Hi there!
I've decided to use WordPress instead which allows me to consolidate my site and blog with one service.
You can now find everything through www.ChristineMitzuk.com.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Relocating the Blog
I've decided to use WordPress instead which allows me to consolidate my site and blog with one service.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Posthumous Portrait
As a present for my husband, I painted a posthumous portrait of his mother. Kinda tricky. I had to work from photos, and my memories and impressions of her.
Step 1
Transfer the photo reference as a line drawing/tracing to the canvas and start painting. I thought this would be a shortcut. Turns out it wasn't. I found I wasn't really understanding the forms and it was looking flat. So...
Step 2
Do a drawing. Not a highly rendered drawing but a drawing from observation instead of tracing. Instead of just copying what I saw and trying to exactly place all the bits, I actively thought about form (shapes, volumes, overlapping forms, and underlying structure), plane changes, and value groupings.
Next time if I transfer a picture, I'll try to be more mentally engaged with forms. Though I did enjoy doing the drawing so maybe a quick one stays in my process.
Step 3
Go back to the painting. Think about shape, volume, value, color, edges. With each layer of paint continue to think about shape, volume, value, color, edges.
I had a few progress shots but due to technical difficulties, they are long gone. Instead, here's the finished piece (or at least really close to being done).
Materials and Painting
This portrait was painted in oils. Generally my process goes something like this. For the lay-in/first pass I thin the paint with Gamsol (a type of odorless mineral spirits. It has the least amount of evaporation per hour so I'm not breathing in too much junk). Following the "fat over lean" principle, I use less Gamsol and more paint in the next several passes. Nearing the end when I'm working finer detail and edges I add a little Galkyd Lite to the mix. I tried regular Galkyd ages ago but found it set up too quick for me.
Right now I still use the Paxton Pallete from training at The Atelier (with a few additions of my own for this specific project). Eventually I'll experiment with other colors.
The Paxton Palette lends itself well to natural colored subjects, like people, because of the qualities of mineral pigments v.s. modern/organic pigments. Most all the colors in the Paxton palette are mineral pigments with the exception of Alizarin Crimson.
Paxton Palette Colors
If you're interested, you can read more about mineral vs. modern colors
here: http://www.gamblincolors.com/newsletters/studionotes19.html
here: http://www.goldenpaints.com/justpaint/jp26article2.php
Yes they're product pages, but you can glean some helpful general information too.
Step 1
Transfer the photo reference as a line drawing/tracing to the canvas and start painting. I thought this would be a shortcut. Turns out it wasn't. I found I wasn't really understanding the forms and it was looking flat. So...
Step 2
Do a drawing. Not a highly rendered drawing but a drawing from observation instead of tracing. Instead of just copying what I saw and trying to exactly place all the bits, I actively thought about form (shapes, volumes, overlapping forms, and underlying structure), plane changes, and value groupings.
Next time if I transfer a picture, I'll try to be more mentally engaged with forms. Though I did enjoy doing the drawing so maybe a quick one stays in my process.
Head Study
Utrecht Recycled Sketchbook paper
Conte Sanguine Pencil, Conte White
Utrecht Recycled Sketchbook paper
Conte Sanguine Pencil, Conte White
Step 3
Go back to the painting. Think about shape, volume, value, color, edges. With each layer of paint continue to think about shape, volume, value, color, edges.
I had a few progress shots but due to technical difficulties, they are long gone. Instead, here's the finished piece (or at least really close to being done).
Oil on Linen, 9"x12"
Materials and Painting
This portrait was painted in oils. Generally my process goes something like this. For the lay-in/first pass I thin the paint with Gamsol (a type of odorless mineral spirits. It has the least amount of evaporation per hour so I'm not breathing in too much junk). Following the "fat over lean" principle, I use less Gamsol and more paint in the next several passes. Nearing the end when I'm working finer detail and edges I add a little Galkyd Lite to the mix. I tried regular Galkyd ages ago but found it set up too quick for me.
Right now I still use the Paxton Pallete from training at The Atelier (with a few additions of my own for this specific project). Eventually I'll experiment with other colors.
The Paxton Palette lends itself well to natural colored subjects, like people, because of the qualities of mineral pigments v.s. modern/organic pigments. Most all the colors in the Paxton palette are mineral pigments with the exception of Alizarin Crimson.
Paxton Palette Colors
- Ivory Black
- Raw Umber
- Alizarin Crimson
- Indian Red
- Light Red
- Cadmium Red Light (was Vermillion but Cad. Red Light is a good replacement)
- Cremnitz White (this is lead carbonate so I'm using up the one tube I have and then I'll be switching to something else)
- Cadmium Yellow Light
- Naples Yellow
- Yellow Ochre
- Viridian Green
- Ultramarine Blue
- Additions: Manganese Blue, Cerulean Blue, Permanent Sap Green Deep (this last one mainly because I wanted to see how it mixed for cool shifted flesh tones).
