Charcoal Demonstration

Video Copper Pot Study

This study is for the studio painting, Copper Pot.
I like to work out the preliminary drawing in line and value before the commitment to the painting. Searching out the composition and subtle relationships between forms, for me is the real key to any successful work. Even if that sketch is not a full finished image just simply a contour drawing, it is the ground work on which I like to work. In this image, the copper, shell and gourd tones and palette are so delicate that I decide to work out a full charcoal value study for this painting.
Charcoal is a wonderful medium, very painterly in its feel. It can produce very fine lines as well as tone, it produces a wide range of values very quickly, achieves very dark blacks, corrects easily when understood, can be very loose and spontaneous to detailed and controlled.

My drawing process is a very traditional approach, with small variations that are convenient to me. The materials I used are very basic and for the majority of the drawing they are, a sandpaper sharpening board, (used to shape the vine charcoal to a fine point), soft vine charcoal, blending stumps and tortillions, kneaded eraser, tissue or a small chamois cloth. Also, charcoal pencils 4B and 6B mainly for the block out and contour and Strathmore 300 series charcoal paper.

Plotting the drawing and blocking out.

To scale the drawing you need a measuring device, something you can move your thumb up and down and make visual measurements from quickly, for comparison. You can use a piece of charcoal or a brush handle works. I like chop sticks as they have a uniform thickness up to the point. In the rest of this demonstration I will be referring to this device as your “scale”.

After setting up the still life and establishing a viewing point (the spot you will use to make all your observation from), establish a vertical axis through the composition. Use a plump line or scale edge held at arms length. I placed mine at the edge of the bell shape of the teapot lid as reference. Along that line, plot the high points and low points of objects. Moving the thumb up and down its length to get the distance I want and make a tick mark with charcoal on the paper. Next establish some basic widths with the scale at arms length and mark the distance between points. Compare measure and develop a set of points you can use as constant reference, establishing one measurement that you compare the next measurement to and so on, growing a set of ratios. As you develop the drawing you will check your dimensions often. After plotting all your reference points block out the basic shapes with simple straight lines. Keeping it as uncomplicated as possible, keeping them simple makes it easier to rearrange them until you have their placement correct.

The Contour

With the image plotted and block out you have already established a rough contour of the composition. Refine the drawing by looking for the variations in and character of each line. Working each contour from simple to complex and rechecking their positions with your plotted points and landmarks. Continue refining and measuring against your scale. Continue checking vertical relationships, horizontal relationships, direction and angles using the ratios you have already establish. At this stage I have a very accurate line drawing based on relationships, actually drawing what I see, not what I think I see. For some this may seem some what mechanical, but as you work through a drawing this way it does become more conceptual and automatic.

I would say it took me more time to explain these steps in text than to actually do them.

Massing in – light and shade

 To begin building values or modeling stage I tone the entire paper with charcoal. One can either use the side of a piece of soft charcoal or powder charcoal and level out the value with a chamois or tissue. Avoid using your fingertips, they can transfer oil to the paper and as you layer the charcoal cause areas that will not take more charcoal. Use a stump if you feel you need the control. As far as charcoal powder you can purchase it, however you will sharpen the charcoal sticks and pencils with the sanding board and create powder. I do my sharpening over a small tray made out of card stock and tape; dump the unused portion into a small jar and save it for the next piece.

In toning the paper I want a single value, about mid way on the value scale.
Every shape will be questioned by my scale (chopstick measurement) and its position related to the value scale. Ten being the lightest and zero the darkest.

Next I state the light pattern by lifting out with a kneaded eraser and suggest the shadow pattern with more charcoal. At this stage all of the drawing is covered with some value on which I can start analyzing values and comparing masses.

Develop the drawing thinking shape and value not line. Blend and soften the gradations of value. The kneaded eraser is great for this, roll it to a point and stipple and lift. Add more charcoal and blend with a stump. At this point all the passages become a add and subtract, back and forth approach of making minor adjustments.
Next model the halftones, those values related to the light family (those values where a form is in line with the source of light).
In a broad way you have already stated or massed these in but need to refine them.

We must take a long look at these values for they are often the most descriptive and most subtle. How fast or slow (long or short) they progress will depend on the object. Again return to our scale and judge these. I made a handful of passages over the drawing at this point working over the surface and adjusting the halftones in small veils of charcoal.

Next I made any contrast adjustments by looking at the dark family (those values where a form is not in line with the source of light). Again in a broad way you have already massed these in but just need to tweak them a bit. You might realize that at this phase almost all the information one needs to produce an image is in the simple analysis of form, objectively looking at masses and relating them to one another and that very little detail is really required to create form and dimension.

The final stage of the drawing is looking at the subtleties of our contour, those areas that are lost and found edges (hard or soft) being certain that they help describe the form. I look at the highlights which is the white of the paper and adjust it. I look at all the reflective lights and when I think they help describe the form I call the study complete.

You could certainly push this work further, continue refining and adjusting. But as far as a study for a work on canvas, I have a great resource and a better understanding to go foreword with. This process is a lot easier to complete than read about; I hope I’ve been able to describe it well enough. I produced a video of the process that for some maybe more instructive. Sorry about the poor audio quality on the video, visit The Avett Brothers site and click listen now to hear the great music by these artists.

Hope this has been of some interest, anyway, on to the painting.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Venus and Aphrodites

Graphite and red conte' on paper.

It has been some time since I posted any drawings here. I think this is a good one to add to the site for it does follow some of the classical approaches I have been working through.
It is funny how certain images repeat themselves in our work.

The images of Venus and Aphrodite have popped up several times in my work over the years.
Commonly known as the Goddess of Love, she is also referred to as the goddess of beauty and nature. Which I feel fits with an artists sensibilities. What is most interesting is how often through out human history you find her persona. Many cultures and civilizations had their version of her myth under a variety of names.

