Joseph Pfeiffer-Herbert

Karin WIP2

2012-03-05T10:48:00.003-05:00

Here is my update to my Karin painting. I need to spend one more day repainting the eyes nose and mouth. I think I'm also going to fix the scraggly looking hair in the back. I just need to wait for the paint to dry.

Karin WIP1

2012-02-29T08:50:00.003-05:00

This is the start of my new Karin Painting.

I still have quite a bit of work to do in all of the areas that I already painted. The only problem is that it might take about a week for the paint to dry to the touch and I can't add paint until that happens. I piled my titanium white on so think for this painting trying to really show my brushstrokes, but that means longer paint drying time.

I like to save my paint, especially the white, from day to day. Adding dryer would force me to discard large piles of chunky dry paint at the end of the day. I hate throwing away unused paint, I sometimes work late in the evening just to use up the remaining paint form that day's painting.

This painting looks like a limited palette, but it actually involves quite a few colors: White, Naples Yellow, Cad Orange, Cad Red, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, and Burnt Umber.

The painting is done on masonite panel and the size is 16in x 20in.

Karin Study

2012-02-27T14:02:00.002-05:00

I've started a new painting, and this is the color sketch. I'm trying to work with more muted skin tone colors, and have a white or whitish background.

Two Bottles

2012-02-22T11:06:00.003-05:00

Two new bottles in the last couple of days.

Old Speckled Hen 2

2012-02-17T15:30:00.002-05:00

I finished another beer bottle. This is a re-painting of one that I did earlier. It is a little sharper with brighter colors.

Cordula Final

2012-02-16T14:56:00.002-05:00

I finished my Cordula portrait. There was a little bit of sinking-in in the hair and on the cheek. I'll have to varnish and re-post at another date, as usual.

This was done with oil on panel and is 16in x 12in. The paints I used were White, Yellow Ocher, Cad Orange, Cad Red, Sap Green, Burnt Umber, and Ivory Black.

Blackberries

2012-02-15T21:30:00.002-05:00

This is a quick little painting that I did for my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Jessi!

It was painted on a 4in x 7.5in panel

Cordula WIP2

2012-02-15T10:06:00.003-05:00

I am almost finished with this portrait. I need to spend more time on the eye and the hair.

I tried to stick to a pretty limited palette for this one. I only used White, Yellow Ocher, Cad Orange, Cad Red, Sap Green, Burnt Umber, and Ivory Black.

Cordula WIP1

2012-02-09T10:58:00.003-05:00

I've started a new painting. I wanted to push the red and greens to a very high chroma, which means that they will be very vibrant reds and greens.

As usual I start with the darks and work my way up to the lights.

This was done with oil on panel and is 16in x 12in.

Asteria Final

2012-02-07T14:06:00.004-05:00

Here is my final version of Asteria. I spent some time on the background painting large parts of it with a palette knife. This made a very choppy appearance to the background that just isn't fully noticeable in this image. There is also a little sinking-in on the neck and arm making them appear lighter.

This is a 20in x 16in painting that was done on a panel using the following colors: White, Yellow Ocher, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Orange, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and Ivory Black.

Karin Final

2012-02-03T23:21:00.002-05:00

Here is my final red chalk drawing of Karin. As usual I'll probably look back at it a week from now and make some changes.

18 x 13 in Red and White Chalk on toned paper.

Karin WIP

2012-02-02T16:35:00.002-05:00

I'm working on a new Red Chalk portrait of my Sister in Law. I hope she likes it.

Asteria WIP

2012-01-31T11:44:00.003-05:00

I've been working on this painting and forgetting to post any work in progress shots. So here is the nearly completed painting, I still need some small adjustments and to re-paint the background. I also need to get a better photograph of it.

Old Rasputin

2012-01-30T10:52:00.002-05:00

Negra Modelo

2012-01-23T11:32:00.002-05:00

Another weekend, another bottle.

Bottle Sketches

2012-01-19T15:56:00.004-05:00

Here are some sketches of bottles that I have been working on lately. I will be doing about six or seven more, and will probably try and redo the Old Speckled Hen painting. Anyway. I hope you like them.

