Since I pretty much have everything laid in with this piece, it is now all about rendering, polishing, and detailing things. It is the most slowest and time-consuming of the process but also the least difficult as everything have been figured out already and all there is left to do is just tightening things up.

I worked on defining the hands and feet some more, adding more details and forms. I also indicated the positions of the tattoos on her feet, but have not started defining them yet. I am planning to really define the tattoos clearly as well.

I also worked on the hands, especially her right hand. I did not detail it out but just indicated the general formations of it for now.

I added some more details on her face and modeled the forms of her cheek area. I extended the corner of her mouth because it was a bit short before. I modeled the forms of the hair as well. There are a lot more work to be done with her head and the face. I am planning on making this piece as tight and realistic as possible if the time allows me.

Foremost challenge of this nude art painting is working through the inconsistent lighting situation. My studio does not have acces to the natural northern light so the lighting changes a lot as I work. I still have not quite figured out how to best work under such situations but I am doing my best to make good judgements on whether to change the painting as the lighting changes, or keep things the way they are. Also Britt looking slightly different each time, her flesh tones, hair, etc., has been a bit of a challenge as well.

The outside edges looks a bit cut out to me as of now, and it will probably be the first thing I will work on on the next session. Edges usually takes a long time to define and bit tedious as well, but they can make a huge difference to the nude art painting.

The focus of this piece should definitely be the face and I will spend most of my time on that. I always find myself working mostly on the face, especially the eyes. There are too many things going on in there that draws my attention and really motivates me to capture as much as I can see.

Nude art is definitely my favorite subject to paint. I don’t think there is anything as beautiful and complex as the human figure, its unusual shapes, curves, textures, details all happening throughout the body.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

I used rather thin layers of paint to avoid unwanted textures and keep the surface quality consistent. But I did not glaze transparent layers but still kept the paints opaque. I used mostly the filbert number-two brush, using the edges of it to define more detailed or crisp areas. I always do my best to avoid using very small brushes for the details but use the edges of larger brushes instead, as they seem to produce more sculptural effect.

I forced myself to see as many colors as possible and exaggerated the colors I noticed. When I saw a redness I made it more red on my painting, when I saw the blues, I exaggerated it and made it even more blue in my painting. I find that practicing this way keeps you from producing dull colored piece. When you step back, things will not look exaggerated but actually just about right, as all those intense colors you have exaggerated would start to blend together as you view them at a distance.

Many times I find that it is not really about SEEING the colors but more about FEELING them. In the event where I am not so sure if a certain color is actually there, I just go ahead and put it down on my painting anyways, and always try to put down as many colors I notice even if I am not sure of it.

On Michelle’s body, I noticed a lot of burnt sienna tones. Which is made up of yellow ochres and reds, as well as dark browns. She is caucasian but has a very dark tanned skin. Even though her skin can seem simply brown, I tried my best to see as many colorful hues as possible existing within the body.

I basically did the same to other areas, the door in the background, the fabric she is sitting on, etc. Always forcing myself to see as many colors as I can for this fine art nude painting.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

I first started to fill in some colors for the background, then focused on rendering the easel afterwards. The bar of the easel was full of paint daubs and stains, so I had to eventually use the tiny brush to get the details in. It was a bit tedious and boring as it was progressing rather slowly. US Open tennis was on TV so I watched it while painting the details.

Despite the careless handling, I am happy with how it’s looking. I like the many variety of intense colors being introduced all within an area.

Hopefully Michelle will come back for this painting soon so I can start bringing her to color as well.

I worked a lot more on this oil painting with Michelle yesterday and today.

When Michelle sat yesterday, I started out working mostly on the face, still using only hte monochrome burnt umber, trying to draw in the most accurate lay-in as possible with my naked eye. I noticed a lot of things looked different from the first sitting, so I had to decide whether to change it or keep things the way they were, but I chose to make some changes as things generally looked better than before.

After working hard on establishing the correct portrait, I proceeded onto developing the figure. I noticed the pose was different than last time, as it was more slanted and angular, which seemed more appealing, so i didn’t hesitate to make the correction. It was a drastic change, but my goal is to create the best pose as possible despite the extra hard work of going through series of tedious alterations.

