Tony Pro' s technique

[Adriano Maggi]

"Geisha"'s painting

[Tony Pro]

To get the soft edges in clothing or any soft transition, I follow what Sargent did, which was use a few transitional strokes of a middle value between your foreground element and your background, usually by bristle filbert, than move to a mongoose hair brush and soften some of the passages to get a real lost edge.

By the way, I have seen that Sargent that you posted. It taught me VOLUMES on his method. I think its for sale in a gallery in New York...

[Adriano Maggi]

Originally Posted by Tony Pro

To get the soft edges in clothing or any soft transition, I follow what sagent did, which was use a few transitional strokes of a middle value between your foreground element and your background, usually by bristle filbert, than move to a mongoose hair brush and soften some of the passages to get a real lost edge.

Hi Tony,

You are so nice and thoughtful!!

Thanks for the technical explanation. I'll post few Sargent' s paintings details and ask you some questions.

1)If Sargent didn't paint "alla prima" how did he make the hair's transparence you see on the right side of the picture?

[Adriano Maggi]

2) you can see that the procedure takes a second time session

[Adriano Maggi]

3) This picture seems to me to have been painted in more then one session... or not?
Feel free to answer me when you've got time. I'm retired and I 'm afraid to get a little obsessionated by Sargent 's painting.
Ciao
Adriano

[Dianne Gardner]

I'd like to subscribe to this thread and follow along with some answers too. I so admire Sargeant's work. All these examples are absolutely stunning. Thanks for bringing up these questions Adriano and for sharing with us Tony.

Dianne

[Adriano Maggi]

Hi Dianne
I'm very pleased to share everything I know about Sargent's technique.
That's why I asked Tony ,because I think he can explain to us how to proceed to get by half tones the planes and the volumes of a face.
Ciao Adriano