Dennis Harper Picture Gallery Blog

Exhibition in Tennessee

2011-03-17T08:20:00.004-05:00

I'm currently exhibiting at the Troy Plunk Gallery at Freed-Hardeman University. Eggs, Milk, Silver, Graphite runs March 10 through April 11, 2011. For more information, go to www.fhu.edu/art or call 731.989.6079.

As Above, So Below installation views, part 2

2010-10-12T21:41:00.003-05:00

More views, second gallery.

As Above, So Below installation views

2010-10-12T21:32:00.005-05:00

Here are a few installation shots of As Above, So Below, recent egg temperas, etchings, silverpoint drawings, photographs, video by collaborating couple Suzanne Scherer and Pavel Ouporov. On view at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University.

Roger Brown

2010-10-12T19:41:00.006-05:00

I’m very happy to report these new acquisitions for my museum, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art: two paintings by the late Roger Brown (1941–1997), a native Alabamian who made it big as a Chicago Imagist.

Hank Williams, Honky Tonk Man, 1990, oil on canvas, 72 x 72 inches
Mothra at Inner Circle Drive, 1988, oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches

As Above, So Below: Recent Work by Scherer & Ouporov

2010-06-30T19:37:00.003-05:00

My next project at the museum is a solo show of Scherer & Ouporov, a Russian-American collaborating couple who live in Florida. Opening August 28, As Above, So Below includes egg tempera paintings, silverpoint drawings, etchings, photographs and video and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated hard-cover catalogue. See examples of their art at their website and coming soon to the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art website.

(Photo: Language of the Birds, 2009, egg tempera, gemstones and 24-carat gold on wood panel, 24 x 18 inches, collection of Dr. Rick Daigle, courtesy ACA Galleries, New York)

Landscape with Stump

2009-03-18T00:16:00.003-05:00

My friend Greg Benson thinks the only good painter is a landscape painter. In an effort to stay on his good side, I painted this little landscape for my current show at Wesleyan College.

Landscape with Stump, 2009, egg tempera over casein on hardboard panel, 9 x 9 inches.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 12)

2009-03-12T22:52:00.007-05:00

12.

I suppose this is done. Returning to the painting after a long interval was interesting. Many of the choices I'd made previously, and thought were good, now bugged the crap out me. No really drastic changes took place on this last round of work, however. I continued to bring up the values of the tubes in the foreground using a pale body color on the near tubes. Almost pure white. I killed the background's high contrasts, panel top and bottom. Those bands were way too distracting. And I tried to consolidate the masses of the tubes and tabletop beneath them. Overall, I shifted the painting's hues farther away from brown. The scanner is acting up, but I'll upload some detail images later, captured by camera.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 11)

2009-03-12T22:45:00.003-05:00

11.

Hmmm. Here's a post I never uploaded, an image of a work in progress some time ago. An upcoming exhibition gave me the prompt to resolve the thing. Next image shows its current, and likely finished, state.

Upcoming exhibition in Macon

2009-02-13T22:11:00.007-05:00

Long overdue attention to Blogger...
Here are a few images of recent paintings in tempera for a solo show at Wesleyan College in Macon, GA next month.

Scott Belville in His Studio

(detail)

Jay Bolotin in His Studio

(detail)

Dennis Harper, Paintings in Egg Tempera
March 18 – April 29, 2009
Opening reception: March 18, 2009, 6-7:30PM with gallery talk by the artist at 6:45PM.
Wesleyan College, Murphey Gallery
Valeria McCullough Murphey Art Building
4760 Forsyth Road, Macon, GA 31210
Gallery Hours: M-F, 10-12 PM & 12:30-5 PM

High Fauxdelity, 3

2007-11-16T22:19:00.000-05:00

(Here's an article that appeared in the Athens Banner-Herald, 11/15/07, with one minor correction*)

Pun-tastic fun with album art

By Julie Phillips | julie.phillips@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 10:59 PM on Wednesday, November 14, 2007

