First attempt at oil

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Jimmie,

I would have been jumping for joy if I had been able to manage this head at my first life session. (First, the compliment, then the critique... ) There is so much information to digest when working from life it's hard to know where to start. I congratulate you for having the guts to post your first one!

One of my first teachers had us paint a plaster "planes of the head" bust in black and white paint for the first half hour of every session. It was annoying to keep doing this after the first few weeks but it really helped me see the values of the planes as they move away from the light source and to get a real sense of the head as a solid form in space. It also helped me to know what to look for in a "typical" head and where the bony parts are. I really recommend getting one of these if you can.

I have a feeling that one of the things that is causing you trouble is that you are trying to translate colorful, live flesh into monocrome. If you try looking through a sheet of red acetate (there are lots of other value-finding tools, too) it will help you assess values.

Many of the good books on anatomy discuss what happens to the eyeball on the far side of the three-quarter view as the head turns away from you. I don't have one of my books in front of me at the moment but I can post a diagram tomorrow if you want me to.

Her neck muscles aren't quite right here - neck muscles are often surprisingly hard to paint accurately. When you are working from life be sure also to get the shadow and values right on the neck as well as the head and to develop both simultaneously. I also think that the eye highlights should be coming from the other side, the side from which the light originates.

Jimmy, you draw beautifully and with great style and intensity. I'm betting you'll pick this up this painting thing much more quickly than you think you will.

[Linda Brandon]

I just read your post again... this is your first oil ever, and it's from life! Even more impressive!

[Jimmie Arroyo]

Thank you Linda,

I think my biggest problem right now is getting used to making marks with a brush and trying to control it. I have a pretty good sense of anatomy, but translating it with a brush will take time. I may be thinking too much when I paint, which is also a problem I had with pastels. The first pastels I tried, I was happy with, now that I try to control them, I can't. I need to get comfortable knowing how to apply paint, which brush to use and when.

Learning a new medium and understanding it's properties has always presented a challenge, because I get stuck applying the rules from a different medium. Airbrushing had it's own rules, tattooing, pastels, now I have to forget them as I'm painting in oils.

Thanks again.

[Kimberly Dow]

Jimmie-

I do not know how many artists here sketch on their canvas first, but I almost always do unless it is from life. I have a suggestion for when your at home, not the class. Take a canvas (or cheaper canvas pad) and do one of your pencil drawings on it - just no details - make it a cartoon. (some of the old masters made first sketches on canvas and called them cartoons) Then - color it in like a coloring book with the paint. This is practice time that you can use to learn how each brush moves and lays down paint. This may not be how some of the teachers here would suggest learning color, but in thinking back it is pretty much how I learned. If you are using a photograph then do that - then when you feel you have gotten the color fairly well - have the model back to check for edge softness and color accuracy.

Your going to do fine Jimmie - it won't take you long at all.

[Sharon Knettell]

Jimmie,

Two colors are fine for now. Actually Harold Speed recommends two colors at the beginning. I think his was white and black or raw umber, I am not sure. Just get that paint moving around and make sure your underdrawing is as accurate as possible.

There is a little cheap devise that I use. It is called a C-Thru ruler made by the C-thru ruler company. It is a transparent plastic ruler 2" wide and 12" long. It has red markings every 1/8 of an inch. Hold it up to the subject at the same plane as the drawing or painting if you are doing relative size, ie. the painting is not directly next to the subject as in sight size. Always look at the subject from exactly the same point of view. The measurements can be quite accurate this way. Remember the eyes at the inside corner are always in the middle of the head and keep dropping those vertical lines for accuracy. A plumb line is a big help for that. I use a lead fishing weight at the end of a string. You can probably find a plumb line as well.