Direct Painting

Direct painting means to begin and complete a portrait with minimal drawing.

Alla prima (direct painting wet into wet) is a method of direct painting in a single paint layer usually on a white ground.

Instead of spending a lot of time drawing and detailing a mass or value "macchia" then doing additional refinement through more careful drawing, one develops "on the fly" a color "macchia" or pattern, sculpting the head's form and features through direct application of paint.

Each stroke of the brush imparts both value and hue simultaneously and has to be correct.

If incorrect, it must be immediately scraped off and re-applied. Paint directly and quickly.

The most famous proponent of this method was John Singer Sargent. But many of the renouned masters of portraiture used this method to some degree, especially Fran Hals and Rembrandt.



Reference

Back to Color in Portraiture

This week we will return to the subject of color mixing for portraiture:


Sorry but time did not allow for me to write much.

We discussed the Munsell color wheel and various harmonies: primary, secondary, etc.



The Munsell system has three dimensions: vertical(value), circumference(hue), and diameter (saturation).

There was a comment in class that the Munsell system did not have orange. Whoever said this was mistaken. As you can see below organge is still a secondary color in the munsell system. However, "orange" is labeled YR (yellow-red) in the Munsell system.

Painting Portrait Features

This week we will concentrate on painting portrait features such as eyes, ears, and mouth.

These features give your painting a finished look even if the overall portrait is painted in a spontaneous manner:



The Ear

The ear can be described as having the shape of the letter "C" with an "S" shape forming the interior of the ear. The two letters face in opposite directions from one another. On the left side the "C" faces backward and the "S" faces in the normal direction while on the right side the "C" faces in the normal direction and the "S" appears to face backwards:

New York Times Anatomy Image of the Ear:

After making the initial "C" and "S" shapes, look for the halftones needed to make the ear appear more natural:


The Eye




To paint the eye, begin by painting a shape that approximates the eye socket with a number six grey or sienna. Paint the iris by twirling the brush using ivory black or a very dark sienna (sienna plus ultra blue). Tone the eyeball area between the lids in a graduated fashion to make the eye ball look round. Paint the heavy dark crease above the upper lid. Paint the lower lid from the corner of the eye down and around to the tear duct corner of the eye (closer to the nose) and paint a a dark dab in the corner. Paint the upper lid using a number 3 value. Slightly cover the black circle of the iris.

Colors in Portraiture Continued

Again, the purpose of color is to add emotion, excitement, and impact to your portrait:

Review: We begin with a good sienna sketch of the subject, taking care to add shadings:

Then we add the color according to a system that I will detail below:

It is important to note, even before we start adding color, that getting a really good fresh and spontaneous sketch of nthe subject with accurate values is very often more important than adding color. Also, we need to observe that the monochrome underpainting in sienna already has a subtle kind of color:

(Portrait of Corle LaForce)
This being said, very often the modern portrait implies a vibrant use of color:

(Portrait of Carlo Bianchi).
Here color is combined with expressive brushwork.
The process we want to follow is this (Sandon method:)

1. add dark colors (state shadows)


2. add transition halftones)


3. add halftones: lower, central, upper third of face)


4. add lights: central, upper, lower third of face -- that order


5. restate colors: do reflected light, restate darks, halftones, lights)


6. particularize: eyes, eye details, nose, nose details, mouth, mouth details, hair, hair details

Let's consider the colors used in this portrait:



First of all, we notice the changes in color are subtle. More important than color is value and the modeling of planes that create surfaces for light to flow over the face.

Nevertheless, the colors bring life and drama to the portrait. In this case the dark and light greens of the background complement the reds and pinks in the complexion of the subject. Note the ample use of white paint to create the needed highlights.

The colors in this instance were limited: alizarin crimson and titanium white, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, and yellow ochre. In some areas I used veridian and cadmium red light. That was the total list of colors used.

Next I will discuss some of the theory surrounding use of color in portraiture.

COMPLEMENTS

The Munsell Color wheel is a modern approach to color mixing:


This is the one found on Wikipedia.

There are five primary colors: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The secondary colors are: green-yellow, yellow-red, red-purple, purple-blue, and bluegreen.

Here are some notes on how to use all of this information:
Color Harmonies: Try to paint with any of these color harmony schemes:

1. primary harmony: use only red, yellow, green, blue, and purple (Munsell)


2. adulterated harmony: use primaries mixed with adjacent secondaries -- you make secondaries by mixing two primaries. The traditional secondaries are orange, green, and violet


3. use just the secondaries on the color wheel
   
4. tertiary harmony: use all six teriary hues -- teriary hues are formed by mixing a primary with a secondary


5. tetrad harmony: use four evenly spaced (any) hues around the color circle

1. state shadows: Use a mix of dark1 (burnt sienna, viridian, cad orange) either cooled down (add more viridian) o5 warned up (add cad red light or burnt sienna or alizarin or cad orange or a combination of any of these). This dark1 should be a brown-red-slightly green color.

2. Transition halftones: at the edge of your darks start to add a warmer and lighter color. A micture of halftone 2 and cad red light. Halftone two is a mix of white, yellow ochre, cad red light, chromium oxide green, and cad orange)-- it can be cooled or warmed pretty much the same way as withj dark1. It is basically a burnt sienna looking color, a warm red brown. It helps make the transition from your dark shaows to the light areas of the canvas. Use on the nose and the cheekbone areas.

3. Halftones in the lower third: Warm halftones. On male faces use a cooler version to simulate beard beneath the skin. this is a redish-brown color cooled with green. Note that the lower third is darker than the other two thirds.

4. Halftones in the Central third: Like a band of lighter, more orangy and ruddy colors. This area covers the nose and extends to the sheeks and other areas. Paint violet neutrals around the eye sockets and shade one side of the nose. When yoiu paint, use just a few brishstrokes with a big brush to state this band of bright colors: a few strokes to the left of the nose, on the nose, and to the right of the nose will suffice.

5. Halftones in the Upper third: Haltone2 plus cadmium orange. This should be a warm golden color. On the shaed side of nthe forehead darken this mixture with a neutral to introduce a greyer aspect of this mixture.

6. Halftones in the hair: merge hair and forehead forms using a neutral color.

7. Lights in the central third: Alizarin and white. Again just a few strokes here and there. Keep the eyes loose by adding a few strokes to provide general statements.

8. Lights in the lower third: Halftone 2 with a neutral color. Use a few strokes to define light falling onto area above the upper lip and on either side of the mouth.

9. Lights on upper third: Use impasto by mixing alizarin, cad yellow, and white. A few strokes should suffice.

10. Add lights to the hair with a neutral. Keep brush strokes visible.

More to come...



stay tuned.