For all the great album art out there, there's an equal number of albums that, well, aren't so good.
Play the game of bad band names and you've got a conversation to last for hours.
Dennis Harper's been taking note of such pictures of in-excellence for years, storing up puns and casting a curious eye on creepy, weird album covers.
And so it came to be that "High Fauxdelity" emerged, a collection of paintings rendered by Harper, who's certain they wouldn't do much to sell the supposed records they hold.
Harper, who by day is curator of exhibitions at the Georgia Museum of Art, and fellow artist Jeffrey Whittle, an instructor at the University of Georgia's Lamar Dodd School of Art, combined their efforts - Whittle's collection titled "12 Inch Love Songs" - for a show currently on display at Flicker.
While Whittle doesn't veer far from his lovely, if offbeat style, Harper takes a break from his more serious (though not without humor) egg tempera works for his acrylic "albums."
"It's been a nice [antidote to my tempera work]*," he says, adding the size of the images in the show aren't CD-size, but "the size of 12-inch LP's - I miss that more broad expanse of graphic design - so there's a little nostalgia for that."
Probably the best part about Harper's works are the pun-tastic album titles for records you'd be pretty scared to listen to - "Sexy Organ," "Moody Waters" and "Modern Vibes for Groovy Chicks and Guys," for instance.
"There's plenty of bad album art out there, and people love it," Harper says, admitting to a love-hate relationship with bad album art himself - though the love part comes in no small part from the ideas it inspires.
"I carry around a little notebook for ideas," Harper says. "You know, bad ideas are like bad songs - they pop into your head and you can't get them out."

'High Fauxdelity' by Dennis Harper and '12-Inch Love Songs' by Jeffrey Whittle
Paintings inspired by album art
When: Through Nov. 30; reception 6-8 p.m. today
Where: Flicker Theatre and Bar, 263 W. Washington St.
Call: (706) 546-0039

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 11/15/07

Click here to return to story:
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/111507/marquee_20071115017.shtml

High Fauxdelity, 2

2007-11-04T21:40:00.000-05:00

After a sad but almost certain cancellation of our show, due to Flicker's closure, Jeffrey Whittle and I are again back in the loop, installing High Faudelity / 12-Inch Love Songs this week thanks to Flicker's sale and re-opening. The show will be open to the public after happy hour Tuesday, November 6, with a reception Thursday, November 15. Come on by sometime that evening.

I don't have any of Whittle's pictures to post, but here are four more of my fake album covers included in the exhibition. (Each 12.5 x 12.5 inches, acrylic on MDF.)

Susan, Thrice (Yoko Godai)

2007-08-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

Here is another painting going to Manipulating the Commonplace at Swan Coach House Gallery.

Susan, Thrice (Yoko Godai), 2007, egg tempera and silverpoint over casein on panel, 24 x 31 inches.

Detail

Untitled (Encounter in a Foyer)

2007-08-02T21:55:00.000-05:00

Not too many new postings here recently, eh? I've been busy with several projects, one of which is working on new paintings for a show at the Swan Coach House Gallery, in Atlanta. Manipulating the Commonplace: Nine Southern Artists Reinterpret Realism opens August 9 and runs through September 22.

Here are a few views of one of the new paintings. Untitled (Encounter in a Foyer), 2007, egg tempera, gold leaf, and silverpoint over casein on panel, 16 x 20 inches.

High Fauxdelity, 1

2007-06-24T15:37:00.000-05:00

Olsen's Palette has sat untouched in the studio for some several weeks while I have concentrated on more pressing projects. For those one or two faithful visitors to this blog who are interested in seeing its progress, my apologies for the hiatus. In its stead, I'm painting a portrait commission, new works for a show in Atlanta in August, and the exterior of my house (plein air painting?) Also, I'm preparing for a two-person exhibition in Athens with Jeffrey Whittle, showing this November at Flicker. My works for the show are a group of fake album covers, called High Fauxdelity; Jeffrey's print series is called 12-inch Love Songs. Look for more info on our twin-bill in later blog posts.
Meanwhile, here are the first three "LPs." Each is acrylic on hardboard panel, 12.5 x 12.5 inches. (Bigger than Whittle's.)