Start of a new Painting

2012-01-10T14:05:00.002-05:00

Here is the first couple of days work on my new painting. I have yet to decide a name for it. If anyone out there has any suggestions be sure to post a comment.

For this painting I am spending a great deal more time on the underpainting with the hope that I might do some glazing over the top of it to get the right colors. I am purposely making the face much lighter than it will be in the final work so that the lightness will shine through the glazing making the skin more luminescent.

In this stage I am only using White and Black paint. I primed the canvas with Burnt Umber.

Bing Xun Final

2012-01-09T13:02:00.004-05:00

I finally finished this painting. There was a great deal of sinking in in some parts of the background and the sweater. Of course I'll re-post a varnished version of this painting when I get around to varnishing it 6 to 12 months from now.

Keith Moon

2012-01-08T13:43:00.005-05:00

I painted a commission for some friends as a Christmas Present. It is of their favorite drummer, Keith Moon. If you don't know, he was the lead drummer for The Who.

This was painted with Titanium white and Van Dyke Brown. I like the VD Brown instead of Ivory black because it has a more neutral tint to it. In fact I often use more VD Brown than Ivory Black in my paintings.

Bing Xun WIP3

2012-01-04T11:05:00.004-05:00

Nearly finished. I have a few adjustments to make on the eyes and lips, and possibly in other places.

The oil has sunken in of course, and I couldn't find a good angle to avoid that terrible reflection on the right side of his arm.

Bing Xun WIP2

2012-01-02T11:11:00.002-05:00

I'm having all kinds of trouble photographing this big painting, which is why I am posting so infrequently. The colors are a little off and I can't seem to fix them, even in Photoshop. Particularly the large green looking patch around his mouth. I swear I'll have it photographed by someone who knows what they are doing in the final version.

I'm almost done with the face. There is something oddly round in the lips area. I know that Sargent always says that a portrait is a picture of someone where something is wrong with the mouth, but these lips seem too wrong to let it slide.

Bing Xun WIP1

2011-12-27T15:34:00.002-05:00

I'm having trouble photographing this painting because it is so big. So the quality of the image is pretty high. This is about the best I can do for right now with my camera. I'll try to borrow a better camera from a friend to at least get a better image when I finish this painting.

Send me a comment and let me know what you think.

Baby Commissions: Lea

2011-12-27T10:35:00.002-05:00

Here is my second baby commission for the holidays.

It was painted with Yellow Ochre, Indian Red, Burnt Umber, and Van Dyke Brown. It was painted on a 6in x 8in masonite panel.

Baby Commissions: Arlo

2011-12-27T10:31:00.003-05:00

Most of the Christmas presents I gave this year were portraits. So I was unable to post them until after the holidays, otherwise they wouldn't have been a surprise.

Here is the first one that I worked on, a portrait of Arlo. This painting was done with Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, Burnt Umber, Sap Green, and Van Dyke Brown. It was painted on a 6in x 8in masonite panel.

Bing Xun Dead Color

2011-12-18T20:37:00.002-05:00

I'm still working on this and will post again when it is more finished, but I just wanted to send something out to the blogosphere because it's been awhile.

Bing Xun Thumbnail

2011-12-07T14:23:00.002-05:00

I started a new painting this week. It may take me awhile to get it up and running because I still have to finish with the drawing and preparing the canvas.

This is only a 5 x 7 thumbnail painting that I did to work out the colors that I will be using. The final version will be an 18 x 24 half body sized painting which includes hands. I haven't painted actual hands in a very long time, hopefully they don't turn into creepy sausage fingers.

Aimee Final

2011-11-29T11:54:00.003-05:00

Here is the final version of the Aimee portrait that I've been working on. It was done almost entirely with Raw Umber, Venetian Red, and White. There is also a little ivory black to darken parts and to get the greys of the eyes.

Aimee WIP1

2011-11-26T12:55:00.003-05:00

I've worked about three days on this since my last post, so it appears to be a much bigger jump between this and the dead color stage.