If you're interested, you can read more about mineral vs. modern colors
here: http://www.gamblincolors.com/newsletters/studionotes19.html
here: http://www.goldenpaints.com/justpaint/jp26article2.php
Yes they're product pages, but you can glean some helpful general information too.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Experiment: Camera Lucida
So a couple guys did a Kickstarter. They created a modern version of the camera lucida: the NeoLucida. I was curious so I chipped in.
Backstory
David Hockney, in his book "Secret Knowledge," proposed that many of the old masters used optics as they came available. This ruffled some feathers. I'm halfway through the book and I think it's a pretty interesting read. He includes some well thought out experiments and examples of the various optics (camera lucida being one of them).
The NeoLucida
Back to the Kickstarter. I received my copy of the NeoLucida in November and last night finally gave it a try.
The directions are straightforward. I thought, "piece of cake".
I clamped the NeoLucida to the table and put my drawing paper under the prism. I set up an 18" tall statue about 2.5'-3' away from me and got started.
In reality, there was a little learning curve and some trial and error to get the hang of it.
I had to:
I can see how it would be useful for portraits or a very simple still life. I think it would be trickier to use for a composition of multiple objects. Plus I think I'd end up with a sore back with all that leaning over. There must be a better way to set up if I were to use it more (maybe a standing desk) but I don't think I'll use it very much.
It was a worthwhile exercise to be able to take a peek into historical drawing tools. Personally I like just drawing freely.
You can read a bit more about the history of the camera lucida here: http://neolucida.com/history/
Backstory
David Hockney, in his book "Secret Knowledge," proposed that many of the old masters used optics as they came available. This ruffled some feathers. I'm halfway through the book and I think it's a pretty interesting read. He includes some well thought out experiments and examples of the various optics (camera lucida being one of them).
The NeoLucida
Back to the Kickstarter. I received my copy of the NeoLucida in November and last night finally gave it a try.
NeoLucida in the box
The directions are straightforward. I thought, "piece of cake".
I clamped the NeoLucida to the table and put my drawing paper under the prism. I set up an 18" tall statue about 2.5'-3' away from me and got started.
In reality, there was a little learning curve and some trial and error to get the hang of it.
I had to:
- constantly lean over the table and keep my eye about 1" from the prism
- adjust my angle of viewing and kind of slide myself along the image as I traced so I could see the pencil and the little statue I was tracing
my attempt (about 5.5") and the statue I was drawing on the right
I can see how it would be useful for portraits or a very simple still life. I think it would be trickier to use for a composition of multiple objects. Plus I think I'd end up with a sore back with all that leaning over. There must be a better way to set up if I were to use it more (maybe a standing desk) but I don't think I'll use it very much.
It was a worthwhile exercise to be able to take a peek into historical drawing tools. Personally I like just drawing freely.
You can read a bit more about the history of the camera lucida here: http://neolucida.com/history/
Friday, December 27, 2013
Web Skills and Decision Making
I've been wanting to give my Website a facelift. It's current form evolved from being a graphic design/web/art showcase to just art. There are some artifacts hidden in the coding. Plus the large section heading, even though I like the blocky graphic treatment, seems redundant (the section name is in the navigation) and takes up too much real estate on the page. And it's dark. So very dark.
First I got caught up in wanting to retain the nifty Javascript (I needed help with that - see source code for contributors) that loads images as their own page without me having to physically create individual pages. I though of doing something like my current site but with larger thumbnails. I would need multiple pages with different thumbnail navigation for all the images, and navigation to get to the different thumbnail pages.
Then I was trying to figure how to do a rebuild, what program to use...I was running in circles and making myself nuts.
So I backed off and pulled out my skills from my graphic design/Web design toolbox.
I thought about the GOAL of the site: show off my art.
(I find this helps in a lot of projects - figuring out the goal/setting a target).
Ok. That gave me direction for what's important and for setting up a visual hierarchy.
Art is #1
Information is #2
Plus I want the site to be SIMPLE, EASY to use/update and as CLEAN as I can make it.
No scrolling/minimal scrolling. I want the images to load and fill the screen.
As few clicks as possible to get to images or other content.
I want each image to have a URL that can be bookmarked, and so the image can be shared easily.
I want to show information about each image (title, media used, copyright owner, sold/available, prints available...)
Plus I want to stick with my current hosting plan and keep costs down.
