"Never Gets Easy, Does It?"

"Never gets easy, does it?" was exactly what I needed to hear, from Terry.  It's nearly impossible to imagine this is hard for Terry, or Sorolla!  That really is the point I need to soak up; it will always be hard.  As the manager of the World Series runner-up Rockford Peaches once declared, "It's the hard that makes it great."  Good, I am right where I am supposed to be.

Results Show!
(As always brought to you in a retelling of Terry Miura's latest notes on my prior posted studies)
I haven't re-posted the previous studies in the past, but I will today so the comments are more useful.

As for the Dogs, high five!

He thought they looked great.  In future pet portraits I need to more carefully consider the role of the background.  I need to ask myself just how much of the background is important in providing context for the dog's position in the environment, being careful not to over-describe.


As for the President Elect in 1909, there are a few more suggestions.

Mr. Taft's saturation was mostly under control except for the red streak on his right cheek.  The study had good vertical value change without being overworked.  However, in an interior tonal painting the darks of a dark background need to be transparent in order for it to recede.  (One can see the transparent dark under his lit ear looks better than the other opaque side).  To accomplish this, a bigger brush would be useful.  The black outlining his mustache was a drawing relic that should have found itself painted over, as it flattens the shape of his facial hair.

Finally, he appreciated the attention paid to the variances of soft edges, but calls me out for not using a loaded brush.  The strokes where the outside edges meet the background look timid because the paint is too thin.  He in includes the perfect Sargent recommendation for this, "Paint one shape into another."  Terry explains it requires a "confident, intentional, loaded brush" to "achieve buttery soft edges" then adds, "Don't expect to get it right on the first try".  This is the error I make when I'm getting tired, ignoring that my palate needs cleaning, and carelessly grabbing a little from whatever piles happen to cover the glass.  This is a desperation move like taking a lazy shortcut which ends up costing double.  The fix for my timid strokes must be addressed on my palate first, and then I can move on with light pressure and intentional direction of the brush.  When this fails, there is always the trusty 'undo button' (the palate knife) for a scrape and round two.




The latest studies!

Study of Sorolla's Juliana
1 hour

Self Crit

That shadow mass does not read as a mass.   It has too much variation of value and temperature including the reflected light by her left eye, which is too light.  Her hair knows what I am talking about.  The brown outline tracing her jaw from her left ear is too dark, too brown, and too hard of an edge.  Should have gone for the knife.  The dark line on the inside corner of her left eye is also too dark and cool, unless she was recently wounded.  I am not feeling the 'big sculpt'.  Perhaps we can call this a warm up?

I spent more time on the next…

Study of a 1909 Sorolla Selfie

1.5 hours

I was feeling like a failure at the end of this, but looking at it now, I like it!  I was really trying to keep the background translucent, and then I contaminated my stroke with opaque flesh to his right.  Like Mr. Bean I tried to blend it in to cover my tracks, which worked about as good as any Mr. Bean cover up.  It was too late, and very difficult to scrape it off the paper.  I see another miss hit in his nose highlight.  With the white too large and too far south I have flattened what ought to feel like the ball of his nose.  The reflected light in the shadows of his forehead and cheek may be too light.  Although I loved laying in that stroke which is meant to be his side burn, it more closely resembles a strap keeping his hat from becoming the victim of a blustery gust.  The facial hair here seems to turn the form better than some have in the past.  I used much more medium (liquin) for this one and I think it really helped.  

And even longer on the last…

These two have caught on to the 20 min mandatory breaks.  They're pretty sure it's about them.

Study of Sorolla's Elena

~ time?  Really not sure 2-2.5 hours until USA game time

First thing I did this morning was clean my turp (technically odorless mineral spirits) and top it off.  It was trashed with pigment!  Oops, so refreshing to start this one though.  I'm going to call a drawing error.  No, I swear her mouth was NEARLY that small in the original, but her eyes were not that far apart.  Or maybe, it's that I lost the cool and darkness of the stroke that is meant to define the inside corner of her right glabellum as it turns down into her nose, in reworking it.  Actually, I think it's that her eye doesn't recede in the socket as a result.  Let's go with that for now.  

I tried to pay close attention to the soft edges along the right of her jaw.  Just above these I really liked the graphic light contrast as her fair face met black hair, and couldn't bring myself to soften them.  Painting them hard edged seemed cool at the time.  Now it seems like cheating.  I also regret redrawing the right of her chin with that broad stroke.  The outline is too thick to turn the form.  

I hadn't painted in a while when I started with that first study.  It really helped to paint the other two back to back!  So glad I see progress in this set.



NEWS!

This week I made a big decision!  In order to make more of a go at this, I asked my manager to cut back my schedule next year.  This is my idea of a taking risk, a little plunge.  I am so excited!  And a little scared.

Thanks for coming!