I avoided posting because I thought it looked horribly un-viewable up until now. I almost stopped working on it because I didn't like where it was going, but I gave it one more day and now I can finally see how the painting will turn out in the end and be happy with it when it's completed.

For the skin tones I am only using White, Raw Umber, and Venetian Red. I used some Cad. Red in the lips and some Ivory black in the whites of the eyes and shadows.

Aimee Dead Color

2011-11-18T17:58:00.004-05:00

I decided to start the next painting with a monochromatic underpainting. This will also only be painting in three colors (four if you count white).

Stan Final-ish

2011-11-17T17:34:00.002-05:00

I still need to adjust a few more things to this portrait. I'll have to wait at least a week for the paint to dry before finalizing it. It is pretty much finished though, I doubt I'll have much more to do.

Let me know what you think I always enjoy getting comments and e-mails.

Stan WIP2

2011-11-15T16:19:00.003-05:00

I haven't been posting in the last couple of days so this is about three days worth of work to the portrait. I am almost finished today I'll work on the hair and hopefully the shirt as well. Then I will only need to let the paint dry and add a few more alterations and it will be finished.

Stan WIP1

2011-11-09T10:59:00.002-05:00

I have spent some time working on the shadows, dark-half tones, and the cheeks. I'll start on the features today.

Stan Dead Color

2011-11-05T15:28:00.006-04:00

Dead color is when you only lay in the basic flat (or dead) color and value of an area. I could simplify the dead coloring by making just one color for the shadow and one for the face. I could also dead color in a more detailed way rounding every little form. There is a great deal of choice for this stage of the painting. Some people skip it altogether and just move onto the direct painting stage after the dry-brush stage.

I find that skipping this layer makes it much harder for me to accurately find the right color scheme and value structure in my paintings. Dead coloring lets me apply very light layers of paint until I get the right color and values for each area before I apply thick layers of paint all over the canvas.

Stan Dry-Brush

2011-11-04T17:30:00.005-04:00

Dry-brush painting is where one uses only a very small amount of pigment on one's brush, wipes off the excess paint, and uses the minute number of particles remaining to scrub pigment into the canvas. Generally it is done with Burnt or Raw Umbers because of the dark value and quick drying time.

This is my dry-brush painting of my new painting Stan. I used Burnt umber to block in all of the shadows and the background. The one problem with my dry-brush in this situation is that I did not block in the entire mustache as one value, (I could have done it in two as well with one being the light and one being the shadow of the mustache). By not darkening the light of the mustache I am saying that the light part of it is the same value as the face. I should have made it a value darker than white to give it a darker distinction like I did for the stripes on the tie. In this way it would have described his light mustache as a darker value, but still not as dark as the shadow of the mustache.

Stan Cartoon

2011-11-03T23:32:00.004-04:00

Here is the Stan transfer from my drawing. I am very excited to start working on this today. I did my usual rub on the back of the paper transfer, but didn't use charcoal this time. I instead, tried using a dark brown conte crayon. I've been told that it should help by not smearing or mixing with the paint, which is what charcoal wants to do to ruin your day.

I'll let everyone know how it turns out in my next post, and if I forget to mention it remind me. I'm thinking of you Rob.

Stan Thumbnail Painting

2011-11-03T23:20:00.005-04:00

I'm starting a new painting. This is it's little thumbnail painting that I did today so that I know the color scheme for the entire piece. I do think I'll darken the chin quite a bit though to give a greater sense of form to the entire face. Otherwise, this is what it will look like.

It is a tiny little painting that is 6in x 4.5in in size. The final piece will be 16in x 12in. I like to make my little painting the exact same scale as my big painting so that I can see what the tiny composition will look like.

Allison Final

2011-11-02T16:56:00.003-04:00

Here is the final version of my Allison painting. I glazed some darker parts of the hair. Re-worked the sky and fixed some rounding issues with the arm. I got a number or framing samples to test different types of gold and silver frames for this piece. I might post some photoshoped versions of the samples to let people vote on which one's they like.

Allison WIP6

2011-11-02T16:38:00.002-04:00

I worked on the hair. I've also been out of town so I wasn't able to work on or post anything about this painting. I have finished though, I'll post the final version next.

