbing with a small piece of masking tape.

The abrasion also gives the dry layer more "tooth" so the wet paint sticks - otherwise the oil tends to bead up.

(Abrading makes the surface a bit cloudy, and the previous rich oily areas look chalky and ugly. It's ok though, the luster comes back easily.)

Once I have a lint-free, abraded surface I use a soft filbert brush to apply a thin layer of painting medium - but only to the area I plan to work on in this session. Even a thin layer can sometimes drip or run, so I use a clean, microfiber cloth to wipe away most the oil.

This oiled surface is called a "couch" - I'm not sure why except that painting on it feels like sinking into a comfortable couch, the paint flows off the brush so easily.

To start painting, I pre-mix my puddles of values and colors on my palette with my palette knife, and then re-wash my clean brushes in Natural Turpenoid, to get rid of any dust that may have settled overnight, and also to re-wet the bristles. Then I dry the brush on a clean cloth and dip it into my painting medium.

After all that, I'm ready to start painting!

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 6

Sterling Boat - work in progress

9 x 12, oil on panel

See the previous stage of this painting here

Today I worked on the wax paper, and although I refined every bit of it, from this photo you can barely see a difference from the last stage. But this level of refinement will really help when I move to the color stage. This session was a little over 4 hours.

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 5

Sterling Boat - work in progress - DETAIL

Sterling Boat - work in progress - PREVIOUS DETAIL

Sterling Boat - work in progress - DETAIL

Sterling Boat - work in progress - PREVIOUS DETAIL

See the previous stage of this painting here

I worked today on the reflection of the seashell, and also the handle and the spout of the gravy boat.

I ended up redrawing the shape of the handle significantly. I sort of knew the drawing wasn't right when I was working in pencil, but I had wrestled with it a long time and I finally gave up. But when I started refining the paint today, it I realized I couldn't live with the errors and and ended up rethinking all the contours -- which is far more frustrating to do in paint than in pencil. But I'm glad I took the time to do it because the handle now feels more structured and believable.

The spout was much easier, because I worked and worked to get it correct in the previous pencil drawing stage, so it only took about 30 minutes to refine the painting. Which is a good thing, because with the early winter nightfall these days I am always racing to finish the day's work in last few seconds of workable light every evening.

Studio Hours

In the comments of my previous post Rahina asked how long I spend per session. I realized that's a great idea to note, so I'll start mentioning that when I post. Today I spent 4 hours painting. I rarely paint less than 4 hours in a session and I generally aim for 6.

Once I am working I don't look at email or answer the phone and barely take a break at all. But it's almost like being under water, to ignore absolutely all distractions for several hours, and so part of me resists the initial plunge. Once I'm in the studio though, I always wonder what took me so long to get there.

When I am not in the studio I am preparing lessons for my students, looking at blogs of fellow artists, planning my dream studio, writing up course descriptions, shopping for art supplies, preparing submissions to galleries or contests, shipping artwork, and, of course, blogging. I am amazed how much work there is to do for this art life, and it turns out I am the strictest boss I've ever had. But I love it all, so it doesn't feel like work.

Coming soon.....

I have some exciting studio news I'll be announcing in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 4

Sterling Boat - work in progress - DETAIL

See the previous stage of this painting here

Painting in grayscale at this level of detail feels more to me like drawing than painting... maybe that's why I enjoy it so much.

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 3

Sterling Boat - work in progress

9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

See the previous stage of this painting here

I've continued to develop my underpainting. I'm always anxious to jump ahead into the color stage from here, but I am disciplining myself to stay with values for a while longer. It just makes the rest of the painting so much easier if I develop the underpainting as much as possible before moving ahead.

I'm thinking about adjusting my underpainting medium - it dries too fast, and now that I am working on my underpainting longer, I'm realizing I begin to race just to paint faster as the medium dries. It's got more thinner in it than the oily painting medium, and it pretty much sets up in a day. So after 6 hours of painting, my paint begins to get sticky - ugh.

Ecroche in Oakland, California:

There's an amazing ecroche class being offered in February 2010 by Andrew Ameral. The SF Bay Area is so lucky to have Andy, he's returned from teaching at Florence Academy for 7 years. Anyway, ecroche is building a model in clay of a flayed human figure, starting from the bones and layering up through the layers of muscle. I am so hoping to be able to take the class!

