About painting Archives - Page 12 of 21

7 December 2014

Work from photography

On Facebook this week I came across a very interesting article on the painter Eugène Delacroix and the use of photography. This also has to do with portrait painting. I thought it is important to share. Here’s a short quote.

Delacroix imagined that the daguerreotype (the term was then interchangeable with “photograph”) would contribute to a new and improved kind of painting, one he himself would not live to see. In his journal, he ended his account of the evening’s experiment with a confident glimpse into the future. “Truly, if a (painter) of genius should use the daguerreotype as it ought to be used,” Delacroix prophesized, “he will raise himself to heights unknown to us.”

Read the whole article

16 November 2014

The final check

In my post two weeks ago I talked about portrait painting and the applause of uncles and aunts; the worthless fame. What you really need is a critical eye of someone who understands matters. Someone whose opinion you appreciate. Someone who does not give compliments just to please you. Formerly, before a painting left my studio, my daughter came to approve the product. And when she had critical points, she almost always was right. She is married now and lives in Madrid already for five years. This week she is staying with us. So I can call on her scrutiny. The family portrait, which I have shown you before, is in it´s final stage. Together we have gone over. Beside a few little things I got her approval and for her part the painting can be delivered. Of course I also sent an image to the client. They are very enthusiastic. (aside from some small comments). After these corrections the painting can be varnished and shipped.

2 November 2014

How make money from portrait painting?

portrait of a man. — Oil on canvas 74 x 61 cm

Every so often people ask me how to start getting portrait commissions. And also someone asks for tips on pricing. Do not expect me to give you a presentation on business plans. I am not an expert, not in the least. I believe that it just comes down to using your common sense.

What do you want?

1. portrait painting as a hobby?

2. portrait painting as a full time professional artist?

It comes down to quality.

If it is just your hobby, mainly family and friends will be your clientele and prices will be relatively low in the beginning. If making a living from painting is your goal, then the question is: is your quality good enough? Is your artwork spiritual and essential? These are questions you need to answer yourself. Because in your immediate environment people always think you are fantastic (the so called applause of uncles and aunts; that fame is worthless). Self-criticism is important. You’ll have to decide where your level is compared with colleagues. The internet is a very useful tool. Look for good painters who do commissioned portraits. Relate their work to yours. Once again be very critical and honest with yourself, I can not emphasise this enough.

Well, assuming you think the quality is high enough to announce yourself in the market, then the next question is about the revenues.

What are my prices?

Try to find out what colleagues charge and adjust your price accordingly. You have to remember here that your geographical location plays a role. Do you live in a big city, in the US for example, or in a remote village in the interior of let´s say India. That makes a huge difference. Some more advice: try to find a good gallery that wants to represent you. Setting your prices that way you can still decide to increase them in the future. It is impossible to lower prices overtime. Clients from the past will feel cheated. If there is a lot of demand you may consider to raise the rates. If you hardly ever get assignments it means that you are too expensive or that your quality is not appreciated.

26 October 2014

Common mistakes in composition

About composition: Never put your subject right in the centre of the canvas. A composition is rarely successful in this way because here is the dead, boring point of the painting.

Pomegranates — Basket with pomegranates. Focal point in the centre of the image.

Pomegranates on the blue tablecloth in our kitchen — A better composition?

19 October 2014

Mum, I wanna be a carpenter!

As a young child I knew what I wanted to be. Not a fireman or a pilot. I wanted to be a carpenter. My neighbour was a carpenter and it seemed to me the best job in the world. When I told this to my mother one day, she replied literally, “No, Ben, you can do more.” However, I wanted nothing else. With my very first pocket money I bought a bag of brand new nails at the hardware store. I had seen my dad always dabbling with these bent, rusty things that needed to be straightened. All that fiddling, not my thing. No. I had made up my mind. I wanted to tackle things rigorous from the start. But… I did not become a carpenter.