I'm sure there are lots of other ways but this is what seems important to me.
I visualized how it would be to use a site with multiple thumbnails navigation panels. I decided people would have to remember what page the image was on if they wanted to see it again. There would be lots of clicks to get to an image. Plus there would be too much work debugging multiple pages with Javascript and I am NOT a programmer and would prefer to put my energy and time toward making pictures.
All this gave me direction for creating a plan and what to use for the rebuild.
- Remove the current section head. Instead let the navigation at the top do double duty and make the selected page name stand out. This will bring the images up higher on the page
- For each initial main page, I can display decent sized thumbnails in a grid. They'll all be visible with minimal scrolling. A visitor can click on a thumbnail which will take them to a unique page including information about the selected image.
- Keep it simple. Just use a basic HTML editor or simple WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) program. Create templates to make the workflow as smooth/easy/fast as possible.
After experimenting with a few trial versions of programs, I think I'll either use KompoZer since that seems to have some things I'm familiar with (and it's free), or maybe WYSIWYG Web Builder (I like the interface, the features, and it's only $45). I also tried Visual Site Designer by CoffeeCup (only $49) which could be a nice tie in to their HTML editor. There were a few things I found frustrating. That might just be a case of getting used to their interface but I felt more at home with WYSIWYG Web Builder.
Now all that's left is to commit to a program, carve out time and do it.
First I got caught up in wanting to retain the nifty Javascript (I needed help with that - see source code for contributors) that loads images as their own page without me having to physically create individual pages. I though of doing something like my current site but with larger thumbnails. I would need multiple pages with different thumbnail navigation for all the images, and navigation to get to the different thumbnail pages.
Something like this...
Then I was trying to figure how to do a rebuild, what program to use...I was running in circles and making myself nuts.
So I backed off and pulled out my skills from my graphic design/Web design toolbox.
I thought about the GOAL of the site: show off my art.
(I find this helps in a lot of projects - figuring out the goal/setting a target).
Ok. That gave me direction for what's important and for setting up a visual hierarchy.
Art is #1
Information is #2
Plus I want the site to be SIMPLE, EASY to use/update and as CLEAN as I can make it.
No scrolling/minimal scrolling. I want the images to load and fill the screen.
As few clicks as possible to get to images or other content.
I want each image to have a URL that can be bookmarked, and so the image can be shared easily.
I want to show information about each image (title, media used, copyright owner, sold/available, prints available...)
Plus I want to stick with my current hosting plan and keep costs down.
I'm sure there are lots of other ways but this is what seems important to me.
I visualized how it would be to use a site with multiple thumbnails navigation panels. I decided people would have to remember what page the image was on if they wanted to see it again. There would be lots of clicks to get to an image. Plus there would be too much work debugging multiple pages with Javascript and I am NOT a programmer and would prefer to put my energy and time toward making pictures.
All this gave me direction for creating a plan and what to use for the rebuild.
- Remove the current section head. Instead let the navigation at the top do double duty and make the selected page name stand out. This will bring the images up higher on the page
- For each initial main page, I can display decent sized thumbnails in a grid. They'll all be visible with minimal scrolling. A visitor can click on a thumbnail which will take them to a unique page including information about the selected image.
Something like this...
- Keep it simple. Just use a basic HTML editor or simple WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) program. Create templates to make the workflow as smooth/easy/fast as possible.
After experimenting with a few trial versions of programs, I think I'll either use KompoZer since that seems to have some things I'm familiar with (and it's free), or maybe WYSIWYG Web Builder (I like the interface, the features, and it's only $45). I also tried Visual Site Designer by CoffeeCup (only $49) which could be a nice tie in to their HTML editor. There were a few things I found frustrating. That might just be a case of getting used to their interface but I felt more at home with WYSIWYG Web Builder.
Now all that's left is to commit to a program, carve out time and do it.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Portrait Practice
I’ve been studying Valentin Serov’s portraits. He was a Russian artist
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I love his
dancing, searching line mixed in with bold marks and wanted to
experiment with that. A few Saturdays ago I had some extra time and got
to attend the morning portrait co-op at Studio 103 so did some experimenting…
size: 10″x12″
Our model that day was local musician Jack Klatt.
For this head study I used American Master’s paper (grey), General’s
Layout Pencil for lightly plotting in shapes, and Derwent Ivory Black
Drawing Pencil plus a little Conté white drawing pencil for touches of
highlights.
The paper was luxuriously smooth to work
on and the Layout Pencil marks erased fairly well without beating up the
paper (though I did use a light touch to begin with). The Derwent
pencil didn’t erase very well but dabbing at it with a kneaded eraser
did lighten marks a bit.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)