Studies.....from life and from the masters

[Seedling]

Pancho, I'm not sure what to tell you. You are doing GREAT! Don't let your ego get too big, okay? ;-) And don't worry about not getting crits. These sorts of traditional studies just aren't attention-grabbers around here the way that big boobs and big monsters are. But the sort of work that you are doing is obviously teaching you lots. Keep up the good work! Make sure that you are having fun with your art. And make sure that you aren’t relying too much on excited feedback from others to make it fun. (It’s an easy trap to fall into!)

You’re going to kick some butt with animation. :-)

Cheers!

[Maxine Schacker]

I'm curious about your art education. Have you had good instruction or did you do alot of research to teach yourself the basics of representational art? You have so much potential! I can tell that you haven't had much experience drawing from the life model. It's actually harder to draw people who have clothing on: you have to project the body and then feel the clothing on top of the form. I'm sure you'll have great life classes next year and it will be fun to watch your work progress. I'm not worried about your getting a "swelled head." It's obvious that it's your love of painting and drawing that motivates you - not the need to be famous. Just stay humble and keep seeking and the magic of it all won't die. The best of luck to you.

[artmessiah]

I agree with Maxine and Seedling - nice stuff. Keep doing stuff from life and you'll make a fine animator one day I'm sure of it. I hope I can become a half way decent character animator too once I'm finish with college Take care man.

[Ramon Hurtado]

Seedling: Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I agree with the points you make, sorry if I came across a little attention hungry I just feel like I'm shooting in the dark a lot of the time with my artwork and need feedback to improve, but dont worry, I'm having tons of fun doing this...there's nothing like it

Maxine: I've been enrolled in some kind of art course at my school for the past four years, but there's no real instruction, we basically get access to materials and are otherwise on our own. My teacher has a good sense of design, but she doesnt paint, she mostly does drawings, and they're usually from photographs. I'm a voracious reader though, and i think i've downloaded like 1000 master paintings to my harddrive so far, so I'm pretty much self taught so far. And you're completely right, I've the closest I've gotten to being in a life class is sitting in for 2 hours once at a local community college. However, I'm hoping to change that and enroll in classes at studio 2nd street with Ron and Vanessa Lemen over the summer (sadly the university I'll attend doesnt stress life drawing as much as it should).

Artmessiah: Thanks for the encouragement, hopefully in the not too distant future we'll both be character animators!

k, here's a velazquez study i worked up last night

[Mex]

i like your oils !! it's realy cool. So, other stuff is good too ) !

[DanielC]

Very nice paintings !
Keep working !

[Ramon Hurtado]

Mex: thanks man, your stuff is looking awesome
DanielC: thanks, i'll try!

here's a portrait of my cousin Pancho (his name is actually Pancho, i just use pancho simpson as a pseudonym)

[stalsby]

nice sketches!! and the oil paintings are great!

[Ramon Hurtado]

thanks stalby! here's a study of fechin

[Ramon Hurtado]

another skull study

[Ramon Hurtado]

new still life! i had fun with this one trying to replicate the bread's texture in paint...it's multigrain btw..lol

[Ramon Hurtado]

here's some more anatomical studies and a copy of rubens

[Ramon Hurtado]

my cousin pancho again...i'm having trouble with the eyes....maybe i'm not observing as closely as i should

[enelrad]

hello, nice work here !! the oil painting of the bread was great, the texture of the bread was painted really well i think, and the wood too.

[Maxine Schacker]

Oh, Pancho how we'd love to have you here at Max the Mutt! You are the real thing. The drive, the passion and the raw talent are all there. Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. If we only had an international scholarship (and we may in the future) I'd offer it to you in a second. You must keep pursuing life drawing and traditional painting. If you have any questions about my suggestions on how to approach painting, let me know. I'll be trying to post examples next week.

You are a very special young man. Remain a student, and don't get "attitude" and you will continue to grow.