--------TEACHING-----------
I am planning my teaching schedule for 2010 so take a look at my teaching page and sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post new classes and workshops.

Montreal from a Musical Perspective

My Brooklyn-based friend Kyra kindly accompanied me on my jaunt to Montreal to see Waterhouse last week, and on her blog she has written up our trip from a musical perspective.

I think you'll find it amusing to compare her writeup to mine - you'll read she bought black pointy-toed boots, whereas at the same store I bought round-toe eyelet-patterned pale pumps, which may sum up our complimentary contrasts (as well the different shoe requirements of our respective cities). But we agree on issues such as good wine at dinner, raw oysters at brunch, and speaking bad French to cab drivers - not to mention the need to consume croissants and coffee immediately upon waking - so we're fantastic travel partners.

Check out her fabulous music blog SWICK: Smartest Women I Know to read about our Montreal trip from an audiophile's perspective.

How To Save a Drowning Drawing or Painting

Every artist knows the feeling: As we work on a piece we slowly become aware that our painting or drawing is not progressing, but instead it is moving further and further away from what we want it to look like. We work faster and faster, desperately fixing and adjusting, but the piece just gets worse and worse and we get more and more confused about what to do.

I call this "circling the drain" because we watch as our painting or drawing spirals right down into the sewer.

From observing my own process and also how my students sometimes get lost, I have found that this is the result of one single, simple problem, and there is one single, simple thing we can do to halt the downward spiral and salvage the work:

LOOK.

Easy enough, but it's amazing how often we all forget to look at our subject. Our tendency is to just stare at our own artwork and fiddle, which just makes the problem worse.

This is what I have posted in my studio to remind myself what to do when I get lost:

Look LARGE

Look OFTEN

Look LONG

This is what I mean by each of these:

Look LARGE

We naturally tend to zoom in our vision, narrow our focus, and look at tiny areas. Then we inch our way around the subject as if we are drawing by looking through a drinking straw. This makes mountains of molehills; literally, small variations on a contour are magnified when we zoom in. It also tends to make us exaggerate differences in value, so we make a dark patch too dark and a light patch too light.

The key is to back up and look at your artwork and your subject with large vision, comparing every part to every other part instead of focusing on small areas. Scan for the largest shapes, move your vision around often: if you are drawing a figure's head, move down and draw the feet for a while. Compare values deeps in the shadows to values far away in the light areas. Draw the whole, not the parts. Think big.

Look OFTEN

We all have a tendency to hunker behind our easels with our nose to our own artwork. After a while, we forget to ever peek around the easel at all and we end up drawing or painting essentially from our imagination. But if you discipline yourself to make a mark and LOOK before you make another mark you will suddenly find the painting or drawing flying along easily, growing magically from under your brush or pencil. Mark, look, mark, look, mark, look.....

Look LONG

When we are really, really lost, sheer panic sets in. That's when we have the urge to keep working faster and faster, and the artwork falls out of control at an alarming rate. When I get really, really lost I put down my brush and just stop and look at my subject. Then I bounce my vision between my subject and my artwork, back and forth, without ever making a mark. The longer I can discipline myself to look without making a mark at all, the clearer it becomes what needs to be adjusted. I tell my students to put down their charcoal and make a mental list of THREE things to change before they pick up their charcoal again.

A note on self deception:

Sometimes a piece of artwork is falling out of control but we can't admit it. We are too attached to the work we have already put in, and we want the artwork to be better than it is. This is where integrity comes in: the artist must hold themselves to the highest standard, otherwise no learning or exploration is happening. If we tell ourselves our art is "good enough" it isn't. That is self-deception.

To be art, it must be better than "good enough".

Do what it takes to learn and get better with every mark of every piece. Otherwise, we may as well go find a less demanding endeavor. Why be an artist, if not to get better?

--------TEACHING-----------

I am planning my teaching schedule for 2010 so take a look at my teaching page and sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post new classes and workshops.

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 2

Sterling Boat - work in progress

9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

See the previous stage of this painting here

Today I worked on the grisaille stage of the underpainting, which is a value-only underpainting. The previous stage uses raw umber and ultramarine to make a neutral color grey, and uses the white of the panel for the lights. This is called an open grisaille, because the white of the panel shows through.

This second stage is a closed grisaille. I use the same raw umber and ultramarine blue for the neutral dark gray, but I also use flake white (cremnitz white) for the lights. When it is done the white of the canvas will not show at all, the surface will be covered by paint.