After I have worked on the monochrome lay-in to the point where I felt comfortable and solid, I began to gradually introduce the colors, starting with the face.

I also worked on the painting on the easel, keeping it loose and impressionistic to compliment with the realistic background.

Yesterday, I knew my friend Michelle was coming by to sit for me today, but I was pondering over whether I would like to do another same old study, or if there would be anything more interesting that I can start pursuing. I felt as if it was time for me to move on to doing something more than just series of studies.

I really have not found my one definite style or technique yet, as I just always love experimenting with different kinds of oil painting techniques. I like to paint the alla prima method where I would paint rapidly in a single session focusing on spontaneity and the sketchy quality of the piece, where how it’s painted becomes more important to me than what is painted. But I also like to do more realist approaches where I would work on the piece for long hours with accurate figure drawing to start off, then really polishing things up until it becomes the most realistic and true to life. Then sometimes I also love painting purely out of imagination, producing more abstract type of paintings.

Lucian Freud stated that all his works are self-portraits. Not meaning literally but as to say that his works are distinguishable by his own personal consistent style. It’s common with most established artists as their works are always consistent with their own unique styles and techniques. So I was asking myself if I must really choose one to pursue when I love to work several different ways.

I tried to come up with a way where I can introduce all my different styles and techniques in one painting. I eventually came up with the idea of doing a realist style painting but depicting a painting with different style as the subject matter within that painting. I doodled out the idea here as I was thinking about it yesterday: It depicts a painting on an easel on the foreground and the model in the background taking a break on the sofa. This piece would be in the realist style, but on that painting on the easel, I would use whatever styles or techniques. I’m planning to do an alla prima impressionistic painting on it. I thought this would be a good way for me to keep pursuing and explore different approaches while also keeping a consistent body of work that would portray what I do.

I am working on this piece entirely from live observation and spent about three hours establishing a good figure drawing as the lay-in before applying the colors. When attempting a realist piece, I usually first do an accurate small pencil drawing on a paper, then transfer it onto the canvas, as I did with the painting of Britt that I am also working on. But since the figure element here is quite small, I just decided to go ahead and draw it right on the canvas using paint.

I first roughly blocked in the general placement of the figure, considering the composition, using the edges of a broad paintbrush.

Then I went back to the head to define the portrait painting some more, separating the light and shadow sides of the face with tones.

I began adding the features onto the solid understructure of the face I have established. I concentrated on trying to achieve the accurate likeness as well as correct tones and values. As usual, I treated the figure drawing as if I was sculpting three-dimensionally, attaching and detaching pieces of clays. This helps my each brushstrokes define the forms instead of having such strokes with purposes of just trying to make it look cool.

After working and detailing out the face some more, I moved on to laying in the figure. I still treated this nude painting as if I was sculpting, adding clays onto the armature.

Then I added more tones, value ranges, highlights, dark accents, and just polished the overall figure drawing. I also added some more details in the face as well.

Before adding the colors, I would need to work on this figure drawing a bit more when Michelle comes back.

Kenta sat for about three hours. I really loved the way how her eyes stood out from her dark skin tone. Kind of reminded me of portraits by Nicolai Fechin, where he really exaggerates the whites of the eyes against the dark skins of his sitters.

Instead of doing a pencil drawing for the lay-in, I used a large brush, as I find it easier when you prefer to draw with values instead of lines. I roughly indicated the general gesture of her head and placed it onto the canvas, thinking about the overall composition of the portrait painting. I marked a vertical line around the middle to indicate the rough center of the face.

I then began laying in some tones to model the forms more and roughly indicate the facial features. I also tried to figure out where the light is coming from and how it is hitting the surface of the head. I also used some dark values to indicate the outlines of the face.

After I felt somewhat comfortable with my rough lay-in. I decided to start throwing on some colors. I began by mixing the colors for the shadow areas of the portrait painting, using burnt umber, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, cadmium read, alizarine crimson, and white. I made sure that the mixture is the averaged out tone of the whole shadow side of the face, so I can just block in the entire area with that hue, despite the fact that there are lot more colors and other variations happening within the region. Averaging out and blocking in is a very smart way to paint, as it omits the unnecessary details that may slow you down.