[Ramon Hurtado]

h, Pancho how we'd love to have you here at Max the Mutt! You are the real thing. The drive, the passion and the raw talent are all there. Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. If we only had an international scholarship (and we may in the future) I'd offer it to you in a second. You must keep pursuing life drawing and traditional painting. If you have any questions about my suggestions on how to approach painting, let me know. I'll be trying to post examples next week.

You are a very special young man. Remain a student, and don't get "attitude" and you will continue to grow.

thank you Maxine, you don't know how much encouragement your words provide. It's too bad that Max the Mutt is so far away, I've checked out the site before and you guys seem to be doing great things for your students. I think at this point I've decided that if my university fails to deliver good instruction in traditional art I'm going to go to one of the wonderful ateliers around my area, like Watts, Studio 2nd Street or the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art. Whatever happens I'll keep you posted though.

[Davicho]

This is amazing stuff Panchosimpson....you're way ahead of the game for whatever field you want to be in! Although in my humble opinion, you'd do fantastic things sticking with fine art, but you know where you want to go.

Sargent is an excellent painter to learn lots of things from...have you ever visited the Art Renewal Center website? You probably have, but if not they've got a collection of literally thousands of hi-res scans for practically every realist and neoclassical artist of the 1700s - early 1900s. "Talent is just another name for the love of a thing", and you've got an obvious passion for what you do...if I were fit to critique I would! Awesome work!

[Ramon Hurtado]

Davicho: thanks for the kind words, your thread is looking good too, i really like your line quality!

Sargent is my all time favorite artist, i'm basically in the process of building him a shrine in a corner of my room. haha. curiously enough, i was working on a sargent study in preparation for the bargues i plan to do over the summer.....

this study isnt nearly as accurate as a bargue, and there are tons of things wrong, so critique away!

[thinairart]

You can never go wrong with Sargent! Good work on your recent Sargent study, I think you've captured the value relationships well and have established a strong likeness.

I think you'll really enjoy working from the Bargue plates. You are quickly reminded through that process that a 'likeness' with a subject comes from key structural elements, and that the fine details are generally superfluous. I've worked 2 plates so far (nearly done with my second) and each time I'm amazed how strong the likeness with the original can be, yet so many things may need correction in my drawings. If you get the key value relationships, angles and proportions correct, you have quite a lot of room to manoeuver before you drift off course. Of course, part of the Bargue experience is 'getting it just right', but along the way I found it very educational as to what information turned out to be truly important, versus what fine detail enchanced the overall rendering, but did not really contribute to a stronger likeness... good knowledge to tuck away for later, as any Sargent fan can appreciate how economic he was with his brush strokes.

Keep up the great work, and thanks for stopping by my SketchBook!

[Ramon Hurtado]

reidaj: thanks for the reply, looking forward to tackling those Bargues soon

ok, i haven't posted in awhile, first off is an owl statuette that used to belong to my uncle.

next one is one of the "commissioned" portraits that i've been doing for random people at my school lately (i've done 2 and have 2 more pending),

they're usually done from photographs (not that fun) but in this case the gentleman had passed away a few years ago.

last one is an unfinished portrait of my mom (life size and done from life) that i started a few months ago, during spring break....it probably wont be getting done soon lol, it was a humbling experience.

PS. sorry for the low quality of the pictures, i really need to invest in a new camera!

[Ramon Hurtado]

I'M FINALLY DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL!!!! haha, now that i have tons more free time, i've been enjoying more time to work on drawing and painting! (plus i got a sweet scholarship from my school that consisted of $250 store credit at the blick art store!).

Anyway, i was wandering around the park drawing statues (velazque, murillo and zurbaran) and walked into a senior citizen international dance class...these people were kind enough to let me draw them and they were tons of fun!

[Ramon Hurtado]

my mom was nice enough to sit for me this morning....first work from life in charcoal..def. need to do more of this..it was fun!

[E.M.GIST]

Great stuff, your work keeps getting better and better. I particularly like the Sargent study and the drawing of your Mom.

[Nizza_waaarg]

just found your thread, really fantastic work, your oils are insane. Only crit i can really think of is to watch the values in your pencil work, they sometimes seem a bit to lacking in contrast or somthing like that, other than that excellent work.