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 10)

2007-04-21T14:49:00.000-05:00

At long last I've come back to this painting. As a couple of months have passed since last working on it, I felt I needed to prep the surface to receive new paint. To do that, I first brushed the painting lightly to remove any dust (or, as necessary in my house, dog hairs), then painted a couple of layers of dilute unpigmented egg wash across the whole panel. This seems to help new layers of paint take more readily to the already curing paint film. Yolk to water proportion is probably about 1:5, or slightly thinner. The painting still doesn't have the kind of resolution of forms nor the color/value contrasts that I'm looking for in the finished work, so I've started to strengthen all the shadows and edges; first with a greenish-umber pigment, then ivory black. I think I'll likely do something as well to the negative space below and beyond the table to place the palette and table more firmly in space, and in the context of Olsen's studio. Probably, I'll show a glimpse of one of his paintings in the background.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 9)

2007-02-10T19:58:00.000-05:00

I will have to delay my work on the painting for a short while. I want to use the panel-- in its present, unfinished state -- in an exhibition (and tempera painting demonstration) at Gainesville State College, Georgia. This current photo reflects continued progress to refine the local colors of the tubes and other objects as they gradually evolve from the monochrome underpainting that defined basic volumes and space. When I resume work on the panel, I'll articulate further distinctions of the objects in the pile, and move from washes and glazes into more linear brushwork and hatching.
See you in about a month...

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 8)

2007-02-06T22:38:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, not a lot of time to paint today, but I decided to use my limited time in the studio to begin giving the tubes their "indigenous" colors. Some of the tubes are old and grubby, mingling all the colors from Ole's handling of them and transmogrifying into a kind of mongrel brown. I'll get to that as a last touch, though.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 7)

2007-02-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

Still working to bring depth and volume to the rendering, I alternate between adding light and dark washes. The red underpainting peeks through a little more strongly than I'll want in the end, but you can see how it imbues a warm glow to the cooler grays and browns that will predominate the colors in the finished painting.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 6)

2007-02-04T16:17:00.000-05:00

I used tints of ivory black and zinc white to begin giving color to the metal tubes of oil paint and to cool the shadows they cast on the work table. The same color is in the floor and wall beyond the table. A little green earth is washed over the round glass palette, and I'm using a greenish raw umber to continue modeling the details in the big pile.

Detail

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 5)

2007-02-04T13:42:00.001-05:00

I've started applying egg tempera washes over the casein underpainting. First, however, I sized the casein work with a couple of layers of dilute egg yolk wash, unpigmented. Next, I laid down a loose glaze of raw sienna (a golden brown variety). I then modeled some of the middle values in darker but still transparent raw sienna and verdaccio giallo. Finally, I reinforced the lighter values with buff titanium (a light tan-hued white pigment.) I'll bring up the lights a little more strongly and start applying washes of grays, blues, and greens over the composition. I'll push toward more natural colors yet try to keep the treatment a little soft-edged, brushy, and transparent at this early stage.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 4)

2007-02-03T13:31:00.000-05:00

The painting after more modeling in Venetian red, ivory black, and titanium white washes.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 3)

2007-02-01T21:49:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to shape the tubes of paint in the picture with reinforcing washes of ivory black and Venetian red, still in casein. I want to bring out their overlapping crumpled forms, of course, but also try to impart a sense of spatial recession by varying the value contrasts from front of table to back. I'll take this stage of the process a good bit farther, remaining essentially monochromatic, as I resolve the underpainting before moving on to naturalistic colors.

Detail

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 2)

2007-02-01T21:41:00.000-05:00

I finished working over all the chalk transfer with diluted black casein. I really just wanted to establish the contours of this jumble of forms. Later, I'll model the range of lights and darks. On top of my linear outline I washed a couple of passes of Venetian red casein.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 1)

2007-02-01T21:05:00.000-05:00

This is a "still life" from a corner of Richard Olsen's studio: the painter's work table and palette. My panel is a commercially prepared support, rabbitskin-glue gesso on Duron Masonite. It was made by an Athens, GA based company, Realgesso, and given to me by them to try out. (Thanks, Howard!) It's a small one, 8 x 10 inches. This first photo shows the initial processes in my painting technique. The faint red outlines are red chalk transfers from my drawing study. On top of that are contours in black casein wash that strengthen the chalk lines.

Richard Olsen in His Studio II (work in progress, 7)

2007-01-20T23:31:00.000-05:00

Step 7

The finished painting. I came back to the panel today after a short respite. I worked to clean up the edges of shapes, and intersections, and tried to bring more fleshy warm tones to his head (while still keeping it bathed in shadow.) I softened a few of the shadows across his face and made minor adjustments to his features. It's a near likeness, but not exactly right. These photos, again, don't accurately reproduce the color range in the painting. The darks in the face should be slightly more reddish-orange; conversely, the white background should be less red. The pale green earth/verdaccio glazes fade away in the scan.
The detail below shows the brushwork better. For a sense of scale, the head is about 2-1/2 inches from top of hair to bottom of chin.