I continued to paint in the colors, defining the forms. Then I began painting in the light side of the face. I inserted the eyes into the eye-socket as if a sculptor would. Even though I was throwing on thick opaque paints, I still was able to rely on my previous lay-in/understructure and kept adding the features on top of it.

I kept modeling the face more and more, and when the whole face was pretty much covered with opaque paints, I started to indicate the other areas, such as the outlines of the hair, and the torso.

I continued defining the portrait painting, filling the whole canvas surface with thick paints. I then went back to the face and worked on it some more.

In this last stage of the portrait painting, I basically blended and polished everywhere, focusing mostly on the face. I also added more details and tightened up the face. I introduced more planes to the shadow side of the face, instead of just leaving it transparent and simplified. I used some cool temperatured colors on the shadow side to indicate those planes. I found the left side plane of her forehead to be significantly cool, almost blue, so I used the cereaulean blue to indicate that plane and was surprised by the difference it made, making the head really turn with sculptural effect.

I would have liked to keep working on this portrait painting, blending and polishing it more, experimenting with various oil painting techniques, but the natural light was starting to fade, so decided to end the session.

She had been hanging out at the beach and looked good tanned. Yesterday, I asked her to bring me some of her pencils because I originally was planning on doing a drawing, and she brought a bunch of nice pencils for me to use, but at the last minute I changed my mind as I suddenly felt the need to practice my oil painting techniques.

First I used a large filbert brush and with the burnt umber wash, laid in the overall gesture and the placement of the figure, focusing on the composition. I did not worry about accuracies or likenesses at this point, but rather tried to figure out how I would like the portrait painting to look at the end. I used the large brush to easily and quickly block in any tones or large shapes.

After that, I began to throw on the colors. It is a good idea to start the colors only after you have established a solid drawing, and there is even a quote by Ingres saying that the drawing is 80% of painting, or something like that, but I felt a bit impatient today and just took my chances. A lot of old masters’ oil painting techniques involved vigorous drawing or monochrome under-painting before proceeding with the colors.
I mixed the average shadow-side flesh tone, with cadmium red, ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow light, burnt umber, and titanium white. I still did not care about likenesses or accuracies but just proceeded as if i was a sculptor throwing on globs of clay to start a sculpture.

I then modelled the face a bit more, mixing the average light side of the head, indicating the light side to separate from the shadow side to create contrast. I also began thinking more about achieving the likeness and tried my best to have the paints fall onto right places.
Then I observed her figure and mixed up a good portion of its averaged flesh tone. There was a lot of different colors and other variations happening within the body, but I just averaged it all out and blocked it in with that paint. This averaging out method is one of the most valuable oil painting techniques I have learned while studying at the Art Students League. It’s really a great shortcut, as it simplifies things and focuses on less is more, making the painting progress a lot faster.

Then I went back to the face and started really working on it. I added the features and more color and value variations. I also modelled the forms and planes of the face more. I used the number 2 filbert brush now, and tried not to go any smaller than that, using the edges of the filbert to do the details instead of picking up a tiny pointed brush (even though it was tempting). I find that using the edges of large brush for the details actually create much more sculptural effect.
Since the light was a natural light coming in from the window, I used the ultramarine and cereulean blue mixed with lots of titanium white to hit the lightest accents on the light side of the face. I also mixed the darkest tone using burnt unber and ultramarine blue, to hit some dark accents along the eyes, and the edge of the face on the shadow side, to have the face come forward more. I never like using the black paints but always mix dark complementing colors to create the darks.

I added the hair with simple indications, then went back to the figure, to model it out some more. I added more colors, values and some alterings on the drawing as well. I liked the tanlines on her breast region and used contrasting colors to achieve the tanline effect. I also started indicating some background as well because I didn’t want the figure to seem like it’s foating.

Then I just started to render things out a lot more, blending areas, polishing and adding more crisp details, varying the edge softnesses, etc. This polishing up stage is always the most time consuming but also the most easy and fun stage as well, since everything has been laid down and now all you would have to do is just try and make it look good and have fun with it.

