Crafor's 100

[crafor]

I haven't done one of these little ones a day, but pretty close. A couple of days I put time in on my portrait of Nancy, in it's own thread--Crafor's Nancy WIP.
C&C welcome
Crafor

[crafor]

# 12 of 100 5x6" oil on water color paper. In my defense, I've been working on a couple of other paintings, doing a bit of drawing and reading, and daily life. The first is the drawing, which I then outlined with vine charcoal to transfer (reversed) to gessoed water color paper for painting.
Working on drawing reasonable likenesses, remembering landmarks and learning other techniques of approaching drawing faces. Colors used here are white, yellow ochre, venetian red, viridian, ultramarine blue burnt umber.
I wanted to use a small palette knife for this, but wasn't satisfied, so switched to a brush. My thinking was to get rather correct colors in proper places in a short time, because I am taking way too much time to do portraits and will shorten the time while painting a reasonable likeness. The drawing took about 1/2 hour, the study about an hour. The drawing, with the vine charcoal, is harsher than the painting, and the red, yellow, and the dark on her left jaw is a bit stronger on the screen than in the painting. C&C welcomed.
Crafor

[crafor]

#13 A cream pitcher. about 3x3" on wc paper. I've drawn this several times, but for this, one time on the paper just before painting. Some construction lines are visable. Goals for these are to do miniatures--never did any, these are my first, to do a simple drawing then paintrealistically. Object is to see and paint what's there, without weeks of drawing and several preliminary studies. Learning to work "from life". These are still studies, but it's time to eliminate the very numerous beginner steps, here, now, for these. I know there will be many other times when I have to go through all the steps for a project

Because there was a lot of oil, I couldn't blend much at all. If not much oil, it got to dry to blend. This is a problem with the wc paper. I'll soon switch to canvas paper instead.
Though the overall shape is there, the bowl should be a bit more "squashed", it should be a bit wider.
The shadow does not come across as a shadow of the pitcher, and the folds of the cloth don't work well.
I'm guessing this is in part because of the support (the water color paper), and my inexperience. I would like to have spent more time on this because it seemed to be going well, butchose to "quit while I was ahead."
C&C welcome.
Crafor

[crafor]

#14 3X3" oil on watercolor paper. I've been wanting to work on some dog paintings, and I guess that's what was on my mind, because that's what appeared. I put a couple of eyes on the paper, and was working on planes of a face and hair, and suddenly, there was a blue eyed dog without ears. So I added the ears, but couldn't get out the brown for doggie eyes! It was just too late. She sort of looks like my dog, but mine is black, and it was late. Didn't want to get out the black and the white for her face last night. You can see her in the second painting in this thread.
C&C welcome. Thanks for looking.
Crafor

[crafor]

# 15 3x3" oil on wc paper. Another miniature, another portrait, live model. Used smallest brush for this. Likeness pretty good, face too short here. Eyebrows grew too big. Working on planes, colors, shadows, features, the gesture, eveything.
C&C welcome. Thanks for looking.
Crafor

[crafor]

# 16 oil on 9x12 Canson Canva-paper Here's my first alla prima portrait. It's done with Grumbacher yellow ochre, Grumbacher venetian red, Weber permalba white, WN raw umber, and a tiny touch--a whisper--of Grumbacher Fr. Ultamarine blue. Obviously NOT done by putting on brushstrokes and leaving them. I may start working on that.
I learned:the lid of one eye covers more of the iris and pupil than the lid of the other eye, and that the one eye appears larger; that colors that look okay up close do not necessarily look good across the room. Though this took longer than I wanted--probably about 4 hours, from drawing to "finishing", it's a lot less than the weeks and months I've been taking for other paintings, so that's a success.
I like the canson canva-paper better than Fredrix, but have Fredrix to use, so will continue to.
x-posted to portraiture forum--student palette

[sharkbarf]

Just wanted to give a little support. Good job keeping it up!
For me half the battle is just starting. Once I get going then I start having a blast. Your work has a playful quality. It looks like like your having fun!

I think your getting better. The studies look very helpful. I think it helps because you start to get warmed up and after you've been drawing/painting for a while you remember little things. Then by starting your "real" piece you've been working for a while. I think it makes it easier.

Something that helped me tremendously was making a black/white 10-step value scale before I did my study each day. It helps to make one yourself as opposed to just having a pre-made one because you become aware of your own ability to make and see the difference in those values. after about a week I settled and keep that one tacked on my easel above my palette. I hope you try it.

