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

[the_allejo05]

wow awesome progress pancho..now I feel bad for not drawing /painting..oh well..one more week till school is over and back to the drawing board..
hmm one critique pancho..try a bit not to overexagerrate form..control the mannerism!! try to balance out..naturalism (sincerety or what you see) with your own expression..while rubens is great,greuze,pontormo and others..there is a bit of overexpression...Michelangelo is an eception his figures are really powerful..yet beautiful and show a femenine hand..the overall balance is still maintained..remember the artist has both a strong male touch and a soft female one (try drawing/painting your woman more delicate)..look at some of leonardo's women,while chubby and idealized his touch is delicate!! you are making amazing progress. keep it up

[kv_ak]

Hi Pancho, you're doing great stuff here with figures... I don't really know how to write a critique, so perhaps I'd just add some points to what Allejo said-- accuracy is really important since it might be hard to make light work when there are some exaggerations in one's drawing- shapes of light planes just won't fit correctly with each other the way you're seeing them.

I would suggest you to spend some time studying edges and light modelling inside and between masses of light and shadow, since you said you have some difficulties when drawing that guy in pants.

The key here is to rationalize one's sight, as Leonardo put it-- ask yourself, what are you seeing: Should this mass belong to dark halftone or is it actually a shadow, how exactly should a given edge develop, why is it getting darker or lighter?

It will help you to see and understand what you are seeing better- aim for understanding, rather than copying. Try doing a study solely dedicated to edges and light modeling.

You're doing good with all those studies, and making excellent progress- keep on going, man-- draw!

I hope this will help you.

[Ramon Hurtado]

Hi Allejo and Kv_av: thanks for the comments guys! I'll definitely try to improve in those areas. As to the exaggeration of form, that's mostly a problem of hand/eye coordination....sometimes I can see correctly but my hand doesn't do what I tell it to yet

Sorry I can't reply more in depth, it's very late at night Here's an sp for tonight, I've been looking at greuze and he's fast becoming one of my favorite draftsmen, especially because of his portraits.

[Art_Addict]

Nice self portrait.

yeah, Greuze is certainly delicious !
But sometimes it looks like he had trouble wih noses for some strang reason...

keep it up
looks like you internalized a lot of Villpu, good stuff.

[Ramon Hurtado]

Art addict: thanks! Greuze is awesome, i haven't noticed that much wrong with his noses though

I'm BACK!!!! oh god, so this is the sweet week between final papers and final exams, I have been so busy writing stupid essays that part of my soul almost died.

Anyway, I'm still trying to come to terms with all the concepts i learned in Glenn's class.....that and I'm studying anatomy more in depth, this time parting from my slowly developing understanding of form.....anyway, let me have it in terms of critiques!



first off....study of velazquez and zorn.....this was a class assignment at SC

Did some copies after Vilppu as well and they were very helpful!!

'm super pumped because I've been to the los angeles public library studying the cornwell murals, that man was a god! i did some studies from his works...

Also, 2 days after doing some horrible life drawings, I watched a tutorial by one of Vilppu's students that said that anatomy was about rhythm and it made a ridiculous amount of sense.....so i reworked some of the drawings with that in mind.

[Ramon Hurtado]

Aaaaannnndddd.....last night, at around 1 am, my friend Eric let me do some oil sketches of him....first one is 40 mins, second one is 20....i used the palette knife a LOT, i'm more comfortable with it now.....these two were more experimental portraits, working on temp variation, but also on simple indication of form.....i'm also thinking of using these in larger paintings.

I'm also working on a painting that will involve a crocodile, so here are my first attempts to understand the structure of the crocodile, bone diagrams, etc....
Also, some studies after the fantastic work of Andrea Blasich

also, i did a cloud study today for use in the painting based on the Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" that I'm working on.

and finally, I borrowed my friend's Ecorche sculpture again, this time with a more analytical eye, looking for the shape of muscles and their insertion points. I'm excited because I've already memorized a few of the muscles and bones in the torso..

[Ramon Hurtado]

quickie plein air, only had about 30 minutes of sunlight left in the day....i'm not entirely happy with this, the main body of the building should have been more blueish given that it's all in shadow....the only part I sorta like is the arch/entry thing....and the palm trees....sort of....

also, here's an anatomy study.....i was going to do it in grisaille, but i ran out of ivory black, anyway, i used my palette leftovers from the first painting to do this one.....mainly focusing on rendering the form and feeling the bones under the skin....(esp. the ribcage)....i also experimented with painting across the form, although I ended up using tiny strokes (like hatching)....just wanted to try it, dean cornwell uses this to great effect in his murals. I also attached a less distracting black and white copy.

anyway, critique away!

