The Painted Quick Sketch

THE PAINTED QUICK SKETCH BECOMING A BETTER ARTIST IN 5 DAYS https://www.arttutor.com/blog/201403/painted-quick-sketch-becoming-better-artist-5-days

Tue, 2014-03-04 15:21 -- MattAbraxas First of all, that title does indeed say “Becoming a Better Artist in 5 Days.” I realize it may sound as promising as 8 minute Abs or 2 Weeks to a Better You, and thus suspect of a marketing ploy.

But, I’m not saying that you will be painting like Rembrandt in 5 days. What I am saying is that after 5 days of experimenting with what I suggest, it is very likely that your skill in painting will improve. And if you start now, you’ll get a bonus gift … just kidding.

Painted Quick Sketch - Nude Figure. WHAT IS THE PAINTED QUICK SKETCH? The Painted Quick Sketch is an exercise for improving your skills and a way to prepare for a more refined painting. It focuses on particular aspects while

leaving most others aside. When painting in a short period of time, it’s difficult to consider likeness, proportions and small details. The Painted Quick Sketch demands of you your attention on certain essentials, and it loosens up your brushwork while strengthens your visual perception. This all leads to becoming a better artist, no matter what style you approach. The Painted Quick Sketch exercise helps you to see and identify essential information in the visual world more rapidly and more accurately. ----EDUCATIONAL VALUE & USEFULNESS Claiming something has an educational value is like claiming a food is good for you: it results in an immediate resistance because it will probably be boring, time-consuming and difficult. This exercise, however, is more like blueberries: good for you and tasty. It is indeed an educational tool and it will greatly benefit your skills in a short time. You might even get a nice painting out of it as well. Depending on your experience level, the Painted Quick Sketch serves as an instrumental tool to the painting process. It is a study and a resource, so that you can work out challenging issues in advance, ensuring greater success with your eventual painting. Have you ever painted a sunset or someone napping? If you can be proficient at establishing key elements for a painting in about 10 minutes and paint the rest from photo reference, you’ll not only have ideal notes on your potential painting, but your skills develop as well. The Painted Quick Sketch sharpens your perception, and this will show in your art. It is invaluable. ----WHY NOT JUST PAINT FROM PHOTOGRAPHS? A photograph, no matter how beautiful in its composition or texture, will not record the subtleties of colour that your eyes are capable of perceiving. How many times have you photographed an awe-inspiring sunrise only to see a boring, pale picture? Of course, your photography skills can be questioned, but what really matters is that the photograph does not reveal all of the subtle nuances in both the light and dark of the image. I frequently paint from photographs. While many esteemed artists would not be caught dead committing such a sin, many artists do not have the choice depending on their subject matter. It’s really not so bad to paint from photos, but to do so effectively, you have to train your eye to perceive what the camera does not. In these two images, you can see the painting on the left is more balanced in terms of colour, while the snap shot on the right is saturated in yellows from the

indoor light. Knowledge about colour harmony, temperature and value allow me to turn an easily overlooked photograph from my phone into a work of art:

----PREPARING FOR THE PAINTED QUICK SKETCH Assuming now that you’ll be trying a Painted Quick Sketch, lets go over a few of the necessary ingredients. 1. Do Not Hurry. Although you should stick to a time limit of 30 minutes or less, this does not mean that you should paint quickly. John Singer Sargent, whose paintings appear to be done effortlessly and with quick speed were in fact painted with severe deliberation and focus. His only rushing was when he’d almost run up to the canvas to paint a single stroke or two, and then hurry away from the canvas in order to get a more objective view of the piece. Each brushstroke, however, was painted with great care. Painting quickly will surely result in a sloppy, rushed mess. It can be fun to paint with reckless abandon and might be a good exercise in surrendering control, but for building up skills and recording essential information, painting fast is a very big NO-NO. Paint methodically. Paint with intent. Think about what you’re seeing.

If all you achieve are five or six brushstrokes, you will record more useful information and it will support you better as a study piece than you would with any crazed speed-painting. 2. Choose Your Most Essential Information. For your Painted Quick Sketches, the most essential information may vary. For example, in a fleeting sunrise, it will naturally be a few of the most noticeable colours. The shapes of the clouds or the skyline can be recorded in a quick snap shot, but the colours offer profound subtleties viewable only to your eye in the moment. The essential information you choose in painting a person will likely be the tonal value of shadows and lights, or the balance of cool and warm colours. You can focus on composition and gesture through a dry medium like charcoal, but you won’t have the added benefit of improving your skills in brushwork.