[crafor]

Thanks sharkbarf, support helps. I agree, just starting on these is a battle. I get torn: wanting to do at least one of these much more frequently--I even get out the stuff with that thought, then get distracted by other work. I have two portraits to finish, and it's important to get back and do more drawing.
The drawings really are important to me, to being more successful as a painter. I started a drawing class a while back, and sluffed off. I am going back to it. I will use those drawings as a basis for these 100, so maybe there will be more appearing, more often.
Thanks for commenting, and your suggestion of value studies. I've done them with pencil, but not with paint for a while.
Crafor

[dustonpaper]

I see good progress Crafor ... from number #15 to #16 it is a good jump you made . Also I like that you methodically practice, like doing value studies on the previous page. Your hair is also done very well on #16 ... also was good in #12, but much better I think in #16.
I think however you might not want to judge your development on how long you need for a painting, but only on the result. It is not a race I guess. For my own practice I find that I rush way to much . It gets better with the time, but still I try to progress in a painting without paying enough attention to the placement of features and values and all.
To say it with good ole John S. Sargent's words: "If you've modeled a head for a week without finishing it you will have learned something about the modeling of a head"
Anyway, if you keep on with your practice you will learn so much in the coming weeks and months.

[Alan P. in OC]

Originally Posted by dustonpaper

I think however you might not want to judge your development on how long you need for a painting, but only on the result. It is not a race I guess.

I couldn't agree more. I do applaud you for taking on such a daunting task and see good results coming from it. My personal approach is to put as much time and effort into a work in a layered fashion, quite the opposite of doing numerous quick studies. If I was to limit myself on time, all I could see is me saying, 'well that could look better if I spent some more time on it' over and over.

Keep up the good work, and maybe consider doing a small simple piece, taking as much time as you want with it, drawing it out carefully, layering paint over it, etc.

[crafor]

Thank you dustonpaper. No, it's not a race, but I've been taking weeks due to inexperience, lack of knowledge, and layering. I want to decrease the time I need for portraits. Now my bar was set higher. I know that this will come more quickly with experience, but I also want to learn to do alla prima, wet it wet, painting. At least for studies, prior to a layered work.

Alan, I think I will soon start a Flelmish type painting, possibly using a flower photo. I will probably use a burnt umber underpaint, and a dead layer of grays. That too has been a goal, as I have several portraits that I want to do that way and want to learn it. Both present portraits are done with layering, but I think doing it with the gray layers would make a difference.
Thanks for your comments and good words.
Crafor

[kevinwueste]

Not that you asked me (!) but I would suggest - especially if you want to paint in a realistic fashion that you increase your drawing practice ( like 10-1 at this stage or even 50-1) to build your drawing and value skills - first; before worrying about hue, value and chroma on top of drawing.

That flemish stuff can wait!

-Kevin

[crafor]

Kevin,
Drawing is how I started my journey this time. I'm severely chemically sensitive and didn't know I could (handle) oil paint now, and having realized that drawing was one of the elements that I missed years ago, I decided to learn to draw--of which I knew nothing .
Then I found AMIEN and this board, and learned I could paint without solvents, so started painting specifically to do a portrait for my daughter, and just kept going, interspersed with drawing, learning a little about color and perspective/light/etc.
I do know I need to do a lot more drawing , and now I can focus on it again--while finishing the two portraits and after.
So much to learn and apply, so little time....
Thanks, thanks for the reminder ! It does help set it into my brain.
Crafor

[crafor]

#17 4.5" x 9" Oil on Fredrix canvas paper, previously used.
As (sort of) promised, here's another drawing and painting. This is my first attempt at drawing elipses. The model is a dirt-covered Bud Light bottle. I planned to do just it, but then decided to include another elipse, as I thought I was finally beginning to understand how to do them. Unfortunately, I had erased the top guide square, and the others were done on a separate slip of paper. Though this paper was already used, I found it difficult to paint on, to keep the shape I wanted, and the bottle "grew" more on one side than the other. . The "bulging" spot is too much so, should be more like the other side. Thanks for looking. C&C welcomed.
Crafor

[crafor]

#18 4.5"x7" oil on Fredrix canvas paper Colors are Cad red light, Cad yellow Light, ultramarine blue deep, permalba white, and the BG is leftovers of other colors.
Working on perspective, shapes, values, slowing down and being more "complete", stopping when I get too tired to go on. The setup is made of white objects. I added green (y+b) to the red for the compliment. Dissatisfied, slapped more red on top, made more green but used more yellow, mixed it onto the box, and it looks better. Toned it down a bit for the long side and shadow area, graying it out more, and lightening it. B+R for the purple, compliment to the yellow, and had to adjust it, too. Should have stopped there, but added the white plastic fitting and tried to get value changes in it. The shape is off as are the values. And it's "floating!"
Beginning to want to compose a setup, rather than just setting objects side by side. Still working on a better way to light it more easily.
I am learning with these.
That white line was meant to be highlight, but it obviously does not read that way.
Thanks for looking. C&C welcome.
Crafor