It was nice working on this alla-prima nude painting and experiment with the direct wet on wet oil painting techniques. Next time, I will continue and try to make this piece more realistic. My paintings always start out sort of impressionistic then proceed to becoming more and more realistic as I keep working on them. That’s because I paint as if sculpting, starting out with a glob of clay, modelling it from there. I think this sculptor-like approach produce more life-like paintings than other methods that focuses on 2-dimensional aspects. But the best way is to combine them both, so I am kind of trying to learn those 2-dimensional approaches, such as measuring techniques, or any oil painting techniques that focuses on the shapes rather than forms.

It was great how Jessica was able to keep a smile through the whole sitting. She kind of had a natural smiley face. It’s rare to see a smiley portrait painting because most sitters cannot hold smiles. I think that is part of the reason why Mona Lisa makes such a great portrait because she is smiling and Da Vinci really captured the personality of the sitter. But personally I still dont think Mona Lisa is that great of a painting.

For this acrylic painting, I took a big brush and first did a wash with the burnt umber, kind of like doing a monochrome painting. I like laying it in with tones using the large brush instead of drawing the lay-ins with a pencil or a charcoal because with the large brush you can block in the values very fast, which is great for people who kind of draw with values.

I think humans see values first in nature, and it is a good practice to draw with the values and become sensitive to it.

After the lay-in was quickly established, I started to add the flesh tones of the face, chest, the arms and the lower leg to the feet, then went back to the face and worked mostly on that.

It was hard to render with acrylics because they dry very fast, and even if you put down a mark with correct value, it darkens as it dries. Definitely not my favorite media, but I had ran out of the titanium white oil paint and had to settle with doing an acrylics painting. I feel like I will continue experimenting with different medias even though the title of my blog is oil painting techniques.

But I have seen a lot of acrylic artists who do some great works. Acrylics have not been around for too long so nobody really knows how archival it is either.

After I felt I worked on the face enough to move on with this acrylic painting, I blocked in the whole clothing with the even tone of black. I didn’t actually use the black paint but mixed burnt umber and ultramarine blue to make the darkest dark. I never use black paint but always mix dark complementing colors to produce the darkest darks. Some artists complain that it does not get dark enough but I never felt the need to go any darker.

Then I blocked in the background of this acrylic painting with the blue of the mat, using cereaulean blue and ultramarine blue mixed with white. I treated it with washes instead of thick paints as I would with oil paints. Even though you CAN paint thick impastos with acrylics, I don’t think the media is really meant for painting so thick but more with a cream-like even consistency. I have tried painting very thick with the acrylics and I felt it became a bit too plasticky since they are made of plastic.

I think acrylic is great for practicing purposes for students because since you cannot blend or render, it forces you to mix up the correct tones and colors in between marks to have them blend together. I think this forces one to think more about the scientific aspects of paint mixing and be more methodical with the layering procedure.

Advantage of acrylic painting is that you can achieve complete colors in a single sitting, whereas with oils, I usually would need several sittings to get the colors completely right since thick wet paints prevents me from adding new layer of paint on top without having it being mixed with the wet previous layer. Also with acrylics, you can even do the glazing technique in the first sitting.

Acrylic is also a very forgiving media as you can keep painting over and over on top of any mistakes you make. All layers of paint will be new and fresh. Just need to avoid painting TOO thick as it will create plasticky textures.

This acrylic painting was an interesting experience because I did it fast in one sitting but I don’t know whether I should call it alla-prima because alla-prima refers to wet on wet oil painting techniques, but besides being wet on wet, I did use the same direct painting approach.

I wish i could have worked a lot more on this acrylic painting, define the hands,feet etc. but we were getting too hungry and had to call it a wrap.

But I am pretty happy how this acrylic painting came out. I am happy for its fresh spontaneous sketchy quality.

I did not do any lay-ins or drawings but just started throwing on paints very roughly on the canvas and just moved along very fast since I didn’t know when she would quit standing there for me. Since I was trying to work as fast as I could, I couldn’t take any photos of the process.

She said she just got off work and just hanging out for a bit. It was kind of hard talking and painting at the same time but it was fun.

