How do you paint chains?
 

I am working on a figurative piece that involves a head dress with lots of gold chains. The larger pieces are not a problem, but I have hit a roadblock with the small chains in the medallion featured here.

My aim is to be as true to the image of this piece as possible and I want to show each link! Since the area is so small I need to know if it would be better to darken the area with the darkest value and then scratch into it or to keep it in the lightest value and go for the dark shapes. Or maybe there is another solution?!

Thanks for your help.

For those interested the entire image look here:
http://world-market-portraits.blogspot.com/

Lead white and copal yields a mix that can be controlled between very stiff to "ropey" like warm mozzarella. "Sculpting" this kind of detail as a built-up area, then glazing dark tones into it when dry is one approach that will yield a more convincing "3-D" effect than sgraffito (scratching lights out of a dark over-painting).

Take a look at Rembrandt's "Saskia as Bellona" and "Man in Armor" for his handling of detail encrustations on the armor.

A matter of taste, and certainly of the patience and skill of the painter to "embroider" jewelry in full detail, but I'd think it better to imply the detail in careful accent than to rebuild the piece with paint!

Thank you Richard for taking the time to respond. :)

I have to try this technique sometime. In the meantime it will be interesting to hear the different type of approaches that have worked for others.

After trying varies ways to make sense of the jumble of links on the medallion, I decided to keep the mid brown underpainting and to use a method similar to erasing out.

For this purpose I have used a very old mini brush (almost worn down to the ferule), which I dipped into solvent and basically scratched out the lightest links. Then using my pen again, I reemphasized the darks.

Taking into consideration that this is the underpainting, there is no fear of compromising the surface quality. This technique worked nicely and the chains have taken form given me a little road map for the successive paint layers.

I don't know if this suggestion will be entirely helpful, but when painting jewelry, often I've found that the level of detail and inherent wide value range can create a focal point in your painting where you didn't intend one. So, I try to make it very soft.

The method I like to use is to model the jewelry in a narrower value range, leaving out one or two steps of both the darkest and lightest values. Then paint back in wet with the darkest values so the edges will be super soft, leaving lights and catch lights for last. I like the ropy cremnitz white too, but last time I used flake and a little stand oil, and worked the highlights in tiny adjacent dots. (Thank you, Jan Vermeer!)

Thank you Lisa for your response. I love to hear how people tackle things differently. There are always new ways to be learned and mental notes to be taken what to watch out for to avoid the little pitfalls.

You are absolutely right, but in this figurative piece it's really all about the head dress and the theme of "water".

My model is actually the designer of this piece. She designs costumes and writes about tribal costuming for a magazine in the
U. K. This head dress was featured in her recent article and it is one of a series about the four elements.

I find your suggestions very helpful and I will keep them in mind once I start work in the color layers.

Here is a nice painting of jewelery by Luis Falero "An Oriental Beauty"

Here is something I found in "Beyond the Naked Eye"

For those following my progress, a new image of the work in progress has been uploaded here:
http://world-market-portraits.blogspot.com/

For those of you interested in getting some ideas about painting pearls look here:

http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/lessons/perl.htm

Great for "photo shoppers", I suppose . . . and a case in point how computer-generated images can fall down.

The "highlight" point of view remained the same on each pearl in the string. Re-read the part about "learning how to observe". Back to class!

- Totally uncalled for! ;C

Hmm. I agree. Although there's no doubt I could profit from a re-read. I totally missed the Da Vinci quotes in that link.

Enzie, it seems you think I meant you should go back to class. That was not my intention. I meant that to refer to the author of the tutorial. Too flippant, in any case and certainly unclear in this written medium, so I apologize.

I've said before I have no intention of "dissing" anyone via online art fora, and that stands. The best way to accomplish that is simply not to post my opinions.

No harm done Richard :) I misunderstood your intention.

When I tackle a new project, my aim is to learn how others have approached the same subject in various ways. This broadens my understanding on what to pay close attention to and at times brings awareness about what to avoid. This information might help others as well, to learn to see and judge for themselves what they find useful and applicable to their projects.

There is as much to be learned from bad examples as there is from good ones and Richard is totally correct to point out the highlight issue. Opinions are always welcome, they warrant consideration, because they make us aware that we might have overlooked something.