Allison WIP5

2011-10-21T11:52:00.004-04:00

I finally got a chance to rework the arm a little more so that it isn't so ridiculously purple. I also spent a little more time on the face, more still needs to be done in this area.

Now I just have to work on the hair for the next couple of days and I might actually finish this painting by early next week.

Also I won't be posting a face detail because only minor changes were made from the last post.

Allison WIP4

2011-10-21T11:15:00.004-04:00

New update of my Allison painting.

I forgot to post this yesterday. This was work done on Wednesday. I spent most of this painting session on the background. I will still need to rework the clouds a little more to make them more softer and less scratchy in places.

I also spent a little time painting the eye, and make a few other alterations to the face.

Allison WIP3

2011-10-18T15:44:00.003-04:00

I spent that last couple of days working on the face. I realize that the last post was too high in contrast. I posted it on a laptop with dim lights and thought that it was a better image than it was. Here is a much better color match of the actual painting.

Also I posted another detail of the face so that you can see what I did on the face. I have almost fully painted it except for the eye. I'll give it a couple of days to dry before I retouch and finish the face.

2011-10-14T11:37:00.002-04:00

I also thought I would take the time to post a larger version of her face. For some reason my larger photographing is coming out blurry. I think it might be from bad lighting and because it is such a big painting.

Allison WIP2

2011-10-14T11:30:00.004-04:00

I worked on the arm a little more and got the right coloring for the shoulder. I started using Cad Red for the warms in this painting and kept thinking that it needed to look different in some way. In the back of my mind I kept telling myself that I should try using Venetian Red instead but I didn't do this because I wanted to limit my palette. After many hours of experimentation I finally mixed the right variation of C.Red that fit the painting and it looked identical to Venetian Red. So now I'm just using V.Red instead of C.Red. I should have just listened to my initial instincts, and I probably wouldn't have spent a whole day on just the shoulder.

Also now that I've painted a better representation of the shoulder skin tone I think I need to change the value and the color of the dark half tone. It is way too dark and purpley.

Allison WIP1

2011-10-13T09:57:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted in awhile because I have been busy helping build a playground.

I was cameraless yesterday and couldn't take the work in progress photo just before this current one. So this is two days of work since the last posting. But you can mostly still see the underpainting as it looked yesterday morning.

The new addition since finishing the underpainting is that I painted the shadow shape on her back, a little bit into the dark halftones, and her lower arm. For the background I painted the whole sky. Yes that it tape holding up my painting.

At the time I couldn't seem to find a way to clamp it to the easel without it messing up the sky paint. After I taped the canvas and painted the sky I thought of a way to attach the painting without using tape, so hopefull you won't see those ugly tape stripes again in any of my progress shots.

Allison Dead Color Background

2011-10-07T14:29:00.003-04:00

This is the start of the new painting with only the background painted in a dead color fashion.

Allison Cartoon

2011-10-07T14:26:00.002-04:00

This is the start of my next painting transferred onto the canvas.

Final Final Sean

2011-10-05T11:57:00.001-04:00

This is the actual final final painting of Sean, unvarnished.

Sean WIP 2

2011-09-27T17:10:00.008-04:00

Here is the latest update of this portrait. I worked on the forehead, nose and cheek today (very productive.)

I thought I might do something a little different and post an image outlining the area that I actually worked on so that you can easily see the comparison from the previous photo to this one. Let me know if this is something that you'd like to see more of.

Sean WIP 1

2011-09-26T17:04:00.004-04:00

Here is the latest update of the Sean painting. I mostly worked on the neck, beard, side of face, and hair. I also think that I need to broaden his shoulder on the left by a little bit. I think Sean would like it if I made his shoulders look a little bigger.

I'm still a little undecided about the background. It might still go through some changes, if you have any advice let me know.

Ginger

2011-09-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

This is a very old painting. It is a piece of ginger candy. I've also included the underpainting for this one as well.

The underpainting was a different procedure than I usually do. It was painted with burnt sienna, which came out pretty chromatic. I thought that this would help with the brightness of the candy, but it wasn't that useful because I just painted a thick layer of orange over it anyway.