Richard Olsen in His Studio II (work in progress, 6)

2007-01-15T13:53:00.000-05:00

Step 6

The painting is almost finished. I lightened the white wall in selected areas using a scumble of zinc white and verdaccio. I softened the contrasts within the yellow painting behind his head by washing over the darks with slightly lighter versions of themselves, and glazing over the lightest areas with barely darker colors. I also lightened the broad yellow field, in general. (I'd like the rectangle to hover about his head like a thought balloon, or halo, but I still need it to sit back in space behind him.) The most obvious change since the last post is the stronger modeling on Olé's head and shoulder. This was done through short linear strokes of opaque paint, following facial surface planes. I used Indian red and titanium white on the face and hair, greenish raw umber and white for the lab coat. After heightening the flesh tones, I glazed the bright areas with a thin cinabrese to subdue the contrast a little. I also glazed the brighter umber highlights on the shoulder with a mixture of raw umber, greenish umber, and bianco de Vicenza. The latter pigment has a very subtle, warm hue and almost no opaque capacity. In tempera it is a useful glazing color to impart warmth to cooler tones. It also provides a delicate cloudiness that can help to soften focus and articulate a sense of space.
I'll probably now let the painting rest for a day or two before making final touches.

Richard Olsen in His Studio II (work in progress, 5)

2007-01-13T23:36:00.000-05:00

Step 5

Everything is touched with basic local colors, and the modeling of volumes is fairly close to where it needs to be. I can now start to finesse the color and value relationships.
A couple of comments about the composition: The squiggles in the background are strips of masking tape that Olé uses to create sharp edges in his work. They are stuck to the studio wall after being stripped from canvases in progress. Interestingly, though he seldom leaves the actual tape on the surface of the painting, Olé often adds simple, but illusionistic painted renderings of tape strips in his compositions. In his studio, some walls are covered with clear polyethylene sheeting to make removal and reuse of the tape easier. The plastic sheets make a nice reflective sparkle along their creases, but I may not include that detail in this small painting.
Olsen is a retired professor of art and in his classes he cautioned against certain awkward compositional elements that halt the eye's movement around the image in a detrimental way. One of his bugaboos is the "triangle in the corner." As an homage to his teaching, I positioned the stretcher bar and brace of a canvas leaning against his studio wall to bear a literal corner triangle down upon his back and shoulder.

Richard Olsen in His Studio II (work in progress, 4)

2007-01-11T22:43:00.000-05:00

Step 4

I'm using glazes of the pigment cinabrese to model the face. It's a pale, warm red earth color that's very good for rendering flesh tones. With multiple applications, I go over the entire face and hair with the color -- straight pigment but quite dilute -- while allowing the verdaccio underpainting to remain mostly untouched in the darkest shadows such as the creases in the face and other features. For the lighter passages, I added a small amount of titanium white to the cinabrese glaze. I'm using that slightly more opaque (and lighter value) red with a dry brush and pointed stroke to follow the cross contours of the face and further bring the head into relief. I want to draw everything into resolution slowly, though, and prolong a diaphanous color treatment so that later, more direct paint will indicate mass and give the impression of spatial projection. In a manner similar to the painting on the head, I've started to model the brown lab coat with applications of greenish raw umber and white.

Richard Olsen in His Studio II (work in progress, 3)

2007-01-09T21:16:00.000-05:00

Step 3

I continue to lay in additional color glazes, modifying the forms, deepening the colors, and adding detail. I still want to keep the surface open and porous, but I'm starting to use small amounts of titanium white in the color mixtures to make the colors slightly more opaque where I want the objects to solidify and pull forward in space.

Richard Olsen in His Studio II (work in progress, 2)

2007-01-07T12:46:00.000-05:00

Step 2

I have begun to lay in "local" colors in semi-transparent glazes of egg tempera: yellow ochre, ivory black, raw umber, verdaccio, and Vagone green, all tinted with varying amounts of zinc white. Zinc is the most transparent pure white pigment, and thus does not obscure the underpainting. The head took several glazes of straight green earth, without any white added. Before jumping to these egg tempera washes, I sized the casein underpainting with several thin coats of dilute yolk and water to cut the absorbency of the casein and permit the initial tempera glazes to flow on a little more easily. I'll continue to refine the image's colors and details with mostly transparent or translucent glazes, and build up to more opaque passages towards the end.

