Just before Christmas, in a burst of extra energy, I spent a few nights working on a new painting. Working at night means working under artificial lights. Sometimes trying to see under artificial light bothers me so much I can't paint. This time, though, I seem to have worked out the problem. I have a studio with great windows that I can use during the day, but it's impossible at night. But, here, in our house, I have a corner of the basement set up with a drafting table and an easel. And a little rolling cart with drawers for some supplies. The ceiling has a florescent light fixture behind frosted plastic. My drafting table has a good drawing light that has both a florescent and an incandescent bulb in it. Next to my easel, I have an Ott Light pole lamp. My little 6" x 8" paintings I've been doing while sitting at the drafting table with just the drawing light. But this painting is 20" x 16" and needed to be painted while on an easel. The Ott Light pole lamp was perfect. It has a flexible head that can be positioned in nearly any direction. I pointed it at my canvas on the easel and kept my palette on the drafting table. And painted till all hours of the night.
This painting I planned to do just for "me". It is from a photo I took while we were on our Great Out West Adventure. And I realize that it isn't an "animal portrait", but it does have Lizzy in it, so at least there is an animal. <grin>
I think that deciding to do the painting just for me, combined with painting everything dear to my heart, made this one just fly off my brush. Most paintings I start by doing a sketch with paint directly on the canvas. It's particularly important to get all the details correct when painting portraits and sketching first is the way I manage that. This time, though, I used an entirely different method, one that I have used before, and one that I like to call the Haykin Method. I've named it that since it is the way my good friend and mentor and excellent artist, Michael Haykin, starts his paintings. Since I feel this painting came out really well, I thought I would share the in-progress photos with you.
The first thing I did was to tone the canvas with a pink/peach sort of color. I did that by applying a bit of paint directly from the tube onto the canvas - using VanDyke Brown, Dioxazine Purple and Yellow Ochre. I've got the canvas laying horizontal at this point and then I pour a little bit of Turpenoid on the canvas. With a rag, I just start smearing it all together. Then, I wipe most of it off. It goes from a muddy mess to leaving this delightful peachy pink shade on the canvas.
Now the canvas goes back up on the easel and I wiped out the highlights. Once they are done, I painted in the darks. In this case I was making my dark blue with a mix of French Ultramarine Blue and VanDyke Brown. Here's what it looked like at that point....
This painting I planned to do just for "me". It is from a photo I took while we were on our Great Out West Adventure. And I realize that it isn't an "animal portrait", but it does have Lizzy in it, so at least there is an animal. <grin>
I think that deciding to do the painting just for me, combined with painting everything dear to my heart, made this one just fly off my brush. Most paintings I start by doing a sketch with paint directly on the canvas. It's particularly important to get all the details correct when painting portraits and sketching first is the way I manage that. This time, though, I used an entirely different method, one that I have used before, and one that I like to call the Haykin Method. I've named it that since it is the way my good friend and mentor and excellent artist, Michael Haykin, starts his paintings. Since I feel this painting came out really well, I thought I would share the in-progress photos with you.
The first thing I did was to tone the canvas with a pink/peach sort of color. I did that by applying a bit of paint directly from the tube onto the canvas - using VanDyke Brown, Dioxazine Purple and Yellow Ochre. I've got the canvas laying horizontal at this point and then I pour a little bit of Turpenoid on the canvas. With a rag, I just start smearing it all together. Then, I wipe most of it off. It goes from a muddy mess to leaving this delightful peachy pink shade on the canvas.
Now the canvas goes back up on the easel and I wiped out the highlights. Once they are done, I painted in the darks. In this case I was making my dark blue with a mix of French Ultramarine Blue and VanDyke Brown. Here's what it looked like at that point....
Next came the mid-tones.........
By the time the mid-tones are in, most of the canvas has a thin coat of paint on it and some of that delicious background is still peeking through. My hope is that I can save some of that in the final version.
And here is the final.......
The final painting got another layer of paint over the entire surface. I spent more time tightening up the figures - and tried to be conscious all the time of not getting "too" tight. I think I managed it just fine! It's hard to tell in this photo, but there are little spots of that peachy pink background sparkling through.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this "demo". Since this painting turned out so well, I think I'll do more experimenting with the "Haykin Method". You can see Michael's work on his website.... www.haykin.com. He's a fabulous artist.
Happy New Year to you all.....
susan
www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com
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