Work in Progress…the Progress continues.

January 3, 2008

Work has continued on the portrait.  I’ve tried to balance the desire to focus on the faces of the subject with the need to keep the painting moving forward as one whole piece.  The environment is starting to come together, which is always an exciting part of the process.
I’ve spent a lot of time look [...]

Read the full article →

About Face

December 24, 2007

 So you’ve covered the canvas.  The portrait is done, right? Not quite.  After the lay-in is complete,  it’s time to step back and looks at the painting.  The best question that you can ask yourself at the start of each studio session is, “What is the goal of this painting?”  In this case, the goal is to produce [...]

Read the full article →

The Lay-in

December 23, 2007

So the canvas is ready.  You put out your paint. Now what? How and where do you begin?  It’s time for the lay-in, or block in. It’s the term used for the first round of paint to go on the canvas
I try simplify the image as best I can to start with.  No amount of [...]

Read the full article →

Preparing to Paint

December 23, 2007

I think that it’s important for an artist to prepare there own canvas.  Most commercially produced canvases are cotton.  I don’t find cotton to be the best surface to paint on.  It can be effected by the weather, and is often very coarse.  Linen is my preferred surface.  I will be painting on a very fine quality linen for [...]

Read the full article →

Charcoal Compostion Study, the design takes shape.

December 14, 2007

After the design has been decided upon, a full size charcoal, or cartoon,  is produced.  This gives me a chance to really workout the composition on the actual scale and size that the final painting will be completed on.  The figure seen in the portrait are drawn at an approximate life size. 
After the cartoon is [...]

Read the full article →

The Gouache Study

December 14, 2007

This is one of several studies that I completed for this current project.  It was painted on white paper with limited pallet of gouache paint.  Gouache is similar to watercolor. Both are water based. Gouache is different in that it is opaque.  In watercolor, it is the white of the paper that you see through [...]

Read the full article →

The Beginning of a Portrait

December 13, 2007

So it’s time to paint a portrait.  How exactly do you do that?  Through this blog, I’ll be showing the steps along the way to a commissioned portrait.  As always, questions and comments are welcomed!  My portrait work can be viewed along with my other work on this site at http://www.jeffreysmithart.com/gallery.php
Please click here to return [...]

Read the full article →

Next Entries →