Richard Olsen in His Studio II (work in progress, 1)

2007-01-06T19:47:00.000-05:00

Step 1

This painting of the artist Richard Olsen is smaller than one I completed a couple of years ago, and depicts Olé in a more casual, candid pose. It's a very modestly sized panel, 8 x 6 inches, made by True-Gesso Panels in Santa Fe. I had begun it as a demonstration for an egg tempera workshop I participated in at the High Museum in 2006. After showing the students how to transfer an image and begin an underpainting, I set the panel aside until today when I rediscovered it in my studio. The photo above shows a continuation of the initial underpainting in casein, in ivory black, Venetian red, titanium white, and green earth. At this stage the image is somewhat loose and brushy (for its scale) and is mainly rendered in dry brushwork and washes.

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 19)

2006-12-19T23:20:00.000-05:00

Finished. These photos reproduce the painting's actual colors a bit more faithfully. Surprisingly, I got better color results using four 60-watt incandescent bulbs to light the painting than with previous setups using twin 500-watt tungsten lamps or natural illumination (northern light around 2 pm.) Go figure. The camera, by the way, is a several-years-old Sony 4.0 mp Cyber-shot. This painting, at 21 x 16 inches, is slightly smaller than the previous example on the blog.

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 18)

2006-12-17T12:44:00.000-05:00

I've finally gotten all the elements "filled in." Of course, I've tried to make measured decisions along the way, but now I can truly gauge how each component works with the others rather than simply anticipate how they might function together. In addition to working on the likeness (still a bit to go there), I've been making minor adjustments to the color or value of several of the objects in the room. For instance, I highlighted the wall behind Jeffrey's head and torso for a little more contrast. The little red thing in the lower left corner took a glaze of cadmium red light to warm it up somewhat. Next, and lastly, I need to clean up edges of forms and, especially, the intersections and overlaps of elements.

I moved Whittle's proper left eye up slightly. Its position is better, less droopy, but I still have to sharpen up the edges of its eyelid and cornea. I purposely left everything a little fuzzy as I tried to find where the eye should go. His nose was staring to grow a bit too bulbous; I slimmed it down. I'm also in the midst of making little changes to his mouth. Jeffrey's lips have a natural pursed or puckered shape. I just laid a pale pinkish wash over his mouth to soften the contours so that I can redraw the break between upper and lower lips and model them better. I'll probably raise the proper left corner of his mouth as I did his eye.

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 17)

2006-12-17T12:38:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 16)

2006-12-08T19:07:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 15)

2006-12-05T14:03:00.000-05:00

Details of Whittle's art in the painting. His work is acrylic over topographic and navigational maps, mounted on board or canvas.

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 14)

2006-12-05T13:58:00.000-05:00

Detail showing the green earth and verdaccio underpainting on the face and hair.

Detail of the modeling on the jacket in shades of ivory black over morellone (red-violet iron oxide.)

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 13)

2006-12-05T13:51:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 12)

2006-12-05T13:50:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 11)

2006-12-05T13:49:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 10)

2006-12-05T13:48:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 9)

2006-12-05T13:46:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 8)

2006-12-05T13:45:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 7)

2006-12-05T13:43:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 6)

2006-12-05T13:38:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 5)

2006-12-05T13:37:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 4)

2006-12-05T13:35:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 3)

2006-12-05T13:32:00.000-05:00

Image transfered to panel, apparent in faint red-chalk lines. A few lines are strengthened with black casein.

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 2)

2006-12-05T13:27:00.000-05:00

Cartoon on artist's "vellum," showing red chalk on reverse and traced contours.

