Lion #1- Session 3

Hi on a Saturday, a greyish day, with moments of sunny sparkle.  But mostly feeling a  bit wintry (for Sydney), and I have had to wear a jacket and scarf in the studio !  Plus an apron of course, I make a huge and glorious mess while painting so the apron is essential.  I did not get to work on the lion during the week, even the days I worked from home doing funny local hours meetings did not give a good opportunity for a break.  I can do a minor bit of painting in an hour, but a block of 2.5 - 3 hours is better and 4 is ideal.    Usually a "split" sked of morning work and late evening work allows this, but not this week.  So the lion has been waiting all week and gazing at me from his canvas, sitting on a big easel.  

Today I decided to do NO errands out and about and stay and have the whole day to work on the lion and other art things.  A few CDs got put on and I got water and gloss medium.  I already had all my paint tubes out, left out from the previous session working on the lion.

First I had to work on the lion's face.  His mouth and jowls were not right yet, and looked a bit "heavy".  Also, shadows on parts of his face were not right yet.  And I also worked on his nose and his eyes.  I used a very light touch today, with a palette full of many shades of my verdigris colors, payne's blue, and also some raw umber for dark shadows.  And pthalo green, this time with no white (as used for verdigris shades).   I had already made some charcoal markings on the lion's face where I would work on improving the shadows.  I let the charcoal mix into the paint this time (no fixative needed) and that worked fine, just adding a bit of charcoal granularity to the payne's grey or pthalo green used for shadows.    This allowed me to vary up my shadows and add some dimension to some of them.  Especially on the lion's nose and eyes.  I put in some of the dark shadowy and shading bits today, where the verdigris is worn off his chin, and where it ends on his ribcage, legs, etc.  I painted shadows into a few of the highlighted parts to give them more definition.

I worked on the lion in two shorter stints, but probably each over an hour.  Gosh now thinking about it is must have been two plus each.  I wasn't really keeping track of time today, which was kind of pleasant and relaxing.  

It got quite dark and stormy and my good light disappeared, so I decided to do a bit of work on the background.  I got most of the stone bricks in the building done, but need to make a few adjustments next session and also work on the shadows and a bit of detailing.  But the color of the stone looks better and is on its way to being how I want it.  I ran out of daylight and had to stop.

So here is the lion at end of session 3.  Still more adjustments to do to his face, his body, mane, and left leg.  And work on the building in the background.  So plenty to do in session #4.  If all goes well, he will be mostly done that next session and need just a bit of "love" to give him some embellishing highlights and touches before an oil glaze.  Stay tuned for his further development. Have a good Saturday :)

Lion #1 (Painting In-Progress)

Hello, from Sydney on a Thursday morning.  Yesterday's drizzle has cleared and there is a partly cloudy day in its place.  Not overly warm (about 16 C now), but pleasant enough with a light jacket and a silk scarf.  Good light in the studio for a bit of painting on my current piece of work, before the next "shift of meetings" for the day (I have done one early shift already, a big-yikes! 445AM wake up for a first call at 5 and already now half a day's work done).

Some of you have asked me to post some work-in-progress...so here is what I am working on this week and it is very much in-progress at this point !  The first of two verdigris lion statue paintings.  The two lion statue paintings will be of different lions, I have collected a number of photographs of verdigris lion statues along my travels in past years.  Not least because my eldest daughter Karen has an affinity for them (she is a Leo lady, so lions are a personal mascot and favorite of hers).  As I mined my photo library, I found two verdigris lions that were suitable for painting subjects with good detail and colors and a composition or pose I liked.

The first lion lives in front of the Art Institute in Chicago, an outstanding museum to include on your next visit to that lovely city (a very impressive permanent collection, great visiting exhibits are well presented).  But back to the lion.  I did a bit of work on the photo get the right background I wanted and I had it printed.  I can print myself, but I prefer to use a photo printing shop, as their printers and papers are better quality.  As I just get a 4" x 6" print, it is not expensive to do this.  

Then I sketched the lion and his background onto a large canvas (90 x 120 cm, or 36 x 48 inches).  I use willow charcoal for my sketches and an old scrap of a flour sack cloth as an eraser (remarkably effective and easy to softly erase the charcoal marks).  When I am happy enough with the sketch, I use fixative to lock it in place, so it doesn't smudge or mix into the paint of my initial underpainting.  The sketch does not have to be perfect, because I will also work visually from my reference subject (photo).  But the sketch gives me some important inputs that are used as boundaries and to navigate my way.  This is especially helpful for large paintings or complicated compositions.

Then I did a first underpainting, working quickly with a large brush.  Quickly is a relative term, as I spent several hours on both the sketch, then the initial underpainting.  I am working in acrylics and my first paint mixes a bit soupy with gloss medium and also water that is in and on the brush.  This creates drips and spills, some of which I may keep and leave in place, others will get painted over with more paint.  I want to capture the drama and strength of the lion in the first session and I was happy with that part, his personality came to life on the canvas quite well and early on.   I eventually had to stop painting, because it got too dark.  I have lights in the studio, but they are not good enough for seeing detail I was working at the time. Sometimes my initial underpainting is in black and white (and shades of grey), but this time I worked in color for it, because the overall palette is not super varied (verdigris tones, shadowy darks, and stone and dark shadows for the backdrop).