The color of this photography is pretty orangish because I took it at night with the artificial lights. I really liked and exagereated on the pink of her lips but the color doesn’t seem to traslate well here in the photo. Same with the greens of the eyes.

She asked me at one point if I am going to paint the rails along the sidewalk and told me she really likes the rails, so I put them in. I indicated the lights from afar and thought it added a nice touch to the composition.

I am not too happy about the sloppy overall look of this direct portrait painting. Yes, it is done fast and with the alla-prima approach but I’ve seen plenty of direct paintings done in a neat fashion. Some people told me it is just my style, but then I don’t like my style. But I really think it has a lot to do with my oil painting techniques as well, so I will look into it. Perhaps it’s the messy palette I keep, or maybe the worn out brushes. Whatever it is I feel like I need to correct it so that my sketchy works will look cleaner and organized.

I kind of wanted to indicate the people passing by with quick strokes but wasn’t sure if I should go ahead with it. I have seen Sargent do that a lot in his paintings of street scenes, demonstrating his dashing alla-prima oil painting techniques. But I ended up not doing it afterall, afraid that it may take away the focus of the main subject, the girl.

I also wish I could have use more broad strokes with large brushes but I ended up getting caught with the facial details and spent a good amount of time with the tiny pointed brush trying to render the details.

I used a lot of colors, sometimes mixing the colors right on the surface of the canvas instead of on the palette, so I think the colors in the piece looks a bit intense. Next time I would need to keep in mind to mute and saturate the colors a bit more.

Again, I think I would need to work a lot more on drawing the accuracies. Even though my aim is to do a realistic representation, this piece does not look very realistic to me but rather impressionistic, which I do not prefer.

I am looking into measuring methods, holding stick in front with arm out, one eye closed. I don’t really know how it works. I always thought it was used by people with untrained eye, but I recently realized I was very wrong. But I am happy to realize my mistakes now.

I read recently that even John Singer Sargent held arm out and measured like that! Here is a quote from a pupil of Sargent documenting his methods: “He then took up the charcoal, with arm extended to its full length, and head thrown well back: all the while intensely calculating, he slowly and deliberately mapped the proportions of the large masses of a head and shoulders, first the poise of the head upon the neck, its relation with the shoulders. Then rapidly indicate the mass of the hair, then spots locating the exact position of the features, at the same time noting their tone values and special character, finally adding any further accent or dark shadow which made up the head, the neck, the shoulders and head of the sternum.”

I may go back to the scene again if I feel motivated one of these nights and work some more on the background. It was fun practicing alla-prima oil painting techniques outdoors at night with a good subject.

I visited my friend who is living at a homeless shelter. He had recently been released from prison and now he is staying at this shelter where everyone was on the same boat. The securities thoroughly scanned me with the metal detector and confiscated my metal pen, and the hand mirror before letting me in.

I had lunch there and was surprised how decent the food was. Also gave plenty of seconds. I don’t know if I should feel too sorry about the homeless people on the streets anymore. I think they just choose to stay outside.

I took my mechanical pencil for its convenience and drew in my sketchbook. I went to the TV room where a lot of people were waiting to get their beds for the night. Lot of them were napping on the chairs because they haven’t slept well the night before since they missed the curfew and had to spend the night outside. The securities were strict about anyone lying down on the floor.

There was an incident in there where two guys on wheelchair started fighting each other. Then I constantly saw other guys getting kicked out of the shelter in handcuffs. I guess some guys will just never learn.

I sat there and started sketching the people. The man with the cap was working at the cafetaria. He noticed I was drawing him and was nice enough to sit still for me for a bit. Later, I went out to the backyard and did some sketches there.

I think mechanical pencil is great for pencil drawing in the sketchbooks because you don’t have to worry about sharpening it and don’t need to carry a knife or a sharpener.

As usual, I was most interested in capturing the faces and worked the most on them, then quickly indicated rest of the areas in a loose manner.

Doing sketches of people in public is definitely a great practice for me because I can’t just rely on what I see since they are always moving around, so I had to think about the all around forms, almost as if I’m doing sculptures. I relied on the lay-ins and added the features on top of it even after the poses have changed.

Everyone was very nice and I enjoyed sketching there a lot.