I used to only paint an open grisaille layer, and then go right to color. But I have found it saves me a lot of time (and anguish) in the later stages of color if I take the time to make a complete value painting in closed grisaille first. The open grisaille is just too transparent and textured to behave well as an underpainting for my needs.

I also spent some time wet sanding this layer with my underpainting medium before I began painting. This removes dust that may have embedded in the previous layer as it dried, and makes it easier to paint on the dry surface. Putting down a layer of medium to paint into is called a "couch".

--------TEACHING-----------

I am planning my teaching schedule for 2010 so take a look at my teaching page and sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post new classes and workshops.

Sterling Boat: Underpainting Stage 1

Sterling Boat - work in progress

9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

I worked up the preparatory drawing for this painting a few days before I left for my trip to New York, and varnished it before I left, so when I came back to the studio today it was all dry and ready to start the under painting. Might be hard to see yet what it is - it's an antique silver gravy boat and a seashell perched beneath a 'wave' of wax paper.

I'm not videotaping this painting like I have previously, but I took photos while painting today. The first layer of under painting is just quickly roughing in all the values, I spent about 3 and a half hours today. Today is probably the only day I'll cover the entire surface in one painting session.

stage 1

The initial contour drawing took about 8 hours over 2 days. I started the basic block-in drawing on trace paper but completed the final refined linework directly on the gessoed panel. Then I varnished it with a mixture of damar, turp, and a tint of titanium white to seal the drawing and the porous gesso surface. This makes a nice surface to paint on - not too thirsty, not too slick - and also prevents the graphite pencil from mixing with my first layers of paint.

stage 2

I start the underpainting in the darkest black areas and work in steps up to the lightest lights.

stage 3

stage 4

stage 5

The painting is still rough and brushy at this stage. The paint texture is hard to control at this point, and I'm just massing in values, so I try not to spend too much time worrying about unwanted textures.

--------TEACHING-----------

I am planning my teaching schedule for 2010 so take a look at my teaching page and sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post new classes and workshops.

Waterhouse and Vermeer

I've just returned from a very fast trip to see the Waterhouse retrospective in Montreal and the Vermeer exhibit at the Met in New York - a whirlwind jaunt scheduled between Thursdays when I must be in San Francisco to teach my class.

Photos were not allowed in the exhibit but I've found a few repros of my favorites from the exhibition. The painting above just glowers at you, such a strange composition with the dark face surrounded by blinding light. In person the rough brushstrokes are surprising - the painter's drawing ability is so precise that he can throw down a swatch of golden drape with just a scumbled a stroke or two.

What impressed me most about seeing the Waterhouse paintings in person is the incredibly precise control of hue and value the painter employs to create his striking compositions. I realized every reproduction I've even seen is grossly inadequate in both color and value - including these here. Waterhouse paintings in person have enormous ability to control how you look at them, even inch of composition is worked out and every shift of hue and value is set to create a precise experience of the spaces he creates.

And yes, I got to see 'my' mermaid painting, the same one I loved and copied at age 12.

UPDATE: Artist blogger Matthew Innis has posted a much more complete review of the entire Waterhouse exhibit with images of all the paintings in the exhibit, click here to see his post.

Back in New York I had just a few hours to run through the Met - saw some old favorites, tried not to get distracted, and made it to the Vermeer collection even though I mistakenly wore new shoes and had aching feet.

I did sneak a quick photo of Milkmaid and was swiftly reprimanded by a watchful guard. But it's only the second time the painting has been exhibited in the US and I couldn't resist a quick snap. A girl's head got in the way, but it gives you a sense of scale - the painting is tiny, and glows like a jewel. I never knew it before, but one of the tiny decorations on the baseboard behind the milkmaid is a cupid - indicating she is thinking of her love.

While in New York I also visited Janus Collaborative and Grand Central Academy, to see my teachers and friends and to get my annual fix of dreaming what it would be like to study full time in a classical-tradition atelier. Take a look at GCA's gorgeous cast studio -- the room is arranged so each and every sculpture cast in the room is mounted against a neutral background and lit with a single light source -

As a final stop I made a pilgrimage to Arcadia Gallery just before closing time on my last day, and got to drink in some Hicks brushstrokes and Liberace linework. I even got to see a recent Sprick still life where he plays with the perception of foreground and background. Looking at a Sprick painting is like watching a master chess player - one with a sense of humor.