The next day on the (this past Sunday), I worked on the Lion again, making a number of corrections to his features and adding a lot of detail to the shadows, especially in his mane around face and in front of his chest.  His left leg (lion's left !) had been a bit puny looking, so I redid it to be better proportioned and liked it a lot better.  I also did a lot of color and contrast work, to further develop the shadows and also the highlights, helping "sculpt" the dimension and shape of the lion.  I used Pthalo green with white as my base verdigris color with some accents for the verdigris that have a more yellowy green mixed in.  The shadows are predominantly achieved with Payne's grey (which has a lot of blue in it) and also raw umber.  The photo right shows the state of Lion #1 at end of painting session 2.

This lion almost jumps off the canvas !  He is truly larger than life looking. But he is not done.  I have more corrections to make, especially on his facial features and the shadows under his jowly jutting chin.  More shadows also to put into his mane and body fur.  Stay tuned for more posts soon showing how he develops in this painting.  Bye now !

Kim's Reading List 27 May 2009

Hi All :)  Today's post has a few interesting reading reference picks I thought I would share.  These three are art and design related; two are about color and one is about object placement and composition.  The first is one I absolutely love, which is Choosing Colours by Kevin McCloud.   His work in this book and also his palettes for Fired Earth paint company are nothing short of awesome !  I originally learned of Kevin's color palettes after having gotten a freebie copy of his Fired Earth Paint palette in some British interiors magazines I had bought while in the UK.  I loved the subtlety to Kevin's Fired Earth palette and the descriptions of how the colors behaved in certain sorts of light.  I love Porter's Paints colors here in Australia and I even mapped my favorite Fired Earth colors to Porters which I have used in a fair few decorating projects.  Then when I saw this book in the bookstore, I just knew I had to have it !

The palette's shown in this book are amazing.  Kevin researches the colors thoroughly and presents really sophisticated insights to the nature of the color, what it works with and complements, and its depth and versatility.  I highly recommend this book to anyone doing work with color for interior decorating, textile arts, and artwork.  There are great ideas of how colors work together, palettes of related colors and also of color themes, and also lovely photos of decors done in certain colors or themes.  I find lots of inspiration and insights from this book, over and over again !

The next book is a new acquisition for me (today's stop at Border's !), and it looks fascinating.  Colorist:  A Practical Handbook for Personal and Professional Use by Shigenobu Kobayashi 

delves into color aesthetics and offers tools and techniques for determining color preferences and harmonies.  The book is a small size one, so it will be jumping into my suitcase for the upcoming epic round the world biz trip in June-July !  I found the charts and color insights fascinating and will be enjoying having a few good reads and also using this as a reference.

The last book pick in today's post is a very nice little study on still life object arrangement theory and practice called Arranging Things:  A Rhetoric of Object Placement by Leonard Koren (Paintings by Nathalie Du Pasquier).   This is a cool little easy-to-carry around book that decomposes compositions and analyzes objects in them in a very intelligent way.  A really great read for anyone arranging objects for aesthetics, interest, or to generate curiosity or intrigue !  

I find it is important to read as much as I can, and constantly look at new ideas, concepts and techniques or principles.  I also have a mad and crazy magazine habit, especially when I travel.  Then I buy off news stands or in book stores, especially in the UK and USA.  Usually I have a definite bias and affinity for interiors mags !  Not that I deliberately limit myself though, every so often it is good to look at something different, you just never know what you might find or learn...  I also LOVE buying magazines in India (check out Vogue India--it's  stunning !!!) So many cool and different things in the features and even the adverts, and fabulous colors, fabrics, jewelry, accessories, and makeup !   Though I read serious news too and am a voracious reader of local newspapers and news magazines too (especially appreciate The Economist--very well presented pieces in it !  And in USA, I like the WSJ for a good news balance between politics and business, and excellent editorials).  But back to my magazine habit.  I buy them and read and dog ear and scribble notes on whatever pages appeal, for whatever reason.  And before moving on (as in checking out of a hotel or leaving an airport transit lounge, I rip out the keepers pages, articles, images.  Magazines are heavy--but I do recycle the discarded bits in recycle paper bins :)  Later on return home I file the ones I want to retain as references and inspiration in big binders.  I now have a formidable set of volumes of reference materials for renovations, interiors makeovers, fashion, art and anything else (I also keep travel articles, in case I ever go to where the feature is ).  As part of my mental and visual immersion and stimulation while spending waytoomuchtime in airports, this is pretty tame and safe--works for me ;)

Have fun checking these out, or let me know what books related to art, aesthetics, and design you are loving right now !

Bye, more soon :)