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See art in a fresh way. |
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Mini-Tutorial Finishing Details |
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In March 2008, I finished Venus,
a painting I had been working on for some years.
I would like to share with you a process that made the finishing touches a relatively easy experience. The Problem In Venus, I began painting her figure from direct from life. After changing countries and models, I found it difficult to merge two, three, and four different models into a cohesive image. Bits and pieces didn't always go together.
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The Solution Making studies always helps because the studies help you focus on one aspect at a time, making it easier to fully finish off the forms of such things as ears. Simultaneously, the studies enable you to choose those elements which best represent the end result you are after. The last parts to finish on Venus were her face, neck, and hair; absolutely crucial to get right. |
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Her right ear, tucked away in shadow,
far back around her head, was difficult. Ignoring it altogether
didn't look right, and when the details were not fully developed
it looked like a smudge. It was relatively simple to solve all
those problems in pencil. Once that study was done, it made the
painting much easier as well.
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Again the dark area in the pencil drawing is darker than the final version in paint; but the essence of the form and detail are there. At some stage, I did have part of her lower lid quite dark but that gave a vampish quality to her face. On the right side of the pencil drawing, you can see a simple sphere. I drew that in as a simple reminder that an eye, after all, is no more than a ball in the head. That really helps with how you think of the light hitting the shape of the eye. |
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| Surprising to me was how difficult it was to paint her hair. The position of her head thrown back did not lend easily to shaping lots of hair. In reality, 90% of her hair was simply hidden behind her head. In an earlier stage, she looked like she had a short hair cut--not very Venus-like. |
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| For those of you who paint, you probably have experienced difficulty shaping saturated oranges and reds--they do not lend themselves to a large range of light and dark. Too light, and hue becomes a cool pinkish color. And too dark, it becomes gooey brown. Even though the pencil drawing doesn't deal with color, the tone of getting the details right really helped me judge how light and dark to make the color of her neck. |
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| It is also much easier to get a sense of shape in pencil. I refer you to two tutorials on form: Feeling the Form and The Conceptual Transformation from Touch to Sight. I find that it is not the easiest thing to do directly painting from life, but once I see it clearly in pencil, it doesn't seem difficult to get the form right in paint. |
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| When you find yourself spending way too much time trying to get the finishing details right, invest in making detailed pencil drawings of the problem areas. You will be glad you did. |
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I hope you enjoyed seeing the finished
product from a detailed way. Michael Newberry |
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©2008 Newberry, All rights reserved. |