The Post-Pencil Cleanse: Why understanding drawing fundamentals is important for painting

After nearly a month off from painting, I returned to the oils this week. I've done nearly 35 different pencil studies and sketches using only a 2h, hb and b pencil, as well as an eraser, a white pencil and a toned sketchbook. While I am not a huge fan of pencil as a medium, and I really enjoy working in color, I can successfully say that my work has become so much more clear and defined. I began this week on a sketch of a cavalier of sorts, riding a giant flying eagle. I started out sketching on a piece of illustration board. I sketched for about 25 minutes, easily and quickly locking in a loose sketch, and not being afraid to erase and adjust things as I went (this is something I've always struggled with, but something which is also getting better as I work more and more in pencil.) After completing this, I laid in the first coat of oils- expecting to have lots of trouble adjusting to get the right shade and value, and probably anticipating 3 hours to get things right.

To my surprise, the lay in took only 20 minutes. From having had so much experience seeing in shades of reduced value (the pencils only really had 3 different shades, and the paper), I was able to quickly identify the value I was looking for, and having selected a restricted color palette, it became clear that I didn't really need to worry about whether I used orange or blue, or a mixture of the two: as long as I was in the correct value, it made sense as a realistic image. I then tried to keep blues in front and back, and oranges in the middle. It all worked really well, and I cannot wait to continue with the lay in!

Pencil Cleanse!

As a painter, it becomes increasingly difficult to notice when you are "neglecting" a particular skill set in your art arsenal. For myself, recent analysis of my work has led me to the conclusion that I have been greatly improving as a painter, but staying fairly stagnant in my abilities as a renderer. Having the ability to draw accurate renderings is incredibly important for any artist- it gives your paintings believability, interest, and, overall, shapes your final product. A great solution to this is to go on a "Pencil Cleanse". For me, this means putting the paints down for a whole month, and instead, carrying a pencil and sketchbook around.

A week into this exercise, a few different things have been noticed. Firstly, I'm finding myself noticing form in nature a lot more. Rather than seeing colors and hues, I'm seeing tonal relationships in things. This shift in mental thinking is doing wonders for planning future paintings.

The other thing I'm noticing, which is a huge deal, is that I am getting less frustrated with problems in my work. Because I am working with a toned paper sketchbook only, I know that anything I sketch is merely a sketch- For the purpose of getting better, and not creating a final product. This is drastically different than the "finished painting" mentality I am used to, and is greatly helping with the anxiety associated with working on a painting.

I will put up more information when I am a couple more weeks into this process, but right now, I'm really liking the results in my improvement. Below I've shared some pieces over the last couple days.

Everything below has been done with a 2H pencil, a B pencil, and a white pencil (because I'm working on toned paper).

Zloi Thunderaxe- The Dwarven Barbarian (a work in oil)

My best friend plays in my weekly Dungeons and Dragons group. We've played each Monday evening, reliably, for the past 2 years. His character, a dwarven barbarian with an aversion to safety and a casual relationship with manners, has survived throughout the whole campaign, despite having a true wish to die in glorious battle. To document the adventures, I thought I'd paint character portraits of each character in the game. I started with Zloi (comical aside: in Russian, "Zloi" means anger)

I begun the piece on 140 gram Arches cold press Watercolor paper. I knew I'd be sealing it and painting using Oils, so the actual quality of the paper wasn't paramount. That being said, I used cold press paper over rag illustration board to try and incorporate a little bit of texture and roughness- I thought it may lend itself to the portrait nicely. In hindsight, I'm not sure it made too much of a difference, and honestly, the rag illustration board is cheaper, so I'll probably go that route next time. 

