Tonal underpainting and artistic mindsets.

Doing tonal underpainting is something I've taken to doing of late in both trad and digital media. I'm not entirely sold on it but it's got definite benefits when it comes to making things stand out, and it also means you can put off worrying about the colour scheme, and can make changes without needing to match colours, which is a particular benefit in traditional painting. It also enables shapes and volumes to start taking over from lines, although I am still a line person at heart. I would rather look at a detailed architectural drawing of a, say, Rouen Cathedral, than a fuzzy impressionist painting of it. I think there are three default artistic mindsets when it comes to image making:
1.medieval- most interested in outline,
2. classical- most interested in form and volume,
and 3. Turneresque/impressionist- most interested in atmospherics.

I am conventionally line orientated, but am coming around slowly to the other things.

On a fairly unrelated note, I've had the benefit of a critique of a piece by the good people at Ninja Mountain. The piece was 'Retours', which evidently contained some faults that I failed to pick-up upon (or about which I entered into a state of denial) at the time. One lesson of importance was to establish perspective at the offset, otherwise the only solution is to introduce a lot of shadow to hide mistakes. I've also got to try to vary facial expressions more. I've got in the habit of painting fairly bland expressions. Sometimes, however, the subject calls for a bit more warlike of a look.

Here's some additional encouragement, from Gilbert and Sullivan:

His nose should pant
and his lip should curl,
His cheeks should flame
and his brow should furl,
His bosom should heave
and his heart should glow,
And his fist be ever ready
for a knock-down blow.

And from Shakespeare:

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility,
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage,
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect...
set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height...

Here is 'Retours' before and after the critique. (Normally I wouldn't tinker with a commissioned work after it was approved, but in this instance it required it, and the original client has been given the option of using the revised version, for which time should still allow).

Joan of Arc finished...

I think this painting is about done now. A 600th birthday present for la Puecelle.

Google's 'visually similar'

I learned of this feature just now from reading an entry on it on the Gurney Journey blog.

Very interesting, and a good way of printing some nice wallpaper. I tried it out finding what the computer thinks is 'visually similar' to my 'Adderbite' piece. Here are the results...

Today's progress on Joan of Arc, impeded slightly by a visit to the pub after picking up the prints of my latest images for my portfolio, (which I will probably take along to the Spring Fair in Birmingham).

The halo is painted in gold metallic oil paint. The face also gains colour.

The Contemporary Realist Movement.

Interesting article here...
I'd pretty much sign up...


Never permit conceptualists and abstractionists to appropriate the terms 'contemporary' and 'modern' for their style and their ideology. These terms are propagandistic, claiming a monopoly on what is valid in the present. Conceptualists and abstractionists are entitled to no such monopoly. Their art is based on experiments and revolutions that are old-hat, now, and which were never great successes. The 20th century avant-garde never produced greater art than that which went before. I don't believe most abstract art is even as good as much of the figurative ('traditional') work, produced by artists and over the same period (however marginalized they were by the art establishment during the years when 'modernism' reigned supreme).

The idea that non-figurative or anti-aesthetic art is somehow more progressive is baseless. We who advocate figurative art as a valid and virile movement should reclaim the language. We should avoid any terms which imply that figurative art is stick-in-the-mud or obsolete. At the least we should put distancing quotation marks around the term 'modernist', when speaking of a particular style related to a badly-aging cultural movement. No artist today should feel obliged to work within any tradition in order to be taken seriously. Choosing to draw inspiration from the Renaissance is certainly no less worthy than choosing to build on the questionable achievements of the 20th century 'avant garde'.

The only reservation I have with the 'contemporary realism' label is that it might seem to imply a focus on the contemporary world, and a mundane focus on the here-and-now. My own commercial art, however, is primarily fantasy. My personal work often reflects my interest in the past, and a certain romanticism and mysticism. 'Neo-Romantic or Post-Pre-Raphaelite', as it were, is more my thing.

Anyway. Here is how my 'Joan of Arc' is coming along... As you see a start has been made on the colour. I have some gold paint for the halo, the yellow is an undercoat.

Joan of Arc progress

Here is how Joan of Arc is progressing. Not too much done as had to go out to post Brigantia off, and to attempt to get some prints made up. I also bought some new brushes. Such is my rock n'roll lifestyle. (Also thinking about ordering a medieval knight's helmet off ebay, for reference, and to stop my dog miting my nose when I try to cut his claws).

Painted the chain-maily bits today. Not as difficult as some make out, but somewhat laborious. If I was doing this digitally I could use a photoshop 'brush' I've made which is quite nifty for instant chainmail, but as it's oils that's not really an option.

Planning to add colour as the next stage, the black and white underpainting being nearly complete now.

Warrior Women

Warrior women seem to be the flavour of the month. Recently I sold a commissioned piece 'The Windigo' featuring an under-dressed heroine slaying an alien.

And yesterday I confirmed the sale of my 'Brigantia' piece, a Celtic warrior goddess who is marginally better dressed.

I have also made a little progress working on my latest painting 'Joan of Arc', who actually has proper armour.