On a recent trip to the Speed Museum we ran across another small early Roman Aphrodite figurine. Which once again got me to thinking about her image and once again putting her in my work.

Enjoy Jim

Underpainting Techniques - Demonstration Spring Flowers

   In the following posts I will be demonstrating my approaches to the use of an underpainting in the Classical Method. I believe that the majority of the Old Masters used this approach and edited it down to their own needs. How much of a foundation they used I think became a very personal choice for these artists. The various types of underpaintings gave different effects that become unique tools for these painters.
   The nature of oil paint is such that it can be applied in transparent glazes or in opaque layers. It was the ingenious methods that they developed to take full advantage of these qualities that produced some of the great masterpieces of all time. For me it is the sense of light and form that gives these works the amazing Realism they have. I am continuously exploring these Classical Painting approaches to increase my understanding of them and applying them to my work.

   Any person who has viewed or studied the work of the Masters, certainly came away with a sense of astonishment over the depth, luminosity and technical virtuosity these artists processed. Although varied in style and approach they each began with similar foundations and fundamentals on which they built their art as they explored the craft of oil painting. Some started with very detailed drawings such as Durer, or highly finished underpainting in values like Vermeer and others develop a sketch in umber such as Caravaggio. Yet some seemed to combine all of these approaches. Their working sequence can only be speculated upon, some of their approaches are obvious and others are truly obscure lost to time and history.

  Today the best we can only do is emulate what we think these artists did and put it into practice in our own work. There is probably as many ways to start a painting as there are artist.. But the basic idea in the method is building your painting in transparent layers becoming richer and more detailed in each additional layer. Taking advantage of the luminosity of transparent color over top of an underpainting where the preliminary draftsmanship and composition has been refined.

First Image: click above image for a larger view.
   I begin with a drawing of my subject, in this case a small glass bottle with spring flowers. I am working with charcoal and graphite, the graphite for the initial contour drawing and charcoal to build masses and tone. Charcoal moves freely and is a very “painterly” medium. It can produce very fine lines as well as tone. You can build a full range of values very quickly, corrects easily, and use a subtract and add method of drawing. Being that you can lift out areas with a kneaded eraser and put them back in if you wish. Making it very fluid and spontaneous. Certainly my favorite drawing medium.

Second Image
   I transfer the image to the canvas panel with tracing paper. I map out the contours of the drawing, sort of a typographical map of the high and low spots of the image. Once transferred to the panel I fix these lines with ink. And wash over the entire surface with a neutral mixture of yellow ochre and burnt umber referred to as the Imprimatura. Which will fix the drawing and give me a mid tone value to judge color on.

Third Image
   The traditional method would have you producing a full underpainting in values on top of the Imprimatura. You can see an example of that here with the painting, Still Life with Two Pears from an earlier post.
   However in this variation I will move on to color layers. Working very transparent I block in each object with a thin basecoat as close to the local color as possible. I model light and shade into each object using the tone of the Imprimatura to create shadows and values. For example a very thin coat of white in the flower will tone that passage while thicker paint will block the underpainting. Producing transparent shadows and opaque full lights giving an immediate optical sense of depth.

Final Images – Completed Painting – Spring Flowers – 8” x10”
  I allow the painting to dry overnight. And go over the entire painting again with passages of transparent color and opaque highlights. I refine areas, picking out a few details and modeling light and shade with glazes of color. The results are very rich and luminous, with a wonderful sense of space that only heightens the realism of the image.
Enjoy Jim.

This piece is available, to purchase please click here.

Study for still life with Two Pears

Charcoal, 14x16 – Study for Two Pears

This study is for a studio painting to be done in the indirect method. A traditional method of painting in transparent layers of color over a monochrome under painting.
It is my most preferred painting technique because of the illusion of three dimensional form it produces. But before I dedicate too much time to a canvas I will produce a sketch, to work out composition and design. Looking for simple shapes and patterns. Considering design elements such as, focal point, variety, unity and balance. A successful painting has an underlying structure. But at this stage I am not as much concerned about draftsmanship as natural organizing principles and if the image inspires me to move further with it. So the preliminary sketch is kept fairly simple, to the broadest forms
and patterns of light and dark. I will start with a quick contour sketch in graphite. And mass in large tones with soft vine charcoal, lifting out the lights with a kneaded eraser.
Not too much time committed here, but enough for me to decide if I want to develop this idea into an oil painting.



Grisaille, 24x30 – Still life with Two Pears

The under painting is done in values of grey, mixed from white, burnt umber and ultramarine blue. The canvas was covered with a mid tone grey and modeled with lighter and darker tones of that mixture. Since I have already decided on the structure and composition of this piece, I can focus my attention to the value relationship and draftsmanship I will need to convey the illusion of depth. Keeping the forms round and edges soft, and slightly out of focus. At this stage you can work in a vigorous and subtractive method; adding and removing paint as you move shapes around modeling light and shade. Fine tuning the structure and values, of the under painting. In the indirect method I have broke down the complicated production of a painting into smaller more manageable stages. And laid down a foundation, for the building transparent layers of colors. That will give the painting a rich resonate depth. And a true illusion of dimension and atmosphere.

Leonardo study

Garment study for a seated figure.
Leonardo da Vinci.
Italian Renaissance, born 1452- 1519
Charcoal, pen and ink, between 1470 and 1484.
Musee du Louvre, Paris, France

After Leonardo.

This study I have always admired. Just an amazing play of light and shade across that material. The depth and dimension is wonderful.
Drapery has always found a way into my work. And after this study it has inspired me to included it more often as an element. I certainly have gained much from the effort.
12 x 14 inches, charcoal on paper.