Overall a very productive and art-full trip.

STUDIO Gallery - The 'Tiny' Show

I have a new painting showing in STUDIO Gallery's annual 'Tiny' show -

From the gallery's announcement -

Let's get small! tiny is the place to pick up a little something for your own collection--or an outstanding gift--all while supporting local artists. And with work on display from 135 artists, you're bound to find that perfect something. Everything is under 7" x 7" and, best of all, under $400, with loads of pieces under $200. We'll have hundreds of pieces on display in the gallery, with new work added every day. (And as an added bonus, we'll be hanging some larger pieces we just couldn't resist from some of the gallery's most popular artists.)

I forgot to take a photo before I dropped off the new piece, so you'll just have to visit the show to see it.

Also, my painting 'Silver Globe Pitcher' will be on display at the gallery as well.

tiny
small pieces under $400
Nov 4th - Dec 23rd
reception: Sunday, Nov 8th, 2 - 6 pm
6th Anniversary Party: Sunday, Dec 6th, 2 - 6 pm

STUDIO Gallery
1815 Polk Street (between Washington & Jackson)
San Francisco, CA 94109
415.931.3130

More about the show here -

STUDIO Gallery web site

Winged Victory Drawing Demo

See the larger version here

I made this 8 minute movie of my 10-hour drawing of my cast statue "Victoire de Samothrace" to demonstrate the optical block-in method.

1. The line drawing is all straight lines.
2. The shadow side is first filled in as all one even tone.

These two methods are difficult to adhere too, but if you can do it they address the main difficulties in drawing: capturing accurate proportion, and understanding light and shadow.

Materials:

• Strathmore 400 drawing paper (not ideal for charcoal)
• vine charcoal, hard medium, and some soft (sharpened very sharp with sandpaper)
• kneaded eraser
• white "magic rub" eraser
• paper blending stump
• rough, cheap paper towel for blending

Winged Victory

charcoal on paper

18 x 24 inches

Workshops

I am thrilled to announce I'll be teaching two still life painting workshops in 2010!

March 22-26, 2010
M Gallery in Sarasota, Florida

June 28 - July 2, 2010
Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier in Belmont, California

Here is the course description for both:

The sensitive observation of even simple objects can yield dramatic paintings. Working in oil paint on gessoed panel, students will learn the refined glazing and layering techniques to render the most subtle effects of light. Beginning with a drawing on paper transferred to smooth panel, we will paint open grisaille, closed grisaille, opaque layering, and finally glazing to create highly refined images.

Using knowledge gained through her studies of the effects of light on transparent and reflective surfaces through her "Wax Paper" series of still lifes, Sadie Valeri will share her methods for creating powerful and sensitive paintings. More importantly, she teaches how to see and understand the structure, value, and color principles that underpin believable realism.

Click the links above to register for each workshop.

I'm also hoping to offer a drawing workshop next summer, please sign up for my mailing list in the right-hand column to be notified of my upcoming teaching schedule.

Open Studio Recap

My Open Studio was a lot of fun this weekend!

I met a lot of wonderful people and had fun talking art all day with fellow artists, art lovers, and neighbors. I even met a Florence Academy-trained classical realist who lives right around the corner.

Saw some old friends and new, past students, current teachers of various disciplines, and generally hung out and discussed everything from Classical Realism to the neighborhood lore about the crazy parties thrown in my courtyard in the 60's.

On top of that, I sold several pieces! So a big success all around.

Plus, my little studio is all clean and spiffy and I'm exited to get back to work on the next batch of paintings.....

Two Small Paintings

Beach Stone and Wax Paper

oil on panel

5 x 5 inches

Wrapped Bottle

oil on panel

5 x 7 inches

See preparatory drawings for these paintings here.

I finished these 2 small paintings today just in time for my open studio this weekend! It was fun to work small, I'm hoping to do a whole series of these.

My studio here in San Francisco will be open to the public this weekend:

October 17-18

11am-6pm

Carl Street at Cole Street

N-Juda MUNI line

Public transportation highly recommended as my street will be CLOSED to cars for a block party on Saturday.

Hope to see you there!

Juror's Choice Award

I was thrilled to go to the ArtSpan Exhibition tonight and see that my painting Wrapped Silver Goblet has won a Juror's Choice Award.

