In this post I'll go over a bit of my process of capturing a figure with a limited amount of time.
Doing small paintings from life in a single session is such a good exercise. Having the pressure of a 3 hour time limit has made me quicker all around, it has helped me mix and match my colors faster, get my measurements and gesture down, and paint in a way that is much looser than I would normally choose if I had all the time in the world. And figuring out how to make a painting like this look finished has been a fun exercise because I am forced to choose what to emphasize by giving it more time and attention, and how to leave the less painted areas still strong and precise enough to read clearly.
Surface
When I'm doing studies like this I prefer to use paper. It's economical if you do studies frequently like I do, it's easy to transport, and it still gives a beautiful result. I buy large sheets of smooth Arches paper, it's got a great weight and is thick enough to support the paint. Some companies sell primed paper for oils, for whatever reason I haven't tried it yet. I've gotten used to my process of ripping my paper to whatever size I choose, applying gesso in layers, and hitting it with a little sandpaper if it needs it. I use 3 layers of gesso to ensure the paper will be protected from the oil paint so the paintings actually last. And it is important to let the gesso dry completely (at least 24 hours for the type I use - Liquitex Professional) before going in with the oil paint. One of my favorite artists, Cesar Santos, has a great video about how he prepares the paper in his notebooks for painting.
A day or two before my painting session I tone my paper. There are many ways to do this, some artists use acrylic paint, some use thinned oil paint, but I like to brush on a layer of paint without thinning it out because I hate the smell of solvents and prefer to not use them at all if possible. (I use walnut oil to clean my brushes before soap and water.) Using unthinned paint takes longer to dry but it gives a thicker base layer. It's a personal preference and there is room to do it the way you want. Currently I like to use a mixture of Ultramarine blue, Transparent Red Iron Oxide (which I will probably call various things from here on out because it has 4 descriptors) and Titanium White. I like to tone my paper like many other artists because it makes it easier to judge color relationships. Slapping paint right on a brilliant white paper or canvas can make even the highest highlight appear too dark and if you don't check your colors against what you're painting, it's very easy to end up with a finished study that has all the wrong values.
Brushes
I tend to gravitate toward filberts of various sizes for a lot of my work. They can hold plenty of paint so a larger mass can be filled in quickly, and the soft rounded edges make them excellent for blending later. When I put in my drawing I reach for a long flat brush, it holds more paint than a small round and since it can hold more paint I can get a good amount blocked in before needing to dip it back in the paint. I've tried using a small round to get my sketch in but found it annoying when I had to stop repeatedly to grab more paint.
Current palette
I think it's important to do a lot of research and experimentation when you choose your palette. I've gone through several iterations as I've looked at what some of my favorite artists use, and eventually you find the colors that work best for you. It's a fun part of cultivating your process and style. A lot of different tubes of paint can create the same finished colors so finding what works for you and knowing when to buy a new tube of paint and add it to the mix comes with practice and experience.
Color list
Titanium White
Hansa Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Orange
Cadmium Red Light
Cadmium Red Deep
Quinacradone Rose
Anthraquinone Red (Permanent Alizarin Crimson)
Ultramarine Blue
Transparent Red Iron Oxide
Violet Grey
It's a lot of colors right now. Part of the reason for this is that I'm working on paintings of my daughter's toys and they are very brightly colored and highly saturated. Since the tubes are around I like seeing what they can do when painting a figure. There are plenty of artists using 4 or 5 colors for most paintings and that is definitely a route to take. I started there and ended up expanding. Again experimentation is fun and it leads to new discoveries. As far as brands go I have a lot of M. Graham tubes as well as some Old Holland. Old Holland was my go to in school, the quality and coverage are excellent, and the texture is buttery and thick. M. Graham is made with walnut oil and has a thinner viscosity which is sometimes nice for painting in thinner layers like I do for my indirect paintings. They both have their strengths and because I like to shop locally when I can and M. Graham is carried here, I have ended up with a lot of their paint.
For my yellows I have a tube of Hansa Yellow that I'm using up instead of Cadmium Yellow. I bought it for a class and at this point am just using it up. I have more experience with Cad Yellow but I kind of want to explore the Hansa to see what it does. It's a cooler yellow and I feel like it can very easily go greenish. It's a weird color to me and I'm not sure if I like it. It's also not as potent as a Cad Yellow because it's transparent. I don't reach for Hansa a lot currently, I end up going for Yellow Ochre more frequently, which is excellent for warm skin tones, but I have found it neutral enough to use in cooler skin tones as well.
Cadmium Orange is a dream. It's so potent and I love it for mixing skin tones. It has been such a great color to reach for on the really brightly lit areas right next to a highlight. Like the other Cadmiums it's a strong color and a little goes a long way.
