Looking for help with checks - no kidding!

Terri Ficenec · 02-27-2004, 08:50 PM

I'm currently working on a painting where a large area of the canvas will be a shirt that has a light blue/dark blue gingham type check. I had originally thought ...well, it'll be tedious, but not really a problem... (what was I thinking!) Started out painting the individual checks but found that maintaining a consistent size and realistic color variations/shading across the fabric was a problem. The painting is 24"x18", so the shirt will cover roughly a 12"x14" area (see reference photo below).

SO, now I've reverted to painting the entire shirt as if it were the lighter of the two colors, and am thinking that when this dries I'll add the darker check pattern with some translucent glazes (vertical 'lines' then once those dry horizontal crossing ones) over top of the lighter color. Will this work??

I have a feeling this shirt will be very time consuming, regardless of how I do the checks... but I do want to put them in there! Any tips (either what has worked for you or what has not!) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Michele Rushworth · 02-28-2004, 03:44 PM

I would paint the shirt a solid color. The checks, if painted perfectly, are very distracting from the focal point of the face. If painted imperfectly, they will be even more distracting.

I give my clients a handout before a photo shoot and we talk about what the subject should wear. This discussion and handout includes a statement about "no distracting patterns, ie. busy stripes or checks."

Ngaire Winwood · 02-28-2004, 09:31 PM

Michelle what other important info should we think about as per your handout?

Michele Rushworth · 02-28-2004, 09:48 PM

I always recommend that my subjects wear solid (not busily patterned) clothes in classic styles that won't make the portrait seem out of date in a few years.

I usually paint kids and here's what I tell my clients: I might suggest khaki pants and a white button down shirt for a boy in an indoor portrait, or perhaps a light colored polo-type shirt with solid cotton shorts for outdoors. Little girls look great in white or simple solid-colored dresses, both indoors and out.

Things that I would recommend against would be clothing in a very strong color that might be overly dominant in the composition, or anything with strong stripes or other bold patterns. I would also not want to paint a portrait with a subject wearing a t-shirt with writing or other images on it.

In my portraits I try to aim for a classic and traditional feel, though not old fashioned. I usually suggest my clients have the subject of the portrait dress in a way that fits that concept.

Terri Ficenec · 02-29-2004, 09:56 AM

Thanks Michele! That's sound advice... and it'll certainly make this a whole lot easier to paint! I like the idea of the pre-emptive handout, too.

Ngaire Winwood · 03-01-2004, 07:16 AM

Michelle that is very useful information. It is so helpful having artists like you who share. Thank you.

Karin Wells · 03-04-2004, 02:26 AM

This is my only painting that I could find that had blue checks on it.

Painting this is a piece of cake. Completely paint the white cloth that is underneath the pattern complete with shadows, halftones and highlights.

When it is dry, mix a glaze of blue paint (I like ultramarine) and paint stripes going either horizontally or vertically (not both) over all (highlight, halftone and shadow). Be sure to respect the way the cloth moves and folds.

When this is dry, mix the same color and intensity of glaze and paint stripes in the opposite direction. Where the two stripes overlap, the square will be darker.

When this is dry, match the glazed blue color with a mixture of white and blue to exactly match what is underneath and repaint over (only) those squares (both dark and light blue) that appear in the highlighted portions of the shirt.

Because you can see through a glaze, it will be lighter and brighter in the light and show less contrast (or maybe not visible at all) in the shadows.

Viola, you're done! After this, I'll bet you ask your client to wear "easy to paint" clothes.

Terri Ficenec · 03-04-2004, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karin Wells

When this is dry, match the glazed blue color with a mixture of white and blue to exactly match what is underneath and repaint over (only) those squares (both dark and light blue) that appear in the highlighted portions of the shirt.

Because you can see through a glaze, it will be lighter and brighter in the light and show less contrast (or maybe not visible at all) in the shadows.

Hi Karin -

Well, don't you make it look effortless!

I understand the part about glazing the sets of stripes one way, then the other... just not sure that I'm following the part about matching the glazed blue color with a mixture of blue and white to match what is underneath for the highlighted portions. Is the intent of this step to make the highlighted areas more opaque? (So that I'd be exactly matching the color of each highlighted square (or part square) as it's painted?) Or am I completely misunderstanding?

Thanks so much for the advice!

Karin Wells · 03-04-2004, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Is the intent of this step to make the highlighted areas more opaque?

Yes. Light is always portrayed in thicker opaque paint. Shadows are thin.

Quote:

(So that I'd be exactly matching the color of each highlighted square (or part square) as it's painted?)

Yes. Because you can see through the glaze to the cloth below, it allows you to see the exact color and value you need so you don't have to guess.

I used a small flat square tipped sable brush to get the glaze stripes uniform. If you make the stripes slightly bigger, you won't have to paint so many of them.

It was a while ago that I painted this still life, but I remember that the entire checkered pattern probably took a total of 30 minutes of my time. The pattern only looks hard - but it really isn't. Painting the plain white cloth underneath was much more time consuming.

Sorry this is such a poor photo detail. I rescanned my crummy snapshot to show more detail. This is one of those paintings that I didn't bother to photograph adequately before I sold it. I regret that now.

SB Wang · 03-04-2004, 11:55 AM

ABC news:

Karin---is promoted as CEO of
K-Mart Corporation (only on the condition of that she paints each piece of cloth by hand).

A CEO position, is "a piece of cake". Because she handles check affair well, she is invited to be the president of the Republic of Czech, the second American citizen ever been considered after Einstein.

One of my friends, Mr.Ma, feels good to see his designed clothes at Wal-Mart, day job; he also exhibited his Chinese paintings at galleries, moonlighting.