The ArtSpan Exhibition is the central show displaying one artwork for each of 400 Open Studios participating artists. It's a great way to see a preview of the studios and plan your visit.

ArtSpan has recently redesigned their website, please visit for more info about all the Open Studios events.

Also, I now have a profile posted there.

Wrapped Silver Goblet: FINAL

Wrapped Silver Goblet

11 x 14 inches

oil on panel
(see previous blog posts about this painting)

This painting will be showing at the Open Studios Exhibition at the SomArts gallery here in San Francisco October 3- 29. Come see the exhibit at one of these two events:

Private Preview Gala, Saturday, October 3, 2009 (ticketed event)
Exhibition Opening Reception, Sunday, October 4, 2009 (free event)

More info at ArtSpan.org

See a higher quality version here

I'll be teaching two workshops on still life painting in summer 2010, one here in the San Francisco Bay Area and one in Florida. Details to follow soon!

Wrapped Silver Goblet: Video 1

My new painting Wrapped Silver Goblet is almost done (see the first post about this painting here). I've been filming the process of creating this painting, so here is my first episode: A demonstration of how I developed the preparatory contour drawing in pencil:

(Click here to see a higher quality version)

In the video I mention transferring a drawing to a panel using trace paper. A lot of people ask how this is done so here is a how-to I wrote up for a student recently:

1. Draw a straight-line block-in of your composition with pencil on white drawing paper. Make your drawing the same size and shape as your painting panel.
2. When your block-in drawing is done, lay it down on a table (not an easel) and overlay a sheet of tracing paper. Tape down all 4 corners with removable artist's tape.
3. Trace your drawing onto the tracing paper with a hard pencil (H or HB). Be sure to trace the corners of the drawing too, so you can line it up correctly on your panel.
4. Remove the tape, flip over your trace paper drawing and scribble gently with a soft pencil (2B/3B) over all the lines you can see through the trace (OR you can use transfer paper, which you can buy in rolls at the art supply store).
5. Arrange the trace paper drawing-side up (scribble side down) over your panel. Line up corners with the drawing. Tape all the corners.
6. Using a hard pencil (2H) go over all lines of the drawing to press the contour lines onto the panel. Occasionally lift one corner to make sure the lines are transferring.
7. When you have traced all your lines, discard the trace paper. Your drawing should be transferred to the panel. Move the panel back to the easel
8. Refine your drawing on the panel with a 2B pencil, working from life. (Otherwise all your lines will have the dead, "traced" quality")
9. Varnish the panel to seal the surface. Optional technique is to trace over all your pencil lines with a sepia-ink fountain pen or brown ultra-fine sharpie. Either way, seal the surface of the panel with varnish. Allow to dry. (I use damar varnish thinned with Turpenoid and with a small amount of Titanium white mixed in. Shake it in a jar to mix.)

Artspan Open Studios 2009

My studio will be open to the public October 17 and 18, 11am to 6pm as part of Artspan's San Francisco Open Studios.

Come see several of my paintings from my Wax Paper series, plus plein air oil sketches from my month at the Hudson River Fellowship, as well as many paintings and drawings, all framed and ready to hang.

My studio is near the corner of Carl and Cole Streets, accessible by the N-Judah line. There will be large signs posted on the corner that weekend directing you to my studio door.

My studio is also listed in the official Open Studios guide.

Saturday, October 3, 6-10pm

Private Preview Gala, SOMArts Gallery (tickets)

My newest painting, Wrapped Silver Goblet, will be on display, along with a first glimpse of over 400 artworks by San Francisco artists.

Sunday, October 4, 4-7pm

Opening Reception, SOMArts Gallery (a free event)

More details at ArtSpan.org

Perez Fine Art

I've been invited to show my work at Perez Fine Art online galleries for painting and drawing, I'm honored to show alongside such a wonderful group of artists. Perez Gallery also posted a really nice welcome to me on their blog. Please click over and take a look at all the beautiful work!

Exhibit - Corot in California

My husband and I drove down to Santa Barbara for the weekend to see the current exhibit at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art on the French 19th century landscape painter, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.

Park of M. Wallet at Voincinlieau 1866

The exhibit was two small rooms, only about a dozen works, but it showed a good variety from early and late periods in Corot's career, both sketches and highly finished works. It was exactly what I came to see, because I wanted to get a close look at how the paint is layered.