When I grow up, besides painting skin tones like Marvin M. :sunnysmil , I like to paint like Jean L

Photo #2

The way I approached the underpainting helped a great deal to make sense of the unjulating links of the chains inside the medallion and on the headdress. Now every link is connected to another and there is some order in the house. Note how I used the most obvious shapes in the reference and made sure that they repeat where they need to be in the painting. There are plenty of little ommissions, but since the major shapes are in place the piece looks correct.

When I layed in the paint, I aimed for value 9 my lightest Yellow Ochre (no white- that's reserved for the highlights only!) Then I placed in the darkest value 1 of Raw Umber. These two along with the values of the underpainting then allowed me to create the form and general layout of the chains and the medallion.

The areas facing the light source receive the lightest values and decrease in value becoming less intense and darker as they turn away. Watch out for those pieces that overlap others, casting shadows and making those areas darker.

While looking at the shapes and how they relate to each other ask: "What color is it? Is it cool or warm? Intense or dull? Repeat this at every new layer application and hopefully everything will fall into place.

I have been doing a lot of reworking on "Blue Tribe". I got rid of the heavy necklace and substituted it with a lighter one. The chains are completed and only need a few touch ups.

For close-ups of the jewelery and some additional information
Click here:

To paint brass objects, there are various way of color choices. For example, you could use Burnt Umber and Cadmium Yellow Light to get the main color of the object. For the shadows a bit of Alizarin Crimson and Black will do the trick. Highlights could be achieved with Cadmium Yellow light and White.

Added July 6th

Since I try to limit my use of Cadmiums, I get the same colors by mixing Raw Umber and Yellow Ochre Light into various values. White is added for the lightest values of that yellow string. Highlights are done in the lightest Yellow value plus White.

To get the shadows richer I add Alizarin Crimson, it is a transparent hue and rather than alternating the color, just adds a nice glow when used as a wash over the Umber.

Remember to have lost and found edges. The lost edges are created by values that are extremly close to each other.

To add a sense of turning of the armband watch how the light will change direction and how things become more muted (add grey to desaturate) and with less definition (no sharp lines/blend) as they turn into the shadows.

For larger views click on the images in my blog. Details of the ring and necklace can also be found there.

I have to apologize to those following the progress of how to paint chains/jewelery. On a recent visit to my daughter's in San Fransisco, I had another encounter with a very stubborn kidney stone that landed me in the hospital. Needless to say, the "Blue Tribe" painting did not get touched and therefore there has been this laps in postings.

This is as far as I got....

I have been working on the bottle today, but I won't post it here since it is not about jewerlery. I do have some notes written about how to paint glass and what to watch for. Of course all these things are sooo much easier said then done, but for what it's worth, you can read all about it on my blog.

By the way I am starting to run out of ideas what to do with the jewelery. This post was meant to be a joint effort about "How do you paint chains?" and somehow has evolved into me doing all the commenting from chains to jewelery, etc. . With over 900 views, there must be others out there who have an opinion and can contribute. :)

Enzie,
I think that you have to observe the jewelery / chains just like blond curly hair and think of the value masses and how the hair would catch the light. In some places you will have shadow that might be colored by reflection from other colors, warmer or colder, and where you will see no details. Think of lost and found edges and variations of detailing.

Yes, Allan, you are so right!

There are no rules to painting, but I have found that there is a certain rhythm of things that occur in nature. To learn what to look for and to evaluate how this knowledge applies to each lighting situation, can help make sense of things.

Here is a photo I have taken of a chain. On the left I turned it into black and white so you can see the values better. On the right you can see the colors and intensity of each hue.

Links are the same size, but as they recede in space their appearance has to get smaller and less defined. This can be achieved by blurring edges and less saturated colors (greyed down your colors).


If one were to magnify a chain link, it is very similar to a donut shape, it is a round object that has dimension.Therefore each of
these links will have to have value transitions that make it appear round. In other words there will be shadow, mid-tone, highlight, reflected light, cast shadow, etc.

When links join this will happen:

1 - Shadows
One link will cast a shadow on the other one. The thing to watch out for is how intense this cast shadow is, which in turn will depend on how the light hits that particular area of the link.