Study in Temperature Values for "Bounded Angle". Often, you won’t even realize the subtleties you’ve learned until later, but if you are painting a quick sketch calmly and with focus, you’ll be recording information about your subject and improving many skills at once. 3. Remain Calm and Alert

Your easel should have a big red button on it that reads “Don’t Panic.” I doubt Douglas Adams will mind if we borrow the idea. After all, we’re trying to create art here and it’s not always gentle on us. In order to register the information in the visual world before you, it’s essential to have a clear sense of focus. If you are like me and your mind is typically racing in many very different directions at once, it might seem impossible to center your attention, but with a little practice, it can actually be quite easy. What I do is a brief meditation. All you need to do is to take about 30 seconds to stand in front of your easel, breathe in and out, and count to five for each exhale and inhale. It doesn’t matter how high you count for each breath, just that you are breathing slowly and your mind is occupied only with counting. Once you are painting, it may help to talk to yourself a little about what you are seeing. Pay extra attention to the colours. What colours do you see in the shadows? What colours are in the washed out light areas? Notice how the lightest areas are not actually white. There may be hints of blue or purple, or maybe a very light yellow hue. Before putting any paint on that canvas, just look at your subject for a moment. Take it in. 4. Setting up. I usually paint in my studio, but if I’m painting in a different location, I have to be dependent on new elements. Wherever you paint your quick sketch, set up and take in your surroundings.

Painting Demo for Figure Study From Photo. It’s important that you won’t be distracted during your 30 minutes, so be careful if you’re painting where others may interrupt. If I’m out in public, I might wear headphones, even if I don’t have them plugged into anything (just put the plug in your pocket,) to discourage passer-by chats. Keep your quiver of brushes to a minimum. A larger brush will help prevent you from getting into details too early. Painting directly with a palette knife can be very helpful too. Use a medium sized brush and then a smaller brush only once you have a strong foundation of the appropriate colours, and if time permits.

Large Brushes for Small Study Paintings, and a Palette Knife. For your paints, stick with the few you know well. The palette I work with is as follows, going from lightest to darkest: - Titanium White- Cadmium Lemon Yellow- Cadmium Barium Yellow- Cadmium Yellow Deep- Yellow Ochre- Cadmium Red Deep- Terra Rosa- Alizarin Crimson- Transparent Oxide Red- Viridian- Cobalt Blue Deep- Ultramarine Blue Deep

My Usual Palette for Quick Sketches. There are a few other colours I’ll use as well, but for the painted quick sketch, these are more than enough. You may want a more limited palette, but remember that you do want to record the information in your image and not waste too much time mixing. In the palette above, I’m able to mix more colours than I can shake a stick at using a combination of only 2 or 3 paints. For a medium, I use Distilled Turpentine for quick washes of colour, but mostly I use a mix of Poppy Seed Oil, Linseed Oil, Damar Varnish and Distilled Turpentine. Choose a medium that allows the paint to flow, or else paint without medium as long you’re able to spread paint easily. Don’t waste your time wrestling the paint across the canvas. For canvas, I typically use whatever is around. I have many swatches of oilprimed linen that I tape to a board. This is helpful because when the paint dries, it’s so much easier to store than any stretched canvas or even a canvas board. Canvas paper is available in pads which are useful as well. The most important thing is that the canvas does not get in your way Make sure you’re familiar with it so you are not expending mental energy on trying to adapt.

Primed Canvas Board Ready for a Quick Sketch. 5. Squinting Possibly the most undervalued technique in all representational painting is Squinting. When looking at whatever you want to paint, squint your eyes down

so that the whole subject darkens down and the areas of dark and light become more defined. Squinting will help you see the subject as a painting. It will identify where the shaded areas turn to mid-tone and then to light. It will identify the value and chroma qualities quickly because you will not be distracted by many small derailing details. Just don’t squint at your painting. This is like painting in the dark and the completed painting will likely be an unpleasant surprise. ----TECHNIQUES TO CONSIDER Here are the 3 main focus points of the Painted Quick Sketch explained briefly. 1. Composition & Gesture Composition is the arrangement of the subject on the canvas. It can be very helpful to make studies of this before setting to work on the final painting so you work out the most dynamic and emotionally responsive way to convey your subject. Gesture in the Painted Quick Sketch is expressed through your use of brush work. This is an opportunity to experiment with brush handling, stroke direction and stroke weight.

Quick Sketch of Men Watching a Street Performer. 2. Value and Chroma Value refers to the degree of dark and light. To study Value, think of your painting as a building block puzzle, laying first the darks, then mid-tones and finally the lights.

Painted Quick Sketch 1 - Chroma and Value Study for "Blue Afgan". Begin with the main area that holds your attention and establish the darkest dark within this area, then move on to the lightest light. Chroma refers to the intensity of colour. Unless you are painting mono-chromatically, your choice of colour and the degree of saturation will be elements to consider while focusing on Value. 3. Colour Temperature

Temperature Study Value for "The Night Out". Colour Temperature is measured by the relative coolness or warmness of the light. The sunshine is typically warm while the moonlight is cool. A florescent light is cool while many light bulbs emit a warm-toned light. Direct sunlight will be warm while sunlight through clouds will be more cool.