The styles of his early and late work are distinct - flat planes of brightly lit daytime scenes earlier on in his career, to his signature style of dark, silvery blurred forest scenes he came to be famous for. But the basic technique seems to be fairly consistent throughout.

"Large Sharecropping Farm" - 1865

(this painting was not in the exhibit, just similar to the one below I looked at)

The biggest disappointment of the exhibit was that photography was strictly prohibited and there was no catalogue or even a postcard published for the exhibit. The images here are ones I found online.

I took a lot of notes:

This is my thumbnail sketch of a painting called "The Water Trough at St. Omer" from the 1860's, but unfortunately I can't find a photo of it online. Most my notes were based on this painting because although it's a finished work done in the studio, it had patches where the underpainting was visible in some areas.

These are my notes for how I believe Corot built a painting:

Stage 1: Block in main light and dark of composition

1. Start with middle-value toned canvas in warm umber, not too light nor too dark

(may have mapped out composition with a contour drawing using a small round brush, but those lines are not visible.)

2. Shadow values: Mass in thin, colored underpainting ebauche of the large dark masses, mainly greens and browns (brightly lit mid-day scenes seem to have a lavender-grey underpainting).

• Underpainting darker value than middle-value canvas ground.
• Ground plane and foliage of trees laid in with careful drawing, using small bristle brush.
• NO tree trunks, branches, individual leaves, or details.
• Allow to dry (thin paint probably dried quickly, within the first session).

3. Light values - Mass in light areas, eg water and sky: Thin paint, soft at edges.

• Sky background: ultramarine at top, cobalt or cerulean next, down to white, painted in gradation down to horizon, pinks at horizon if a sunrise.
• Use light areas to refine shapes of dark areas. Careful painting around architecture and other firm lines. Still, no hard edges, very small value differences to create edges.

4. Cloud shadows painted in exact same value as sky underneath, slightly warmer neutral hue than sky. No light clouds yet.

5. Allow to dry

Stage 2: Middle values and color

6. Add color: thin paint, glazes maybe, slightly lighter values to mass in lighter values of greens in trees, areas where light hits foliage. Allow ebauche underpainting to show through in shadows, esp ground plane.

7. Tree trunks and branches: indicate with thin, transparent paint, harder edges.

8. Sky: paint clouds by building up lights to whitest whites, use thicker brushstrokes.

9. Allow to dry

Stage 3: Details and finishing glazes

10. Paint transparent umbers and blues over sky to unify color variations, but use individual brushstrokes, not completely smooth. Glaze very thin umber over thick whites strokes, wipe away, to give volume to brushstrokes.

11. Final pass of details in both dark and light

• Paint darkest accents, small areas of deep shadow in black
• Thin, transparent tree trunks, very thin branches and dabs of leaves in transparent paint
• Tree trunks are different values from each other, and different values from top to bottom. Some tree trunks have white added to bring forward, some are transparent and sky shows through, some are opaque.
• Small dabs of leaves and flowers in green, yellow, brown, white, both lighter and darker than background
• A couple tiny red dabs
• Final pass of glaze on sky, neutral grey-blue to unify

Notes:

• Sky is always lighter than reflecting water
• Tree trunks are darkest where most branches cluster

View of Rome, Bridge and Castle of St Angelo w/ Cupola of St. Peter's 1826-28

1. Middle value canvas, warm hue

2. Shadows: Main masses blocked in with a wash of cool neutral (lavender?) shadow hue, careful contours

3 Lights: Sky, water blocked in, careful contours

4 Middle values laid over dry underpainting (e.g. light half of cupola laid over shadow)

5 Darkest accents

6 Lightest lights, small touches

Note: Area of highest contrast is focal point of composition: more refined detail, lights and darks laid down next to one another

This is all my best guess... if you know of how Corot worked, please tell me!

Blocking In (new wax paper series)

Wrapped Silver Goblet (in progress)

11 x 14 inches

graphite pencil on trace paper

I have a couple teaching opportunities coming up which I am very excited about: I'll be teaching drawing this fall semester to first-year MFA grad students at San Francisco's Academy of Art University, and there are plans in the works to possibly do a couple workshops next year (I'll keep you posted).