Sean Background Choices

2011-09-24T16:39:00.002-04:00

Ok Time to vote on your favorite background.

I've organized them a little better this time. They are in the categories Light, Medium, and Darks and Greenish, Grey, and Red.

I think these are harder for me to choose because I think they all look good and usable.

It kind of looks like a Brady Bunch portrait too.

Sean Dead Color 2

2011-09-24T15:40:00.004-04:00

Here is the almost final version of the dead coloring. If you look at it from really far away you can see that all of the major planes of the face are represented. Now I just have to round the forms with oil paint, and get a slightly more subtle color scheme going.

I think I might try to figure out the background in this stage as well. So hopefully my next post will be a couple of different background ideas that people can vote on again.

Sean Dead Color 1

2011-09-22T19:09:00.001-04:00

This is the start of the actual painting process. It is a dead coloring of just the shadow shapes, and the dark shapes like the hair.

I always start working a painting by to the darkest darks first. In this case I painted the black of the hair and the beard first. Then when that is established I can use it to help me judge the proper value and color for the next darkest patches in this case the lighter beard parts, the side of the face shadow, and the shadow on the neck.

Dead coloring is when you have a flat value or color that is kind of the start of your underpainting. It is sometimes called an ebauche.

Sean Transfer

2011-09-22T14:43:00.004-04:00

This is the cartoon transferred onto my panel.

I scanned the drawing that I had made. Then I re-sized it in photoshop to fit the canvas that I would be working with. I then printed it out onto another piece of paper and marked up the back of that paper with charcoal. Then I dragged a knitting needle over the lines on the paper to transfer the charcoal onto the panel.

The finished result looks like this, a blank canvas with the lines from the cartoon on it. The charcoal won't be visible in the final painting.

Website Design Update

2011-09-21T21:54:00.001-04:00

I've spent the last couple of weeks updating my website with new drawings, paintings and a new gallery design. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Also if you see any loop holes anywhere please inform me so that I can fix it.

Here is the link to my website, in case you missed the link at the bottom of this blog post.

http://jphfinearts.net/

Sean Poster Study

2011-09-21T15:17:00.003-04:00

This is a small study that I did to try and figure out the basic color scheme of the portrait that I am about to paint. I try to figure out the right color scheme before I dive into the big painting. It was painted on a small piece of foam core with acrylic paint.

Sean Portrait

2011-09-20T19:04:00.003-04:00

Here is the start of a new painting that I am working on. It is just the cartoon that will be transfered to my canvas, as soon as I finish making said canvas.

Jam Jar Final

2011-09-19T17:11:00.004-04:00

Here is my final version of the Jam jar. I'm finding that it is much easier to paint a decent final version when the underpainting is well constructed. I'm not sure what else to say about this piece.

Let me know what you think of this painting, I like getting comments and e-mails.

It was fun to do a couple of small paintings, but now I think I'll return to making bigger paintings, and will hopefully start the drawing of a new portrait this evening.

Apple Sketch

2011-09-19T12:00:00.002-04:00

This was a sketch I did of an apple. Painted in oils on a masonite panel. I didn't spend very much time on this one which is why I consider it a sketch. If I were to turn it into a full painting I would have worked the background that the form shadow on the apple a little more.

Peppermints

2011-09-17T12:00:00.000-04:00

This was a painting that I did awhile ago of peppermints. It was entirely painted in acrylics, that is one reason why it less softened less smooth than one that would be painted in oils.

Jam Jar Underpainting

2011-09-16T11:27:00.003-04:00

Here is a continuation of these small paintings that i'm working on.

This is the underpainting of the next small painting that I'm working on. Again the main idea of the underpainting is to get the drawing, colors, and major value shifts accurate. I probably spent as much time on the threads of the painting as I did on the rest of the painting. But everything else is pretty much a flat simple statement of color. This is often called a "Dead Color" stage.

You can also see that the colors are a little dull. The next layer will be much more vibrant with color.