I begun with a pencil sketch, using a 2b pencil and a 2h pencil. The 2h allowed me to lock everything in, and then the 2b allowed for shading and different values. I then sealed the whole thing with Krylon Kamar Varnish (one coat), and then one coat of acrylic Matte Medium. It's clear, locks the pencil lines in, and prevents too much of the oil from seeping into the paper. This is a trick I learned from James Gurney (Gurneyjourney.blogspot.com)

After laying in some background colors and basic tones, I went ahead and placed gear that was important to Zloi's likeness. Mainly, this is the bear claw bracers. Zloi's skin color is not consistent yet, because he actually has tattoos that glow orange. I haven't added all the layers yet, so I'm simply trying to anticipate a bit of the lighting. This above probably represents 2 hours of paint laying. 

After having let things dry for a day, I went in and added some variation in shadows all over. Although mostly notable in the face, this actually adds a ton of depth to the expression and pose. Now, I let the piece dry for another day.

With 3 more hours into the work, I have this to show. A much more homogeneous color scheme across the piece (with an exception of the hands, which still need to be finished). The piece is nearly done! Details for the gore of the beast killed at his feet are actually done randomly using a palette knife to help achieve some random textures. The effect ended up looking very natural!

A word about Clunkers

 

A Clunker of mine that I totally despised! Gave it to a friend, never to see the light of day again!

I'm going to tackle a difficult topic for artists: Clunkers. Clunkers is a word we use to describe paintings that don't end well. Whether lost interest, large mistake, or just a canvas that has been painted over one too many times, we all have clunkers that hide in the back of our closets. All artists fail, and much like many other professions, we don't like to be reminded of it.

Artists often talk about clunkers with statements like, "I'm gonna burn this one to ashes", or, "I can't wait to toss this crap out of a biplane!" I've seen lots of non-artists reel up in horror at this, and they always then respond with a simple phrase: "If you don't like it, I'll take it! I'd pay "___" for that anyday!"

 

A clunker I was able to turn around and save (not too happy with it, but it's OK..)

 

Let me be clear- artists are somewhat divided on this- there are some artists that sell their studies or even their clunkers for small amounts (usually 20-50 bucks a piece) to friends or students, who seriously appreciate them. However, it is important to understand that the divide on this issue is about 80/20 % (artist magazine poll), with the larger group favoring destruction. The issue at hand is simple. Artists don't generally want their failures displayed. Period.

Let's say your an oncologist. Your job is to tell people they have cancer, and then to help them fight it. Let's be honest- not an easy job by any stretch, and even if you're a great doctor, you're going to lose patients to the disease. Let's say somebody wanted to feature you in an article about a recent patient, but the patient didn't survive. Let's also say that the article was putting you on display for great work you did in diagnosis, or treatment, but at the end of the day, cancer won. This isn't a pleasant position, and I'm sure the oncologist would much prefer not to be featured, unless the procedure was groundbreaking in some other way. Nobody in any profession likes to be reminded of their failures.

Being a painter is a very different example (and much less high intensity, obviously, than dealing with somebody's life- no disrespect meant with the comparison!), but the general principle still applies- People do not want their failures displayed, for any price really.

Sometimes discussions like this are hard to finish, as no obvious end can be seen. I've tried my best to present the issue with the generally favored opinion, but I will try again and summarize below:

 

A Clunker I'm currently trying to save... we'll see how it ends up (not too hopeful..)

 

What to take from this:

• All artists have Clunkers. If you're an artist, and you feel like around 1/4 or so of your paintings are clunkers, you are not alone!
• Some artists are comfortable selling their clunkers for a greatly reduced price (often AT COST of materials)- that's fine- it's their work!
• Some artists give their clunkers away to good friends, knowing that they will be enjoyed but not publicly displayed (This is where I fall)- again, it's their prerogative. 
• Many artists are uncomfortable selling their clunkers at all. They'd rather they be destroyed. Nobody should have to endure their failures publicly if they don't want to.
  
  

New Finished Images for SENSORY

Hey Everybody,

Haven't had much time to post this past month- I've been working at a crazy speed to prepare for my upcoming show on the 6th of May- RAWBoston Presents: SENSORY. *(you can still get a ticket at www.rawboston.org/acrylicalexander )

Here are some of the new finished images for my show- These will be available as prints or originals during the show!