Jeffrey Whittle in His Studio (work in progress, 1)

2006-12-05T13:21:00.000-05:00

Initial drawing in graphite on Rives BFK paper, same size as panel.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 20)

2006-12-05T12:58:00.000-05:00

Step 20

I'm calling it done. I've gone back into the painting after a little hiatus. While I worked on another panel, I continued studying this one to see what bothered me most. Ultimately, I made a few minor adjustments to the eyes and mouth, I glazed across the floor with a pale limonite/zinc white mixture to soften the grain, and I added a couple of features of David's painting at the top right that I had initially left out because I thought they might make this painting a bit too busy in that corner. I never could find perfectly accurate colors in this digital reproduction. I hope some of you may have the opportunity to see the painting in real life someday. I don't know how I feel about working on the board's rough, knobby surface. I had to fight the gesso's texture often: washes of color pool in the hollows like water color does on cold-pressed paper and the bumpy terrain makes it a little difficult to draw fine, crisp lines. But, it did make for some interesting effects that don't occur on a perfectly smooth finish, and I'm using the same type of panel on the next painting. I'll post images of that one in progress (with minimal commentary.)

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 19)

2006-11-22T13:22:00.000-05:00

A couple of details of the mostly finished painting. For a sense of scale, his head is about 3 inches tall (8 cm) in the painting. I'll let it sit for a few days or weeks as I work on the next painting. A few aspects of it bother me right now, but I'll stare at it for some time and see if they diminish or increase in my judgment. For instance, the photograph exaggerates an awkward spot on his mouth. It doesn't look quite so wrong in real life, but I'll probably go back in a couple of days and mess with it. The same goes for his proper left eye. It looks a bit dead as I study this photo of it.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 18)

2006-11-21T20:06:00.000-05:00

Step 18

A lot of work has transpired, most obviously in the flesh tones, shoes, floor, easel, plastic wrap. I don't have sequential images to illustrate the painting of his face and arms, unfortunately. The process proceeded too quickly and I didn't want to break my step to pause and set up for photography. However, here, in words, is roughly how it went: Over the green-earth base coat I began by applying a dark, warm tone in the places where lighter values turn toward shadow. That first flesh tone was composed of a fairly transparent Venetian red tinted with a little white. Allowing the greenish underpainting to peek through, especially in the darkest shadows, I worked that initial reddish color up into the next lighter areas with brush strokes that follow the changing planes of the face. After adding a touch of buff titanium to the same color to lighten and warm the red, I pushed a little farther into lighter passages. Essentially, I carried on with this same procedure with a dozen or so variations, gradually working from dark to lighter values of pink as I modeled the forms of the face and sought to refine David's likeness. Occasionally, I laid a delicate glaze across the entire face or arm to soften brushstrokes or modify a color transition. I find I have to chisel out some of the folds and creases and other details with fine dark markings, every now and then, as the cumulative layers of paint obscure the underpainting. In general, though, I develop the image from transparent darks in the early passages to opaque lights in later layers.

I'll post details of the face and a few other passages that might benefit from a closer look. (Maybe I can actually get the color balance right, as well.)

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 17)

2006-11-21T19:56:00.000-05:00

Step 17

A little behind on this post, the image was taken late last week after working on the pants legs. I tried shooting the photo outdoors to see if I could capture the intensity of the Cobalt turquoise hue on David's jacket, but it seems to be an impossible color to reproduce (even after making Photoshop adjustments.) At least the reds are more accurate than when shot under a tungsten lamp.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 16)

2006-11-12T23:37:00.000-05:00

Step 16

Still green skinned, but David is finally getting some color to his clothes. The light blue pigment I used in the jacket trim is actually quite fluorescent in real life, compared to the photo. Some colors just don't translate into RGB. This blue is composed chiefly of cobalt turquoise with a small amount of viridian, and tinted to make a couple of varying values with titananium white. Its shadows are darkened with barely more than a few grains of Milori blue added to the original color. The darker, cooler blue for the rest of the jacket is ultramarine blue, pushed slightly more violet with the addition of ultramarine pink and lightened with titanium. I left the reddish underpainting to predominate in the shadows. His t-shirt is modeled with a fairly intense chartreuse color (chromium oxide green + yellow ochre light) in the shadows, followed by a pale pink (vermilion + white), with highlighting strokes of a very pale cadmium yellow on top. All these areas still require more work to soften the contrasts. After I resolve the torso, I'll post a detail that should show off the colors better. I've just begun bulking up the legs, using hatch work and washes of terra nera Romana mixed with zinc white. Both the black earth and zinc are fairly transparent. When I start painting the lighter tones in the pants, I'll switch over to Mars black and titanium for cooler grays over these warm blacks.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 15)