2 - Reflected Light
One link catches the light and reflects it onto the other link.
Note how some of the reflected light is a very intense warm yellow compared to the cool whitish highlight. Pay attention to the slight value difference these two hues have when they are turned into black and white.

This won't apply as much to the chain link as it does to larger jewelery. But look how adjacent areas of skin/hair/clothing will reflect their colors into your reflective object/jewelery. Lets say you have used ochres to get the gold parts of your jewelery. If your values are correct you can pretty much introduce any other reflective color as long as it remains the same value. When painting the ring band I had a value 4 or 3 dark ochre and it looked rather dull. When I added the same value Venetian Red (skin color reflected onto the ring) the whole thing just came to life.

Remember that reflective objects can have several reflections vs. non-reflective objects which have a light and dark side.

3 - Highlights

Depending on painting technique, highlights seem to be added differently.

I tend to work with my lightest color mixed with white (value 9) and only
add the pure white (value 10) at the very end, sort of as the cherry on the top. Some say highlights should be crisp and sharp, others blend them in. Then there are those artist who use thick paint to make the elevated paint catch the light.

I think the reader could benefit from more input by others on this subject. :?

-Lost and Found Edges
Ok, so what does that mean. When an edge is lost it means that the value of lets say the particular area of that link is the same value as its background. See where I marked "Value" , by squinting and looking at the blk/wht that area ideally needs to disappear into the background. There are no sharp edges either and therefore it gives the illusion as if that part of that particular link seems to recede in space.

Now lets look at the opposite case. Anywhere you can see a link coming forward, there is a difference in value between adjoining areas. If you really want to emphasize it coming forward add a sharp/thin line.

-Cast shadows

The links/chain will cast a shadow, so observe how intense this shadow is and how it moves across the planes.

Of course most chains are tiny in comparison to this sample, but now you know what to look out for. Of course I always say this is all so much easier said than done :) , but that's the charm of painting. There is always a new challenge!

For now this are all the pointers I can think of. Please feel free to add to these observations and give visual samples, so we can learn from each other.

I have posted the finished painting
here

There is still a lot of glare, but once the painting is dryer I will post close-ups of the jewelery.

Painting Shiny Metal
 

Enzie,

What works for me is to lay in the whole shape with the darkest value and color, semitransparently, and then add opaque middletones into that while it's wet, and then the highlights with a more heavily-laden brush for some opaque impasto.

Then there is Rembrandt's trick of applying a textured underpainting of pale yellow impasto, letting it dry, and then glazing over it with transparent brown, then wiping it off the high spots with a rag. The most extreme example of this is the man's sleeve in the painting now called "The Jewish Bride," in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Rembrandt did this on quite a few other paintings as well, but with less drastic impasto in the underpainting.

Suggestion is more effective in creating a three-dimensional illusion of reality than too much detail. Apply details selectively, and simplify areas of less than primary importance, for the utmost in realistic appearance.

I remember you from my workshop in San Francisco a few years ago. Hello again.

Virgil Elliott

Hi Virgil, I remember you too! :) It is very nice of you to take the time to share your technique here and it is greatly appreciated! It would be great if you could post an example of your work, so we can see how different techniques produce equally interesting results.

I found a wonderful detailed image of Rembrandt's "Jewish Bride" here

[QUOTE=Enzie Shahmiri]Hi Virgil, I remember you too! :) It is very nice of you to take the time to share your technique here and it is greatly appreciated! It would be great if you could post an example of your work, so we can see how different techniques produce equally interesting results.

Enzie,

You'll find a few reproductions of my work, and quite a bit of this kind of information, in my book, which has just now hit the market. The title is "Traditional Oil Painting: Advanced Techniques and Concepts from the Renaissance to the Present" published by Watson-Guptill Publications. Some of my paintings printed too dark in the book, though I suppose most of them still look okay, more or less. But the Old Master paintings, of which there are many shown, all reproduced well.

You can get an idea what some of my paintings look like by taking a look at my web site, http://www.virgilelliott.com

It's good to talk to you again.

Virgil

Congratulations on the new book! May you have great sales!