All of these opportunities are really exciting, and as I have been thinking about them I find I am "teaching" myself as I work all the time. Observing myself as I work helps me avoid problems deeper in the drawing. It's a sort of narration: At first it was non-verbal narration, simply paying attention to what I see and and comparing that to my drawing. But since I have begun teaching, that internal narration is becoming more and more verbal, as I imagine how I would teach as I draw.

I've been working the last couple days to begin a few new paintings of still life, and my first step is using straight-line block-in to establish the composition and forms.

Wrapped Bottle (in progress)

graphite pencil on trace paper

6 x 8 inches

Block-in for me is always the most stressful stage of a painting or drawing. Positioning the correct placement and shape on that blank space feels like plotting a course across the Atlantic.

I put the first few lines down and for a short while I feel like everything is going great, and then as I move into the next level of detail the errors begin to show up. And since the initial block-in is defining the whole shape with only a few lines, the errors are usually quite drastic and devastating to the design. Panic!

Beach Stone and Wax Paper (in progress)

graphite pencil on trace paper

5 x 5 inches

I tell my students that drawing well is essentially learning to control a sense of constant panic (I say that because I think a lot of us are quietly panicking in drawing class, and it helps the students know everyone else is feeling the same way, including me.)

But I try to use that panic to my advantage. The "Oh, no, it's all wrong!" feeling can plummet any draughtsman into despair and temptation to abandon the drawing (or crumple, scribble, or burn it).... But it's also a useful feeling. If we can react to the feeling with calm and acceptance, and simply take it as a reminder to stop and look, it becomes a useful tool.

My confidence in the block-in process has grown with my experience and now I know if something is wrong, if I keep my head calm and just look, I'll probably figure out the problem.

Not that I always do a perfect block-in by any means. And I certainly do not do my best block-ins when I am demonstrating in front of a group. But like any mental/emotional discipline, the more you practice, the easier it is to tap into problem-solving mode and focus, even in stressful situations.

Lines and Colors Feature

I've been following Charley Parker's blog Lines and Colors for years now and as I pore over every post it's always been my secret fantasy that maybe someday my work would be featured on his blog... and today is my day!

If you don't already know Lines and Colors, be sure to click over and be ready to expose yourself to a wonderful lineup of artists and art movements. Each post profiles a different painter or illustrator, historic or contemporary, and Charley always shares a unique twist of interest into the artist's working methods or story. He seems fueled by an endless curiosity, and reading his blog you'll find yourself caught up in his energy and enthusiasm, too.

SHOW: Landscapes at STUDIO Gallery

A few of the landscape sketches I created this past month at the Hudson River Fellowship will be on display at STUDIO Gallery in San Francisco August 12 - September 6.

The opening is Sunday, August 16, 2pm-6pm.

STUDIO Gallery is on Polk St at Washington.

Outdoor Art Materials

I was just reading the comments in James Gourney's nice writeup for the Fellowship and realized I learned a lot about materials for outdoor painting during the trip and I thought I'd share.

Outdoor easel setup
Just about everyone was using a paint box palette mounted to a photographer's tripod for their plein air setup. (Some people preferred a light metal easel to mount their canvas and then held their palette in their hand, but there's so much to do with the non-painting hand outdoors - like swat mosquitoes - that I prefer a mounted palette).

Guerrilla Pochade Box
I started out with my 9"x12" Guerrilla box which has served me well on previous neighborhood plein air sketching but I quickly found it is too heavy and boxy for anything beyond a 10-minute hike. Considering I was climbing steep slippery rock steps most days to my waterfall site, I was really wishing for a lighter option. The plus side of the Guerrilla box is that it is extremely functional and sturdy and has tons of room for storing things. And its very cute boxy proportions draw lots of compliments. Emily Lee had the even cuter 6"x8" version and she was really happy with it, but you can see she sometimes had to use a handheld palette because the paint-mixing area is tiny.

Alla Prima Pochade
Everyone oohed and aahed over this nifty, well-designed box when it was shipped to Fellow Dorain Iten. The components are held together with magnets and the nice wood and beautiful design is eyecatching. He really liked using it, especially for the magnet that holds your palette knife while you work. The full version has awesome drawers and there is a "light" option that has separate storage compartments that attach with magnets, but even the light option still seemed a bit heavy for me.

Open Box M
Our instructors all used the "M" and after deliberating quite a while this is the option I decided to upgrade to. It's very expensive, but they offer a less expensive "kit" that includes a shoulder bag instead of the outer wooden box. However, I've personally found it very annoying to hike with a shoulder bag flopping over my arm. A backpack is the way to go.