2006-11-11T15:18:00.001-05:00

Step 15

After a few more sessions of work, the rolled canvas on the studio floor is starting to take on a more solid, volumetric appearance. I stepped away from the images on the wall for a bit until I bring the other elements up to a similar finish. You may notice the green cast to David's flesh. I laid down a couple of washes of dilute terre verte over his head and arms and also modeled their shadows slightly with a stronger mix of green earth and verdaccio. The dirty greens work well to enliven the fleshtones, especially in the shadows, once more natural, pink hues come on top. I'll do a similar thing with David's jacket. Its local color will be a rich two-tone blue (kind of like the old man earth behind him) but I want to create subtle iridescent contrasts in the jacket's shadows, so I am applying a complementary orange over the darker values in the jacket. I'll allow those reddish-oranges to show through to some degree in the finished painting for a vibrant contrast. (Or rather, I will if it doesn't look like crap.)

Below are a couple of details following today's work. Still, of course, in progress.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 14)

2006-11-01T23:52:00.000-05:00

Step 14

I continue to paint on the right side, refining details, adjusting colors. I am also building up the treatment of wood grain in the flooring. Perhaps a detail of that is due soon. David's charcoal sketch at the left of the panel is re-emerging, faux smears and all. I'm hoping that a volumetric treatment of the rolled painting on the floor, rendered in higher contrasts and more intense colors, will flatten the image behind David onto the wall.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 13)

2006-10-23T21:52:00.000-05:00

Step 13

I'm working on a few more areas now, simultaneously. I continue to strengthen David's painting on the right side of the canvas, and have started to solidify the white wall behind his head as well as the depiction of his charcoal drawing to the left. My "whites" for those areas consist, at this point, of pale green tones (green earth + titanium white) over the pinkish underlayment. I'm also using delicate grays made from terra nera Romana and zinc white to begin to suggest smeared and partially erased charcoal passages. I applied a faint glaze of light yellow ochre and zinc white over the floor.
The challenge, I think, with my depiction of both David's drawing and especially his painting (besides making them look like his work) is to make them appear at once to be flat surfaces on a wall behind the artist yet have the vitality of the originals. I'm trying to keep their color intensity and modeling slightly in check so that the "3-dimensional" figure of the artist will emerge from the space by contrast.
Though the differences are subtle and probably not even apparent in these photos, a lot of painting has transpired since the previous post. It occurred across small areas and in multiple, overlapping layers of colors.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 12)

2006-10-15T23:32:00.000-05:00

Step 12

The painting of the painting behind David is gradually becoming more resolved (though scant time in the studio this week slowed down the process.) Below is a detail of the father and son globe figures. The Blogspot mechanism seems to degrade my image focus slightly, but the hatching technique is still apparent in this blow-up. I'll go to the kid's hair next and the block that the old bearded one is sitting on.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 11)

2006-10-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

Step 11

I'm continuing to work on the elements surrounding the figure. The practice is still the same as described earlier. I go over previous, thin washes of local color with more saturated glazes. I then modulate and augment those passages with a dry brush and more opaque colors. In general, I model each area of color with overlapping hatch marks of progressively lighter values; i.e., from dark to light.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 10)

2006-10-05T22:45:00.000-05:00

Step 10

I'm going to keep the figure of David unworked for a while, as I begin to bring the other areas around him closer to a finished state. I'm glazing with more fully saturated colors, but mainly modulating the surface with a close pattern of translucent and opaque hatchmarks. What I want to do is surround David with approximations of the color values and resolution of forms that I think I want to end up with. I guess I'm trying to "set the stage" he inhabits before developing the central figure, rather than bring David into focus and then work the space around him. Also, I'm painting the elements in the pictorial space from back to front, distant objects first. I think that kind of actual, physical, overlapping of painted forms helps to create a sense of objects situated in a believable space, one in front of the other. Certainly, once I begin to render David's figure, I'll have to make adjustments to the other areas. There will be a lot of give and take among the elements as the painting progresses. Athough the area of the painting in the upper right corner where I've concentrated looks relatively complete, it is by no means so.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 9)

2006-10-02T22:19:00.000-05:00

Step 9

I have begun to apply transparent washes of local colors over my monochromatic underpainting. Basically, I want to establish the general color array of the composition. I'm mixing very dilute glazes of inherently transparent pigments -- yellow ochre, terre verte, prussan blue, red earth, etc. If I need to add white pigment to the mix, I'll use zinc white, which is much less opaque that titanium. I want to ensure that the details of the underpainting are not obscured at this early point.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 8)

2006-10-01T18:10:00.000-05:00

Step 7 (or 8...)