Jam Jar cartoon

2011-09-16T11:21:00.003-04:00

Here is the start of the next small painting that I'm working on. I started with a drawing, then scanned it, then I reworked the ellipses and straight lines in photoshop. I'll still probably lose the drawing when I get into the painting, but at least I'll start with straight lines and perfect ellipses.

Peppers Finished

2011-09-16T10:54:00.005-04:00

Here is the finished version of the Peppers painting. I couldn't find a way to photograph it without getting a little bit of glare from the light. When it is totally dry I might be able to get a better image.

I might still add a little bit to the highlights but that needs to happen when it's dry so that I can make adjustments without causing more problems to the rest of the painting.

Peppers Underpainting

2011-09-13T15:24:00.006-04:00

I just started working on a small painting of peppers. I will probably do a number of small still lives to kind of get the hang of this whole painting system that I am working out. Basically using acrylic paint as an underpainting and using oils on top of that.

I finished the underpainting today. The main idea of the underpainting is to get the drawing, colors, and major value shifts accurate in the painting. So for the stems I used a more planar approach with just flat colors, and for the peppers I rounded them as if they were generic cylinders. This way I have the basic color and values accurate for when I start to do my overlaying painting with oils which will make my life much easier.

I would move into working with oils now, but I should give this paint at least a day to dry.

Finished Portrait: Kristin

2011-09-12T15:36:00.004-04:00

Here is an image of this portrait now that it is finished. It isn't varnished yet so it is a little duller in color than it will be once I varnish it. But otherwise this is it.

I'll repost a better image as soon as I varnish this painting. Which could be as much as 6 months from now.

Small Figures: Becca

2011-09-07T10:34:00.004-04:00

This was on of the best models that we ever worked with. She could hold a pose like a statue, probably because she was a former gymnast. Anyway I tried something different with this pose by trying to work in a little background into the picture, but I think it only distracts from the image. There just aren't enough values to work with using graphite so when I added background I reduced the number of values that I could have in the figure, which in some ways flattened the image.

Becca Sketch

I have dozens of small figure drawings that I did while studying at the New School of Classical Art in Providence. The head instructor of the school was Dana Levin, whose work is pretty fantastic, check out her website if you get a chance (http://danalevin.com/). I plan to highlight each of these small figures individually writing about the process involved and give people insight into the models' lives as well.

Small Figures: Peter

2011-09-07T09:57:00.003-04:00

This great model was an off-season body builder. So he had a great deal of girth but not too exaggerated muscles. There was actually a slight disagreement after the model left over his weight. One of the students drew him to look larger, while another student drew him to be thinner. They disagreed on who had the more accurate drawing.

Which brought up an interesting question about drawing from the model. Does an artist simply draw the model as they visibly appear or do you as an artist draw a more exaggerated version of the feeling that you get from a model? In my class we had two students one who saw him skinny and drew him skinny, and the other who saw him as being fatter and drew him fatter. Can either of them be considered wrong if they were drawing the model in the size that they perceived him to be, or are they wrong because it wasn't accurately depicting the model? I won't try to answer these questions on this blog, it's just something to think about.

(By the way, I drew him in-between being too big and too thin, I took the safe road.)

Peter Sketch

Portrait Thursday

2011-09-01T17:17:00.003-04:00

I really don't like painting ears. One day I will look back once I have perfected how to paint an ear in ten minutes and laugh at my ear painting process of today.

I worked on the neck, ear, eyebrow, and painstakingly painted the hairline around the forehead.

Now all I need to paint is the background and add some touch ups and I will be finished. I'm actually only one day behind schedule for finishing this portrait. Now if I could paint a portrait in a week instead of two weeks then I'd really be in business.

Portrait Wednesday

2011-09-01T17:14:00.004-04:00

I spent all of Wednesday painting just the lips and a little of the chin. Oh, also I lowered the corner on the right eye, it was looking a little too Celopatra-ish. It does seem a little impressive to think that six hours of painting lead to only a few minor changes, about a two square inch range of canvas was actually painted on today.

I'm still trying to paint this portrait fairly quickly though. So hopefully i'll finish within the next day or so.

