About painting Archives - Page 14 of 21

18 May 2014

I got the wrong end of the stick: colour contrast

In response to my blogpost dated 1 May of this year I received the following comment:

Hello Ben

A beautiful portrait, but I do not understand the remark about the red face and green background. I would think that the effect is thereby enhanced. Greetings”

Yvonne Welman

< Original painting. Complementary contrast/ analog contrast. Photoshop version >.

This observation is of course correct. Indeed, the green enhances the reddish effect. Green against red is a complementary contrast. Well, I have altered the background of the original painting in photoshop. In this changed version red is now the dominant colour overall. The whole painting is thus getting a huge saturation of the red tones. I did not want that. That is what I meant when I wrote “To minimize the impact of the reddish face I surrounded it with a greenish background.” (By all means, in the original painting, I had already introduced some red accents in the background, as an echo of the reddish flesh tones, at the left of the face.)

4 May 2014

Not a lick and a promise

I like to see half finished paintings, even of my own work. It says something about the work process. Was it the Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom who once said “Traveling is better than arriving”? I just found this image of a half painted portrait. Here you see: I am traveling. It is not finished; not yet at my place of destination. Often I enjoy more of the process itself then the finished product.

Also this picture reminds me of something else. I see the small statue in the background. It represents the Greek mythologic figure of Atlas who held up the celestial sphere. I added this prop at the special request of the sitter, the retiring Professor of Philosophy at Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. For lack of good reference material I made a sculpture in plastiline myself and painted it with acrylics to imitate the bronze patina. I really like to prepare things blow by blow. Not a lick and a promise.

27 April 2014

Law unto yourself ?

A long time ago I thought I needed to know absolutely everything about laws & rules on painting and especially on portrait painting. The more theoretical knowledge the better. For example regarding colours. I examined the Goethe’s and Itten´s colour theories. However I hardly understood a tenth of it. How often have I put away books to take them in hand yet again? More than once I wondered whether book knowledge was really my ´peace of cake´. In fact, I developed an aversion to theories in general. Not really convenient of course if you want to become a professional artist. Sometimes my progress suffered from slowness. Now, after all these years, I have freed myself from the idea that a thorough theoretical knowledge is essential for a good start. I created my own rules and verities. I failed my way to success.

Please listen to the attached video : Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech to the University of the arts graduating class of 2012 Philadelphia. A touching speech for making your own rules in art and ignore sometimes existing theories and dogma´s.

Below the written text of the speech.

Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech to the University of the arts graduating class of 2012 Philadelphia

I never really expected to find myself giving advice to people graduating from an establishment of higher education. I never graduated from any such establishment. I never even started at one. I escaped from school as soon as I could, when the prospect of four more years of enforced learning before I’d become the writer I wanted to be was stifling. Continue reading “Law unto yourself ?”

11 April 2014

Value and colour, what is the problem?

You learn the most from your own mistakes, I’ve mentioned this before. “But how does that work?” you might ask. Sometimes you know that your painting is unsuccessful but you do not know why. In the beginning, that was also a problem for me. Perhaps the most important thing I taught myself is this: Make a checklist to be used after finishing a painting. (Applause from family and friends is trappy: It’s not hard to get compliments and believe that you’ve done an amazing job when you actually should know better.)

Some criteria that you can think of:

Is the composition solid enough?
Is the value contrast okay?
Is the use of colour okay?
Did I use enough paint?
Do I see enough “bold” brush strokes?
Not too many meticulous & irrelevant details?
There are numerous points to invent. Later I’ll come back to this issue. Try to make such a list for yourself.

An important observation is this: Value contrast can be more important than colour contrast. When a painting is not really a hit because you got stuck in colours that don’t want to accomodate, remember that the solution perhaps lies in the value contrast.

I made two images with the self-timer in my studio. On the first the light source is right in front of me. On the second from aside. I transformed the two into a simple grayscale drawing. In the first drawing the portrait has to come alive from subtle colour contrasts. In image 2, the face is completely formed by the strong shadow. Drawing 2 has a higher value contrast and that makes it much easier to achieve a strong portrait and to obtain a good likeness. See also this article.