Making me feel really lazy, have to draw more

[Ramon Hurtado]

E.M.GIST: thanks!!! means a lot!

Nizza_waaarg: thanks, i know what you mean about those pencil studies, i'll be watching that contrast!

k, so here's some new stuff, a 5 x 7 still life of a pepper and cherry tomato, the picture is really bad, but it's the best one i could take....any tips for photographing oils?


...and another charcoal of my mom (btw, she just agreed to sitting for me twice a week for the rest of the summer! so more charcoals to come)....

before i forget, when the rest of the family saw it they gave me the same comment i invariably get...."it looks like her, but older"....any idea why this is? i was thinking maybe i'm pushing the contrast too much in these and over-emphasizing wrinkles, etc.

[Ramon Hurtado]

more stuff!! grapes and cherries (at least, my mom says they're cherries...look kinda like blackberries to me)......and another charcoal portrait....except this one sucks more than the others so far....i like the last one best....oh well!

[timpaatkins]

Hey Ramon you are kicking ass and taking seconds!
This is lookin real damn good, and you are still so young! When you get in to a life painting class your gonna grow like a madman! Listen to Maxine's advice, and don't get a big head, I'm a returning student, and I'm in a freshman class of fine arts, ( being a 28 year old graphic designer) and a few of the kids in there are pretty talented, but if the instructor gives them any sort of tips on how to go outside their comfort zone they get all " Well thats the way I was taught, I Like it like that etc etc..."
They are 18 ffs!

Learning to paint is a lifetime commitment, and you most certainly have the bug!

Listen to all tips you can get, no matter how wacky or weird they sound, try them,and if they don't work, then hey, at least you gave them a shot and can discard it.

Cheers Tim

[the_allejo05]

nice man...you got potential and already a good strong eye ,just keep working and be patient, keep the master studying going you will see new things each time you revisit them..dont forget your essentials anatomy,perspective,geometry, I would recomend you some ornamental work as well ,it will better your hand and up your feel for disegno (design)..you can visit my site and throw me some questions for Im on the same path..although im getting into the field of arquitecture as well . Also keep a sketchbook handy (if you already dont have one) and start drawing from Invenzione (imagination) for true painting comes from the Mind's eye

[Ramon Hurtado]

timpaatkins: thanks for your encouraging words tim! I'll definitely try to keep an open mind and experiment with different methods, etc...I'm pretty serious about painting, but I'm even more serious about not becoming a closed-minded jerk

theallejo05: thanks for the suggestions, I'll try to do more work from imagination (i used to do a lot before)...as for the sketchbook, haha you bet i have one! thanks for stopping by.

okay, so i've been enjoying increasing freedom lately...turned 18 yesterday...and have been working quite a bit....first off......some corn that i found interesting....then a really crappy study of a nectarine....then a study of my dad...

aaaand ...this morning i decided to paint a fish, so i did a 3 hr study...but i figured that since the fish was there already i would try to do a quick oil sketches from a different position....so i tried it....it was soooo much fun! it only took about 30 minutes, so i did another one...i'll definitely have to do more oil sketches...

too bad my camera still sucks and all i have to show are these blurry pics

[the_allejo05]

nice work pancho, you got it man! I can even smell the fish here hehe..and the corn beautiful texture..consider your white light to be a bit on the cool side..remember the sky is blue so it gives it a bit of blue tinge..
the portrait of your dad has some awesome values..a bit of fault on the wings of the nose but no big deal..i can tell the masters aid here..hmm next time give more texture to the hair (draw it as if you are actually touching it)..and try to be softer with your hand..although that will come with time.. if you want, do a quick ghost drawing very light ,check your forms and alignments as accurate as you can..then wip it off softly and start to render..I know that your fast ,but try to slow down..
maybe on your still life do a quick drawing of what you plan to paint..(a tiny sketch on your sketcbook will serve well)so when you paint you are familiar with the forms more..you will see that you will see more the longer you have look..try your hand at pure opaque white objects..so you become more sensitive to tone and value..try perfect geometric shapes..but buen buen trabajo (si hablas espanol no? )