 

 

"First and Second Place" Oil on Board- 5.75"x 12"

 "Opedian Royal Guard" Oil on Board- 16x20"

 "Thalamis Guards the Ley Line" Acrylic on Linen- 20x34"

"The Kill" Oil on Board- 6x14"

"Thalamis at the Lae Line" start to finish breakdown

"Thalamis at the Lae Line" is an illustration based upon a character in my fantasy world, Telimvor. Thalamis is the ruler of the sylvan people in Telimvor (dryads, centaurs, pixies, fairies...), and takes on the form of a centaur and a satyr crossed. I wanted him to be guarding a Lae Line, a mythological gate that connects two places far away with fey magic, and that allows a traveler to simply walk from one end to another. I wanted the painting to reflect leadership and power, but also a serene and peaceful quietness. I chose to keep most of the painting cool in color hue for this reason.

 The choice to paint in acrylics rather than oils was simply one of frugality: I had run out of Ultramarine Blue in oils, and didn't want to buy more paint during the month.

 Beginning stages included forming the background colors using layers of watery acrylic paints blended over each other (lots of layers: in total, the background had around 70 different layers of color mixed into it). After this was done, I was able to start to define different shapes into my composition. I liked this outcropping rock, so I decided to put it in as the focal point of where my figure would stand.

 

I then proceeded to paint in some silhouetted trees and foliage to help frame the center of my composition. Usually, one wants to avoid the center of a canvas as a focal point, but because of all of the circular and elongated shapes caused by the tall canvas and trees, I decided to take the risk- in the end, it worked out fine.

 At the moment, the painting looks a bit sloppy- stick with it! As you continue to refine things, the image begins to tighten up.

 I decided to block the Lae Line in, as well as Thalamis. I wasn't completely happy with his pose at first- it seemed as though his antlers were a bit small and natural, and not as impressive as I'd like, as well as the rump of his backside getting lost in the gate. Notice the undercoat on the vines completely clashes with all of the warm background lights- this is OK. For a first coat, a cool green will really help create the effect of depth against all of the neutral and warm greens in the painting.

 After having corrected the figure pose, and adding layers and layers of detail into the vines, and the trees, I had a finished piece- or so I thought. The greatest achievement of the piece was also my downfall- Although the mood was created well with all of the warm greens and yellows against cool blacks and browns and purples, I knew I needed something else to stand out. I decided to take a complete risk and add in fairies in a bright light blue. Once you take a bold step like this, there is no going back. Because of this, I made sure to tape some tracing paper to my painting and try 4 or 5 different color combinations for the fairies before finding my colors of choice.

The finished piece- Boasts some great color combinations, as well as an interesting display of light, form and movement. Great Success!

Atmospheric Layering in Acrylics

So I'm back to Acrylics for the next few days- I wanted to start working on a larger piece, but I didn't have the colors for what I wanted in oils, and rather than go spend tons of money on paints, I figured I'd try acrylics. I'm building layers into the atmosphere on this piece, so I thought I'd take a second and talk about how to achieve this.

After first session- maybe 3-5 layers in the background

Here is the base layer of this (large, 38x20") painting. The background is scumbled mixing of 4 different colors- Yellow Azo, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue and Paynes Gray. Doing this in random layers is great, but often builds up too much paint. I fix this by constantly spraying the canvas (fairly liberally) with a small misting bottle for cosmetics. This will cause the background to run a bit, but that's ok, because you're going to paint over the edges when the trees go in.

Same Painting- around 35-40 layers in the background

Here is the same painting 5 hours later- As the layers build up (again, misting bottle and paint, over and over), the atmosphere begins to look realistic and believable. The more layers you put in, the more you can get lost in the painting. with painting like this, it's important to not get frustrated with how things look as you progress, but rather to just keep adding layers, trusting in the process. 

It's worth noting- If you us WHITE in this process, use ZINC WHITE and not TITANIUM WHITE because of transparency: Titanium White is literally the most opaque color out there, and doesn't lend itself well to this technique.