16 March 2014

When are you famous?

Years ago I received a commission for a portrait that would be used in a publicity campaign for a home-decoration company in the Netherlands. Thanks to my agent we agreed to good terms and the financial settlement was very satisfactory. However, I did not know exactly what role the portrait of the owner of the company would play in the campaign. It soon turned out that the picture appeared in countless advertisements and even on the trucks of the company. I was surprised, when I once was back in the Netherlands, to find myself driving past my portrait on the highway. Then I asked myself: am I already a little famous?

9 March 2014

A commissioned portrait

In recent decades, almost exclusively I have been painting portraits on commission. Clients pay for the assignment, and that creates obligations for me, the artist. Principally, the portrait should have a perfect likeness. That’s fundamental, and rightly so. In addition, the painting must meet a number of criteria that has to do with the artist´s view. Firstly, of course one would depict the person in an flattering way. I once read somewhere : A portrait is not just painting a picture, it is the celebration of a person. That is what I am looking for. Regardless, the painting should be of good colour balance, chiaroscuro and composition. But all this, usually has nothing to do with the extent to which a portrait shows a detailed view. Sometimes I can also linger too much on details and I often think I should stop painting earlier. Seeing the portrait of this young lady again (that I made years ago) I remember I wondered if I should elaborate more some details. Now that I see it again, I still do not know. I like the overall unsharpness.

2 March 2014

A smiling portrait

Smiling portraits — I painted this young lady with a broad smile. For me a smiling portrait is not necessarily annoying.

May a portrait show a smile? The debate on this issue almost always gets bogged down in heated discussions with presumptuous, compelling arguments. Some pretend that a smile will eventually get bored and a timeless expression is preferred. Toothy smiles often appear static and smiles distort facial features, e. g. making the eyes smaller. Almost never you hear this, not insignificant, argument: Showing a smile betrays the use of photography. And many portraitists do not like to admit this. It may be clear, I find that it’s all nonsense. First, there is no argument against the use of photography and secondly a smiling portrait is not necessarily annoying. OK, one can have a clear preference that is fine. But let me say this again: Don´t make it a doctrine. The challenge is to make a good portrait, full of character. A painted portrait shall, reliably, report of the sitter and sometimes a smile is a part of the emotion displayed.

I notice that many beginning artists have trouble painting teeth properly. A word of advice: Never make individual teeth, paint a curved surface that turns away into the corners of the mouth.

11 February 2014

In portrait painting: be generous with paint

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Dare to use paint!

In this portrait I used a lot of paint in the boy´s face and to obtain a nice contrast, little paint in the background.

Many novice painters are stingy with paint. OK, paint is expensive, but I think the fear of getting stuck in a general muddle of paint is the biggest malefactor. Yet the power of oil paint is in bold, pure brushstrokes, and as little as possible mixed colours.

So my motto is: be generous with paint!

7 February 20146 September 2019

Backgrounds in a portrait

What to do with the background of a portrait? I see portraits with a detailed interpretation of what is to be seen in the room. And sometimes that gives a fantastic replenishment to the subject. However I often prefer a neutral background. In a manner that it supports the portrait, in a unobtrusive way, I want to depict the subject in an acceptable, suggested setting. Not a cut out paper doll, lost in some space. Backgrounds give me the opportunity to enhance colour harmony and value contrast. I have to admit that it works one time better than the other. But always the background for me is a big challenge.

19 December 2013

Portrait painting from life.

Luis. 55 x 55 cm. oil on canvas — Luis. 55 x 55 cm. Oil on canvas.

For this demonstration, I used my customary, extensive palette of 16 colours. I premixed a limited number of flesh-tones. Three for the light parts, one for the shadow, three neutral grays and a mauve colour. Because I elaborated the drawing accurately, I could make use of the tonal values of the charcoal. In the beginning I used citrus turpentine to dilute the paint. This approach enabled me to paint rather transparent to start with. In simple planes I started the painting and little by little I worked it out entirely. The whole session took seven hours over two days.

Also you see me using my home made viewer or colour checker. Make one yourself.