[grinn]

Nice stuff man. I would suggest watching your edgework carefully in your paintings. A form can be described using edges alone, and they are crucial to creating the three-dimensional effect that you want to achieve. You didn't have much time, but all the more important to get those edges right to best help describe what is going on. The colors are fairly bright as well, to the point of competition with each other. It might be best to find one area to go high chroma (where you want the focus).

Hope that helps at all, I am not the best painter but these things have helped me a lot.

[the_allejo05]

wow ..a feat to the eye..before painting that plein air..do a little drawing sketch in your sketchbook..(a pre rehearsal..before singing!!)that way you will paint quicker...more accurate..and more colorful (since you are allow to see more,less time spending analysing the subject..because it will be your second time looking at it)
That anatomy study is great...try doing some from memory..see how much u remember..er
The portrait of Eric is beautiful...next time..push that black color..having a strong simplicity of design..in the contrasts..again maybe a tiny presketch of him will help you more..the sensitivy of color you have shown in the skin is admiring..i love the touches of blue you left around..the one on the eyebrow is well done..but if you were to developed it more..i should not see it..just feel the blue..although i would have done the same , but either way is awesome!

[Ramon Hurtado]

grinn: Thanks a lot for the crit, edgework is definitely one of my weakest points right now. And althoughthe colors aren't that bright in the actual painting, (the autolevels filter just screwed me over) I can still see the problem, I should have cooled down the reds further since most of the building was in the shade.
Btw, your work looks fantastic, it's great to see San Diego putting out good artists!

allejo: Thanks, I'll try to do a quick sketch next time. I actually did one for the portrait of Eric, you can see it in the midst of my anatomy studies

My last assignment for "intro to the art of animation" was to physically create an object from a dream......I had a dream involving crocodiles, and since I'm planning to do a painting with a crocodile in it, I thought it'd be good practice to sculpt one.

So, using a metal clotheshanger, a fork, duct tape and tinfoil, I created an armature, then proceeded to pile on the clay. I had no real tools, so I made a few and mostly used my gilette razor and a library card to sculpt. The result is pretty broad, I was mostly working on the planes of the croc's body, and left it rough since I had no nice finishing tools. It was great fun! As always, C& C welcome

[Ramon Hurtado]

I've been working on some portrait studies lately, a lot more people are willing to pose at the moment. Unfortunately, when Kaitlyn asked me (or demanded) that I paint her I wasn't really in the mood.....I was having a not so great day....anyway, I ended up just doing a imprimatura/grisaille mess, that isn't very pleasing to the eye.

Also, portraits of Jeffrey and Lisa.....I included process shots for the first one....I'm very dissatisfied with this study, the color was fun, but the drawing just utterly failed.

The one of Lisa is better in my opinion, the temp shifts are more subdued, and the drawing is better, except for the fact that the eyes dont match up.....and there is an odd patch that is too cool to the left of her mouth.

I'm trying to do as many of these as I can though, so I can be braver with these portraits and not care if I screw one up.

[Ramon Hurtado]

an oil study of a beautiful painting by Edwin Lord Weeks, the turp sunk in however, so I'll post another pic once I varnish it

[Ramon Hurtado]

a portrait of my friend Kellen and a still life for now

[Ramon Hurtado]

an imaginative piece, which hopefully has better composition than previous works.....I'm not very satisfied with this and I'm finding it really hard to create out of my head (even though I used refs loosely for some parts)....oh well, iat least i'm fighting the good fight!

[enrigo]

Great thread, I will look at your collection of work every time I feel lazy in doing studies.

Keep up the awesome and inspiring work !

[Ramon Hurtado]

enrigo: thanks!

Here's a study after Velazquez's innocent X

[the_allejo05]

Nice...!keep it up..

[Ramon Hurtado]

thanks Alejandro, always appreciate your support

here are some assorted Leyendecker, life and anatomy studies. I've really taken to the golden age illustrators as of late, every time I find out about another one I'm exposed to remarkable work, the compositions are always excellent and the draftsmanship and color are exquisite, really great inspiration.