The rule of thumb is this: a cool light creates a warm shadow and a warm light creates a cool shadow. So, if you’re uncertain whether the light is warm or cool, just make sure your shadows and lights are opposite in temperature quality. Choosing the correct colour does not matter as much as choosing the correct colour temperature. Because this can be such a tricky quality to get right, it’s my optimal choice of focus on any Painted Quick Sketch. ----HOW TO DO THE PAINTED QUICK SKETCH Recently I worked on a Painted Quick Sketch of a nude model while considering it for a full painting. My focus here was on Colour Temperature first, and Composition second. I painted this from a photograph so working out the Colour Temperature balance before getting into the painting was important. As for Composition, I will do more in charcoal, but in this Painted Sketch, I’m taking the opportunity to work out what I like and don’t like early on. My first step is a Colour Wash:

Painted Quick Sketch Using a warmer tone colour wash here (Transparent Oxide Red) thinned first with Turpentine then Poppy Seed Oil. The purpose of the wash is to remove the white of the canvas making it easier for you to establish the correct colour balance. I usually tone my canvasses

with a neutral or mostly neutral colour thinned down substantially with Distilled Turpentine. For the Painted Quick Sketch, I thin my colour wash with the Distilled Turpentine and Poppy Seed Oil. I use the oil because it allows me to paint more quickly. You can also use Linseed Oil or any similar thick oil, just make sure to wipe the canvas off because if the oil is too thick on your canvas, the brush strokes will lift some paint while trying to lay paint down. It can be annoying. Next, I establish my darks:

Darkest Dark of Focus Point, Not of Whole Image. I am not painting my darkest dark of the whole image, but the darkest dark within my focus point. As time permits, I’ll go back and add the darkest darks of the whole image. Then, I build up the stages of mid-tones and planes of form. Mid-tones are all the areas between dark and light. They can be divided infinitely or down to a single colour. For these sketches, I choose to limit them to about a dozen.

Darks, Mid Tones, Lights. The planes of form are the areas you see (as you squint) that can be grouped in one tone, whether dark, light, or in between. Your whole image can be broken down, or abstractified (I know it’s not a word), into a group of pieces that come together like a collage. These are the planes of form. In the finished Painted Quick Sketch, I added the background which helps me envision the composition. I also started a little blending in a few areas, because I couldn’t resist, but at the 30 minute timer, I stopped. ----THE 5 DAY CHALLENGE As stated earlier, I claim that after 5 consecutive days of these 30 minute Painted Quick Sketches, you will improve upon your skill as an artist. To take on this challenge, it’s important to try out the different approaches I’m suggesting. They will cover a wide range of painting approaches and address many common problems. Day One – Self Portrait The self portrait is an indispensable tool on many levels. To begin the 5 Day Challenge, set up your mirror and paints, and focus on Colour Temperature.

Don’t concern yourself with likeness. Be relieved of the pressure to get the drawing right. It’s okay if it looks like a blob. Just establish the Colour Temperature as best as you can. Remember if the shadows are warm, the lights are cool, and vice versa.

Self Portrait Quick Stretch. Day Two – Still Life To get the most out of the still life sketch, choose at least three objects. You will focus on Composition and Values. When you paint each object, divide in 3 grades of dark to light: dark, mid-tone, light. Forget about highlights, reflections, variations in colour … at first. If time permits, you can go back to those details. Considering Composition, leave extra room around the subjects. You can then crop the sketch in different ways to find your most interesting composition.

Still Life Study (45 minutes) - More Refined than Necessary. Day Three – Landscape Landscapes cover a lot of subjects. Whatever you choose, focus on Colour Temperatures in cast shadows vs direct sunlight, or Chroma study such as the early evening sketch shown here. Depending on your time of day and quality of light, the temperatures will vary. Look for the best way to express the colours present, and remember to squint.

Tree in Early Evening. Day Four – Figure Painting a figure offers many challenges, and fortunately in this exercise, you’ll be ignoring most of them. Don’t concern yourself with the likeness or the

drawing. Don’t worry about proportions or little details. In this sketch, focus on three things: Chroma, Value and Composition. And focus in that order.

Study for "Vicissitues" focusing on chroma Values. Think about getting the colour right at first, then consider how dark or light that colour should be. This tends to happen simultaneously, but still focus first on Chroma. As you establish the Colours and the Values, then consider Composition, as an added element. And remember to squint, especially when trying to decipher the chroma. Trust what you see, not what you think it’s supposed to look like. Day Five – Self Portrait Again Now that you’ve invested four days into this, go back to the self portrait, but this time focus on all the elements we’ve gone over. Also, allow yourself an hour, but still focus on establishing the essentials in the first 30 minutes. You still don’t want to worry about likeness though.

Focus first on the Chroma and Colour Temperature. You can place one patch of dark just to anchor the portrait, but otherwise try this time with going straight into mid-tones. In the mid-tones, the colour temperature will likely be close to neutral but will lean one way or the other. Values can be addressed next. With a sense of Colour Temperature under control, go into the value study and still consider how much warmer and cooler you should go in those darks and lights. Finally, and if time permits, consider Composition. This can be done with a little added background or cropping the canvas with tape or single stroke of dark paint. In the example below, I quickly placed patches of varied colours to help the composition and with structuring the outline of the hair.

Self Portrait Sketch (2004) - 1 Hour. I hope this inspires you to explore this technique. I look forward to seeing your results. Please ask any questions and share your progress. Visit Matt's website at: www.MattAbraxas.com