After spending quite a bit of time on the site I finally figured out you can buy the palette/panel holder separately from everything else. I decided to order that alone, at 9"x10" and $195, and if I really feel the need I'll buy the wet panel carrier box separately later. Those two options even separately are less expensive than the kit that includes the shoulder bag - and much less expensive than the whole set which includes a wooden outer box. In the meantime, I'll use these lightweight "cocoon" wet panel carriers.

UPDATE: Lines and Colors posted a complete and detailed review of all the pochade box options available, be sure to check it out before you invest in one! It seems that Charley Parker went with the Alla Prima Pochade, it certainly looks like an amazing box. I'll come back and post and update later about how I like working with the Open Box M.

UPDATE 2: HRF Fellow Peter Sakievich posted a photo and description of his Open Box M setup on his blog.

Julian Umbrella
We all were jealous of Nick Hiltner's huge white umbrella that shielded him from rain, sun, and even more importantly... curious passersby! Several of us ended up ordering them and having them delivered directly to our location in the Catskills. Nick warned us that every part of the umbrella breaks often, but there really are no other options for white artist umbrellas we could find, and he said the manufacturer is willing to replace broken parts. Sure thing, the clamp contact has popped off, the umbrella has detached from the clamp (both luckily fixable on the spot) and after a week 3 spines had detached from the nylon. I reinforced every spine connection with duct tape so mine is not so pretty any more. All that said, it is a fantastic umbrella - it kept me dry even during one epic 3.5 hour downpour painting session. The white material casts perfect, diffused lighting on my canvas under all light conditions. And the most important feature... only the most brave passersby dare peek under the huge umbrella.

Camp Chair
I started out with the tiniest, lightest, overpriced at $20, 3-legged camp stool from REI, and in about 30 minutes realized it is miserable to sit on and has a bad habit of tipping. I "upgraded" to a folding, armless camp chair for $13 at the local hardware store. But I and everyone else who bought that one found that the seat and/or back canvas tore from the supports after a couple weeks of all-day painting sessions. The most hardcore of our group were lugging around full camp chairs with armrests which seemed like overkill to me, till I saw how nicely their umbrellas clamped to the arms, and how their turp jars nestled in the mesh cup-holders! So I might be upgrading to a fancy camp chair.

Painting Panels
I have been using wooden Art Boards in my studio and Gessoboard panels outside for a couple years now, but recently I'm finding I prefer a fine grade oil primed linen surface for outdoor painting (indoors I'll still use smooth wood for the most detail). I tried these:

Art Board oil primed linen 9"x12": $17.89
I liked the silky fine surface of these panels, but I found the damp conditions I was painting in made the panels warp forwards slightly. They will be fine once framed, but the warping was annoying on a multi-day painting.

Utrecht Master's oil primed linen 9"x12": $9.99
This panel is ok quality for a cheap price, and it's probably perfect for single-session plein air artists who like texture and thick paint. However, for multi-session painting with thin paint and more detail, this canvas has way too much texture.

New Traditions oil primed linen with gaterfoam 9"x 12": $10.17
Our instructors were using New Traditions and although I have not used them yet (just ordered my first batch) I was sold on their texture, lightweight archival gaterfoam core, and non-warping properties. And the price is right! You can choose different support materials and different finishes, but the portrait grade lead oil primed linen was my choice.

Tripod

I borrowed Dorians' tripod briefly but I loved it and hope to buy my own. The grip to move the ball head in any direction was easy and smooth and the tripod was really sturdy and even a tiny bit lighter than mine. It's the Manfrotto 190XPROB and Horizontal Grip Action Ball Head. It's expensive though, I might be waiting quite a while before I upgrade to this. There are much cheaper and lightweight tripods, and as with all things plein air the choice is between something durable/heavyweight versus something lightweight/flimsy.

Grand Central's Hudson Blog Post

Jacob Collins' Grand Central Academy, which sponsors the Hudson River Fellowship, has posted drawings and paintings by this year's Fellows on their blog:
grandcentralacademy.blogspot.com

Also, James Gourney, author of the blog "Gourney Journey", visited the Fellowship for our last evening meeting and then wrote up a nice post about us:
gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

Hudson Fellowship Final Post: SOLD

Sunset in the Catskills (SOLD)

9 x 12

oil on linen