Unfortunately, I feel like I'm stuck in a rut, I painted this boot last night, my goal was to think about planes when doing it, but during the process I kept forgetting or getting distracted, I somehow feel like I'm not pushing myself hard enough.....I feel like I'm a lot more cautious/complacent than before.
Consequently, this boot will likely be covered up later, when I paint something decent on that panel

I'm gonna focus on really learning to draw this next semester, again studying with Glenn and also from the books at school and the Cornwell murals, see where that gets me.

As always crits, etc, welcome.

[the_allejo05]

Pancho..you are really progressing and your understanding of forms is getting there..to take your level to the highest..hmm what i mean is the level of a master artist of the past..you gotta start copying ornamental work..Kenyon cox highly recomended this...
there is nothing like it..all the classical designers/painters of the past did it...the hand and eye becomes more accurate.
start understanding constructive geometry (a bit at first) and descriptive geometry later.. (meaning ortographic projections,being able to deconstruct an object in all posible views)..and always push that perspective..which goes in hand with these subjects..well remember the obsession of these subjects..in the reinassance..Leonardo said that an artist must also be close to an arquitect..obviously..not really studyng the architect part,,but having an understading of the drawing part... which odly enough architects posses today believe it or not architecture has helped me understand space better and design which are inevitable when you paint from reality. i would recomend you to study this book..while it says for architects ..in my opinion it will make you a very powerful artist..not only able to design paintings but other objects of beauty as well..this book is a bit tough (not many architects study this stuff anymore) ,Im studying it right now..and it pertains to the real science of drawing...it will help your sense of building..which is what vilppu opens up..but again..this is touching the ground of those greats..such as durer,leonardo,michelangelo,raphael..etc..

Geometry for Architects (Spiral-bound)
by Grace Wilson (Author)
in amazon ..cheap ..dont be discourage by the complex geometries..take it step at a time. specially those exercises with compass and ruler.
these book touches a bit of artistic geometry exercises..which aid in composition and design..but nothing better than the first chapters of Sebastiano serlio on his books on arquitecture..If you really are interested i can make some copies..when i get a chance..(i know i also owe you those two books..) but anyways..I know the talent you got thats why also study what you do hehe..

[Ramon Hurtado]

Thanks for the reply Alejandro, I'll definitely look into the stuff you mentioned in the future, do you know of any reference images to copy ornamental patterns, or will any pattern suffice? Also, what do you mean in terms of constructive geometry? I'd greatly appreciate it if you could clarify these two things

went to the museum today, they have a neoclassical drawing exhibit on, lots of David's stuff, and some prix de rome winners. Interestingly enough, I didn't think the drawings were that great for the most part, they were surprisingly schematic, describing anatomical masses with lines rather than with value. Some of David's copies after antique sculpture were just bad :/ really poor construction....but the David painting in the museum redeems him in my eyes because it's pretty fantastic

Anyway, sculpture studies (got wayy too carried away with incidental detail on the 2nd horse still good rendering exercise though), and assorted master studies (first few after David et al)

[the_allejo05]

exellent studies..I agree with you on Ingres..he wasnt as great at first..but then he got really strong..I dont think your study of the second horse is inssidental at all..have you ever seen a Rubens drawing..how incidental detail is that ..hehe
on ornament you have many books on the subject..go to amazon and Dover gives you a nice selection. cheap too.. I myself have a book called Islamic Designs,since thru history the Arabs developed a very complex system based on geometrical constructions. Esher study many of his designs innovations. It really depends on your taste, i have seen native americans, indian and japanese motifs that are very attractive and simple. Any Reinassance as well as classical will be very helpful to develop your hand,eye and aesthetic designs,while still being able to give decorative flair. I chose the arabs because i want in my future art to have something from the east rather than the played out classical egg and dart or greek stuff . Mucha is also great to study.
Many painters from the reinassance as well as classical were adept at doing ornamental work,..the construction geometry part was part also of a painter and architect training. You start with exercises of basic geometry (borrowed from euclid while still not that mathematical) and then moved on to perspective. there are too books free on the internet that shows you that they had this education:
The american drawing book (exellent drawing exercises in there, also look in the chapter of elements of geometry)
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi...s.AmDrawBkChap
I think you speak spanish verdad?
Este es un libro escrito por un academico italiano para la escuela de bellas artes en mexico de 1700 I think..y pues primer capitulo todo que ver con geometria y luego perspectiva..un poco diferente a como se ensena esta epoca..lo estudie una vez y hay que revisarlo...te ayudara mucho...