I dabble with a lot of reds and find them useful in different ways. I have an Old Holland Cadmium Red Light that I use for a lighter skin tone mixture when I need a nice warm red, and Old Holland Cadmium Red Deep in areas where I have a darker local color that needs to stay warm. Having a regular Cad Red would probably split the difference, really, but I ran out of it a while ago and have found that I like using the Light and Deep. Now we come to the cooler reds and weird paint "rules" that maybe don't make sense. I was told in school to not use Alizarin Crimson. To this day I don't know why, and I don't remember even being given a reason. But check out Scott Waddell's amazing work and you'll see him use a ton of Alizarin in his incredible portraits. So it CAN be done. And finally I use a dab of Quinacradone Rose. I think I bought it by mistake once but I've found it very useful in rosy skin tones. It's not as strong or deep as Alizarin and seems to have less tinting strength but it's a nice option when a cooler red is needed in a lighter mixture.
For my figure paintings I have one straight up blue, Ultramarine. It is excellent in the shadows but I find myself not really using it in the highlights. It's so dark, and it can certainly be used in lighter areas, I've seen artists make a premixture of Titanium White and Ultramarine so they can get a lighter value blue to add to lighter value mixes, but I find that when I want to mute my orange/yellow mixture in a lighter area I reach for Violet Grey by Georgian Oil Color. I hadn't heard of it before but it was recommended to me at Townsend Atelier because some of my favorite artists use it frequently in their portraits. I can see why. It's also a really cheap tube of paint so it's not a huge investment if you want to experiment.
In the space for a brown I used Transparent Red Iron Oxide. It makes a fantastic dark color when mixed with Ultramarine blue, it is transparent (obviously) and I find it plays well with other colors on my palette. In school I used a lot of Burnt Umber but when I tried Transparent Red for the first time I was hooked. The Red Oxide plays well with the other colors, even in lighter mixtures. For me Burnt Umber can be harder to use with lighter colors because sometimes it brings a gray cast that I don't like. Though talk to Mark Carder of Draw Mix Paint and you'll see he uses a limited palette with Burnt Umber and has found tricks to make it work. See, we all find our methods.
Drawing stage
When I start my figure painting I take some general measurements. Out of habit and training I use the model's head measurement to find how long the body is in heads, and find what body parts line up with which measurements. I use the model's head to gauge the width of the figure as well. It's important to not get lazy with this step, if the drawing isn't accurate it is immensely frustrating to redraw and repaint after a layer of color has been put down.
I don't use a pencil to sketch in my drawing in an alla prima painting. It can be done, for sure, but my preference is to go in with the paint and not get too granular with my pencils. The mix I use for my outline is straight Ultramarine and Transparent Red Oxide. The resulting color is very dark, probably darker than the darkest dark I will need to paint a body in space, and it allows me to see my drawing lines as I fill in local colors. It also creates a lot of contrast in the finished piece. My husband says it almost looks like the dark outlines of a cartoon. I see it. It's part of my process that contributes to the look of the finished painting so I leave it and I like it stylistically.
Going in
When I start a painting like this I like to premix a lot of my colors on my palette. And while the paint is on my palette knife I hold it up to the figure and check my colors. To have it right before applying any paint to the paper is so helpful and makes the process go more smoothly. If painting figures like this is your thing you'll start to see some trends in what colors generally go where. One easy example is that a torso may have some lighter, less saturated areas of color but on the upper chest there tends to be a bit of rosiness. Or maybe the legs have a darker color and tend to be more brown or red or even a little purplish compared to the torso and arms. You'll start to see some general patterns and it's helpful to observe them from model to model see what that looks like on a variety of people.
Depending on how the model is lit and what's going on in the background, I may start with the darkest dark on the model, and then move to the mid values, saving the highlights for last. In school I was told to try to bring the whole painting up at one time instead of finishing each area and moving to the next area. If you bring the whole painting up at the same time (and by that I mean putting some local colors in and covering the surface with paint before getting super focused and detailed) it will allow you to judge color relationships and the drawing and make changes before a lot of time is spent perfecting a small area that may end up needing to be fixed later. Some artists definitely don't do that. I'm a bit in between, I know for the most part that getting the whole painting looking really polished might not happen in 3 hours so I will put more focus on one area than the others. I tend to go for torsos...mostly torsos. They are dynamic and interesting. So by the end of the painting I aim to have most of the body covered with paint to at least suggest what it looks like, how it is lit, and if there is a major color note in that area, and then get more focused on the areas I enjoy. And I try not to get too blendy until the end. Staying loose at the beginning allows for easier changes to be made if necessary.
Well I think that's a pretty good general overview for now, I mean entire books are written on this subject so for a post like this I've tried to include the general process as well as some helpful details. I'm sure I will have more posts on this subject in the future as I think of areas I want to explain in more detail. And as always if you have any questions or input or a favorite book suggestion I'm all ears.
Thanks and I'll see you next time.
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