Eventually I went into art, portrait painting. And devotedly. It’s come to dominate my life as I wrote you last week. But besides painting I did however teach myself carpentry as a hobby. Once in Spain, I got the opportunity to build my own studio. And I seized this chance with both hands. From the first construction drawings to the building itself. The masonry, the welding work, the plumbing, the electricity, and of course the carpentry, everything done by myself, albeit with the help of my wife. It has become a perfect studio and a wonderful workplace. That was fifteen years ago. Recently we moved to an other place and I work in a different studio now. Strangely enough I don´t miss my old studio. Maybe the building process itself was more important than the finished result (traveling is better than arriving, so it often goes). Continue reading “Mum, I wanna be a carpenter!”

12 October 2014

Don´t marry, he said…

“If you are planning to make a living out of art, I have to warn you, it might consume you completely. It will confiscate your life and hinder any relationship. In fact, Ben, it is wise not to marry.¨ These are the words of Beatus Nijs, my art teacher. I was fifteen years old and did not really understand the meaning of his ardent advice. I was a boy. Almost fifty years later, casting my mind back, I recognize some truth in this statement.

The large painting that I am busy with, sequestrates me completely, and not just when I’m painting. Also when I am eating, when I go shopping, or taking the daily walk with my wife. Continuously the work is in my mind. For me it´s no problem but for people around me it certainly is. I am not very sociable. However I’m glad I never followed Beatus´s advice. Of course.

5 October 2014

Portrait painting: handiwork

This week I am busy working on the family portrait I told you about last week: many hands, and that is really where I enjoy myself. So, literally handiwork. However, I have to be careful that drawing attention to them will not distract too much from the faces! By all means there is still a lot to be done. To be continued…

28 September 2014

From nine to five

I´d like to start this post quoting Chuck Close.

The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.

(Charles Thomas “Chuck” Close (born July 5, 1940) American painter and photographer.)

on-the-easel — Underpainting in acrylics

Last week we returned from our short trip to the Netherlands. And back to work right away. The project of which I wrote in my post of August 13th was already on the easel waiting for me. Everything well prepared before I left. The sketches approved by the client, the linen stretched, covered with three layers of gesso and the drawing carefully transferred in red crayon. So, immediately after returning I was able to start. I like to work from nine to five. I never have to wait for the inspiration that Chuck Close writes about. However, I do need to be well focussed and the run up to that sometimes takes days. Part of the concentration process is applying the underpainting. In the final version of this painting there is a lot of blue and green, and that’s why I like to use a magenta undertone.

21 September 2014

Good times in Holland

Delevering portrait commission — Delevering a portrait commission at Morren Galeries, Utrecht

Having delivered some portrait commissions at Morren Galleries in Utrecht we went to the isle of Texel in the North of the Netherlands. September is bird migration time and Texel is a good place to be. Some members of my family are trained birdwatchers. With them we walked and watched. For those who are interested, this is the list of birds we saw this morning at National park the Slufter: Grey Heron, Little Egret, Bean Goose, Greylag Goose, White-fronted Goose, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Eurasian Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Common Eider, Common Shelduck, Hen Harrier, Roug-legged Buzzard, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Merlin, Common Pheasant, Great-ringed Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Common Greenshank, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Oystercatcher, Herring Gull, Collared Dove, Turtle Dove, Wood Pigeon, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Meadow Pipet, Northern Wheatear, Robin, Common Stonechat, Blackbird, Wren, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Magpie, Eurasian Jay, Common Starling, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Jackdaw, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Yellowhammer, Egyptian Goose.

Although the real migration did not start yet this week we had a great time!

24 August 2014

Am I a bungler?

It’s not always fun in the the beast´s belly of creation. Once in a blue moon it’s doom and gloom. You always feel as good or bad as your last painting. When you have done a great job you feel invincible, then there is nothing to worry about. But once in a while you make something mediocre, no matter what you do. You feel miserable. Fear is lurking to be unmasked as a bungler, a charlatan. The strange thing is that this phenomenon of despair grows with you. If all goes well your quality as a painter improves with the years. But sometimes you realize that you might not reach the top that you had in mind for yourself. Winds of uncertainty. Then it’s good to look back, and see what you have created in the past. On the occasion you see a piece again and it can be surprising. In such a way that you think: Did I make that? It’s not really bad!

I recently came across this portrait, a commission that I made in 1999. The subdivision of the background may not be great, the person’s ear is a bit fancy but the brushwork and the atmosphere surprised me. I wish I could paint that way again!