I've gone about as far as I want to with the underpainting. A little more umber, white, black, and Venetian red casein. I could probably take it a bit farther, but, as is usually the case, I stopped when I became impatient to work in color. So, the next step is to brush over the entire surface with a dilute egg yolk wash (around 8-10 parts water: 1 part yolk) to seal the surface somewhat. The casein surface is fairly "thirsty." If I prime the underpainting with a little egg, the tempera goes on easier in the early passes.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 7)

2006-09-30T21:25:00.000-05:00

Front surface

Back of panel

While I normally prepare my own boards with home-made rabbit-skin glue gesso, this time I'm painting on a vintage, commercially prepared gesso panel. I recently bought a number of panels, probably manufactured in the 1940s-50s, from the estate of Athens, GA, artist Frank Ruzicka. The panels have a rough, spattered texture instead of the usual smooth finish. The gesso was obviously sprayed on. It's a nice surface to work on. I've seen temperas by Reginald Marsh from the '40s on boards with a similar surface. This is a 24 x 30 panel that I cut down to size.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 6)

2006-09-30T13:37:00.000-05:00

Step 6

I have just started working across the image with white casein. Some passages are scumbled, or kind of broadly washed, most are built up with small hatch marks. With casein, I've found that if I dilute the white too thinly in washes, it may look wonderfully subtle and perfect, but when I come back over it with the first washes of egg tempera colors, the palest white washes have a tendency to disappear. I'll continue refining the forms and details with white a bit longer before I return to the darker values.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 5)

2006-09-29T20:24:00.000-05:00

Step 5

I have now brushed over the whole panel with a couple of thin veils of Venetian red casein washes. I'm not worried about the uneven application of color. There's a lot more that needs to occur to the underpainting. This step provides a nice middle-ground value and injects a warm glow that will affect all the subsequent colors to follow on top of it. I'll work into the image next with white casein to bring back lighter values, and also punch up the darker values with black. The casein I'm using on this painting is Shiva brand tube colors. I sometimes mix dry pigments into straight casein emulsion, but the tubes are pretty convenient.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 3 &4)

2006-09-28T21:33:00.000-05:00

Step 3

I've started working over the transfered chalk lines with dilute burnt umber casein paint and a fine brush. Casein is a relative of egg tempera, but instead of using egg yolk as a binder for the pigment it uses a milk-based glue. You can still see some of the red chalk indications and I have begun to model the figure's forms with washes of casein and hatchwork.

Step 4

Here's the more complete state of the initial underpainting. I try to develop a lot of the detail and values that will guide the color work to follow.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 2)

2006-09-28T20:55:00.001-05:00

Step 2

This faint image shows the results of transfering the composition from the original drawing to the gessoed panel. I made a tracing of the drawing onto "vellum," a.k.a. tracing paper. Across the back of the vellum I rubbed a coating of red-earth chalk. Actually, the chalk is a chunk of naturally pigmented, dry clay purchased from an art supply store in Florence, Zecchi, and really well suited for this purpose. I fix the tracing to the panel, chalk side down, and draw over the lines again to impress them onto the surface of the gesso. It's like using a carbon paper to make a copy. What's the point of going to all this trouble, you might ask? Why not just draw an image directly onto the gesso? Well, rabbit-skin glue gesso is very absorbant and fairly soft. I mess up a lot when I'm trying to find the forms in a composition. This way I can work out a lot of the initial problems on paper and erase or redraw as often as need be without mussing up the gesso surface. When I finally get the drawing right, or close to it, it's a simple matter to dupe it to the panel. The next step is to reinforce the transferred image. Some people use dilute India ink, or egg tempera. Lately, I've preferred to use casein paint.

Below is a photo of my pieced-together vellum. The blue dots are just some adhesive drafting tabs I had on hand that I used as tape.

David Sandlin in His Studio (work in progress, 1)

2006-09-27T23:13:00.000-05:00

Step 1

Here's the drawing I'll start with, on paper the same size as my panel, 24 x 20 inches. Basically just the contours of all the elements in the picture. I'll work more on David's likeness on the panel itself.