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/serv...2802/index.htm

there is also a book called constructive geometry by Earle Raymond Hedrick..where it touches how to apply those exercises in order to create ornament..once you master some of the basics..you can start inventing your own constructions as well. Geometry is applied into classical drawing as you might know from villpu..but what the few knowledge they teach at the ateliers and bargues..was well known back in the reinassance.

this is a great engraving to keep in mind .. the education of a student of Disegno (drawing) the plate reads Tanto qui basti under Anatomy,Geometry and Perspective.. which means you can never have enough of this..Is a lot to learn but then little by little everything starts clicking together .



Oh here are examples from Jean Jacque Lequeu..or how he studied geometry, ornament..his perspective studies as well as his shadows and tints on primitive forms are worthy of attention





Go here is the link to see some his awesome studies..his drawings are too stiff sometimes..but it will help you on how to approach perhaps anatomy ,studies of antiques, parts of face,etc bas reliefs..multifigure compostions..etc..or other stuff..
http://gallica.bnf.fr/scripts/phpiis...&Bgc=&QF=&Pg=0

[Ramon Hurtado]

allejo: thanks! I was thinking of Mucha the whole time you were mentioning ornamental work, I've been getting really into his work (and JC lLeyendecker's) lately. I do speak spanish, and that book is great,the grammar sounds surprisingly modern, i thought it'd be a lot harder to follow

Here's a study after Ivan Kramskoy....about 4 hours i think, the original is ridiculously better!

[Ramon Hurtado]

Hands!!!

[the_allejo05]

cool studies..your eye is very strong..a that study is awesome..
Pancho ..you should start doing some sight size work..you know sort of what im doing..you saw my first cast.. and starting the second..and to tell you the truth your eye for tones gets surpisinly more accurate..and you become very sensible for color, and shapes..thats what Mims told me, that he saw the students eye progressing very rapidly..I still think the aim of the artist is not to be a copier of nature..thats why i like the older artists rather than 19th century ones..But having a very strong eye ..you dont know how much it helps..just get a cheap cast from anywhere..even in bed ,bath and beyond..the garden section and start a sight size..you will see too that it helps you in retaining your visual memory..the bad side is that you tend to copy stuff ,instead of analysing but you learn to control when to copy and when to analyze.. look at rubens drawings he sometimes copied flat tone shapes when working from life..well many did..but still not like the horrible job at the academies today..

[Ramon Hurtado]

Hey Allejo I've actually been thinking about doing some cast studies recently, if I do I'll post 'em here.

Here are a couple of studies after Kris Costa (www.antropus.com), and awesome 3d modeler...and more of the same anatomy stuff...this time tackling the leg, especially the back.

[Rebeccak]

Hey, we miss you in Vilppu's class! What happened bro?

[Ramon Hurtado]

hey Rebecca! I miss you guys too! I had registered already, but since I wasn't in town till the beginning of this week, I didn't make the payment on time....I called the guild and they said the class was booked and couldn't guarantee me a spot, but they said he'll be having a class in February, so I'm signing up for that as soon as I can (plus since the class was 6 weeks and I already missed one I figured I should just wait). Anyway, say hi to everyone for me, and let me know when you're free to do some plein-airing!

[Rebeccak]

Heya yes, we should definitely go paint! Feel free to email me, I'm generally free on Sundays. What about Sun., Feb 3? Email me because none of the threads I'm subscribed to ever actually send me notifications - let me know if you're free and where you'd like to paint.

[Greenwood]

Hi Ramon--just wanted to let you know that this is a thread I will be checking all the time. I am (very) new here, and have been impressed (and quite envious) of the skill exhibited by artists around my age; yours, however, is by far the best I've seen so far. Your understanding of form is exceptional and your respect for master works is really refreshing. I've felt for a long time that I was alone in my desire to express form and interest in classical artwork and artists, but now I see that this is not at all the case at all. You are miles ahead of where I am artistically, and I can see that you're progress at a rapid rate. In short, you inspire me! Keep on!

ariel

[dose]

Nice work- great progress & dedication!