Above is a figure drawing from my good friend Tim Dose which he did while studying in Russia last year. He stresses that I must include the hand of his teacher in this entry but I can assure you that 99% of it is Tim's hand alone.  To make him happy as he is a humble guy I will put his instructor's name (Vladimir Mogilevtsev) in here as well.  Onto the work.   I find this piece to be an excellent example of just how to approach the figure both in drawing and painting alike.  As a good drawing is intrical to a successful painting it is easy to imagine how this study might appear as a finish.  At first blush the piece seems to take on a  highly polished approach with an almost saccharine-like sensibility to detail in the upper portion of the figure however at further examination it's clear to see that this feeling is attained simply through accurate observation and solid academic draftsmanship.  In sculpting terms, his marks take on a refinement of small and accurate chiseling developed from larger forms.  The study really starts to become interesting in his decision to leave certain parts of the piece unfinished.   It is here where you begin to observe the carved and sculpture aspects to the work and discover it's true strengths.  It is this dichotomy of a highly rendered torso to a nearly unfinished and suggestive lower-body which simotaneous directs the viewer as to where to look but also indicates a stage, a process, with an underlying structure, and Dose offers us a glimpse into these thoughts in his development of a strong academic drawing.   I'd encourage you to visit my friend Tim's website www.timdose.com as it offers a great source of both solid draftsmanship and portraiture alike.

-W.S.

I have recently been invited to speak at Syracuse University on March 25th  at the School of Visual and Performing Arts visiting artists symposium.  It is a forum for professional artists and designers to educate SU students on various aspects of the art and design field.

-W.S.

These drawings were from a series of sketches done during a recent trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in September.  I get there when I can but my recent visit focused on the Greek & Roman Sculpture Hall which houses some amazing examples of ancient pieces.  Below are 3 pages taken from my sketchbook of that trip. 

-W.S.

The following series of photos were taken at a recent Nelson Shanks demo at the Art Students League of NY which I attended on 10/6 as part of my studies with Shanks.  The picture quality isn't great but they should be sufficient enough to outline the steps taken.

-W.S.

The first  image includes Nelson's palette.  On a previous entry to my blog I had outlined the colors and particular brands of paint used so I won't get into that now.  You will notice that the only two mediums used here were Turpentine and Stand Oil.  The Stand Oil was cut with Turpentine which appear in two small tins to the right.



Secondly, he began on a medium gray toned canvas where he sketched out large forms much in the way that a sculptor would approach a block of marble.  He looked for large geometric forms and an inner harmony among all the shapes in the composition.  Many of the strokes continued beyond the figure which he then used to draw relationships to all of the parts as a whole.  This is the main approach to Shank's teaching and he continually reinforces this principle throughout the class. This concept is also taught by Dan Thompson at the New York Academy of Art.




After the initial search lines were established he began to break down the figure into highlight and shadow forms not to get caught up in small details. 


At this point, highlights were filled in with a warm yellow-orange flesh tone.  There is no pre-mixing of flesh tones but rather mixing as he needs it to give more of an immediate impression upon the colors observed.


As the painting developed he continued to add various mid tones and other colors such as pinks into the nose and lip areas and followed that with the addition of the shadow colors in the hair and along the neck.  His shadows were achieved by scumbling purple into the brown underpainting.  Shanks is constantly moving his arm in rather large gestural motions as he sculpts out the form.  This lends itself well to capturing a sense of energy and movement in his work.  He is always stands at an arms length distance from the canvas even when painting the smallest of details.





At this stage we took a short intermission and we had a chance to take an up-close look at what would be considered a half-way point.




Shanks continued to refine the values and colors established in the first session of painting.


The final image took roughly 2 hours from beginning to end.  His portraits have a rather rich quality to them.  His paintings tend to be very saturated and small areas may consist of a variety of colors. I would also mention that at the final stage he uses a large 4" brush and gentle glides the bristles across the surface in different directions to smooth out some of the planes.  This gives the whole painting a very softened and unified feeling. 

-W.S.

I have been recently watching a show on PBS's Create TV which features a plein air landscape painter by the name of David Dunlop.  The most recent episode took place at the setting of Monet's gardens in France.  Dunlop spoke to a few ideas which as a painter you hear quite often but really may not fully embrace until you see a great example. He referred to Monet's Water Lilies when he said that "the vocabulary of brush strokes makes a painting more interesting."  Quite often it seems to me that the only approach to achieving a level of success in a painting has been through the tireless rendering of a subject and it is in Monet that we find a confidence to paint with an implied gestural looseness.  He went on to talk about soft, blurred edges and how as a viewer, the mind wants to complete the image.  In this way, the painting takes on a more interactive quality instead of a dictated form of hyper realism.  Essentially, the softer edges create greater volume and harder edges conversely, less volume.  And finally, in speaking about Impressionism, I think it is only fitting that I end with a paraphrased quote from Corot to Monet "Trust Your First Impression."  In other words, that in the initially moments of a painting does the artist truely capture the energy, feeling, and gesture of a subject and it is these first impressions which we as artists should strive to maintain trhoughout the painting process.

-W.S.

As this blog is quickly becoming a notebook type of approach for me which I can post ideas and inspiration from artists I admire I wanted to add a quick mention of a sculptor that was reintroduced to me after what would probably be more than 10 years.  Pietro Bernini was an Italian sculptor who lived during the Renaissance.  I have included a detail of one of his sculpts below which I feel is a remarkable example of being able to capture the feeling of weight, volume, and fleshiness to a piece of marble.

-W.S.

Below is a detail from a larger painting done by a Russian painter, Ilya Repin.  Some close friends of mine love this guys work and now I understand why.

-W.S.

I just recently stumbled upon three great drawings from a former teacher and brilliant painter, Jerome Witkin.  They are just beautiful and I love the titles.  

-W.S.



Friday Hands




Thursday Feet




Twenty on Sunday

I want to include a great exceprt from a Sharon Sprung demo that I found on artistsnetwork.com.  Here is the direct link: www.artistsnetwork.com/article/sprung/.  I have pasted a portion of the article below as I have found this pretty useful. 

-W.S.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to meet a fellow figurative painter in the field by the name of Tim Jahn who is a great guy.  Tim and I spoke at length about painting approaches, techniques, etc. and I discovered while talking to him a very useful approach to studio lighting which is similliar to what another good friend of mine uses in his studio.   Essentially, I have wrestled with color shifting issues while painting during the day with cool lighting coming through my skylights and then moving into the evening where my track lighting takes on a very yellow cast.  He told me about Chroma 50 bulbs which are a full spectrum bulb that evens out your lighting results throughout the day.   Here's the link below he gave me which you can find the bulbs.  They are listed under their florescent selection and I would suggest the 4' bulbs if you can get them.  www.buylighting.com

-W.S.