Background Ideas

2011-08-31T00:08:00.002-04:00

I'm trying to decide between which background to use for this painting. If you want to throw in your vote now is your chance. I will be painting this on Thursday so let me know before then if you are swayed by any particular background. You can either e-mail me or comment on this post.

The first box is what the painting currently looks like, minus the clamp of course.

Small Figures: Ernie

2011-08-28T12:00:00.003-04:00

Every so often I like to practice drawing portraits through drawing plaster or plastic skulls. If you've never heard of this before it may seem odd. However, drawing a skull helps to inform an artist about the underlying structures of the human face. It is much easier to see the distinct plane changes on the forehead and cheek bones and to see the subtle movement of the jawbone on a person after you have drawn from a skull. I suggest skull drawing whenever possible.

Ernie Sketch

Small Figures: Heather

2011-08-26T12:00:00.002-04:00

Here is a figure drawing that was done at the New School of Classical Art in Providence. It was a two day post which was basically 6 hours of drawing. Done using the Sight-Size method of drawing. I'm sure I'll try to explain that method at some point in detail, but not now.

This model was named Heather and she was one of the best models that we had at the school. Unfortunately she only worked twice. She was formerly a Miss Rhode Island and could always carry a pose with great poise and elegance. Something that can be a rarity among models. We were very luck to work with her.

Heather Sketch

Back to Blogging

2011-08-25T15:47:00.007-04:00

Now that I finally have some free time again I will be able to start blogging regularly.

In the last two days I have been working on this portrait. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it within a respectable period of time. I'm working on timing myself to see just how long it takes to actually complete a painting.

Anyway this is mostly just dead colored, even though it is a more detailed dead color than I would otherwise have done. In the next painting I will limit it to just the major planes of the face. Only the forehead and the nose have been "first painted".

If you have any questions or comments let me know. I'll be much more active in the next few months with my blogging.

Rob, do you have any questions or comments? Also you should send me that portrait of your bother, I'd like to see it.

Unnamed Portrait, note: Color not accurate

Small Figures: Aaron

2011-06-01T19:14:00.004-04:00

This was the room mate of a friend of mine who also attended classes with me at the New School. This drawing is also another good example of something drawn only focusing on the shadow shapes, and the edges between the shadows and lights.

Aaron Sketch

Another Attempt at Dry-Brush Painting

2011-05-25T12:00:00.002-04:00

This is a painting that I recently finished. Because I felt bad for not finishing those other dry-brush drawings of my friends, due to illness, I decided to work on another dry-brush painting. The most interesting thing I learned when working on this was the difference between using mineral spirits as a medium vs using linseed oil. Linseed oil applies the paint in an almost even glaze, and the mineral spirits actually pushed the paint into the grooves of the canvas making a more textured effect.

Similar to the other dry-brush paintings this was painted on a 12x16 canvas board. Entirely done in a dry-brush method of drawings using only rose madder (windsor newton) oil paint.

Small Figures: Miriam

2011-05-24T12:00:00.003-04:00

I can use this small figure to talk a little about the technique that governs most of my drawing and painting process.

1. I start by outlining the contour of the figure and blocking in the shadow shapes.

2. Then I fill in the shadow with one to two values keeping them low in contrast to each other. This drawing is only taken this far.

3. The next step that would come after this drawing would be to start turning or rounding the forms away from the shadows.

More step would follow for a completed drawing, but they will be hard to describe by just looking at this particular figure drawing. So I will save them for another post.

Miriam Sketch

Dry-Brush Paintings of Friends

2011-05-23T12:00:00.003-04:00

These are two paintings where I did of friends from school. It was the same setup at the academy as the Thom portrait where we paired off and drew/painted each other. For these I wasn't paired with anyone and had a chance to paint two different people. They are unfortunately unfinished because I became very ill in the last week of the poses and couldn't make it to class.

The sizes are 12x16 and 12x18. They were painted on canvas mounted on panels that I made myself. The paintings are used with a dry-brush method of drawings using only rose madder (windsor newton) oil paint.

Students and Instructors' Blogs

2011-05-22T23:22:00.002-04:00

A few of us at the academy have blogs that are worth checking out. We chronicle our painting and drawing adventures giving information about each piece we create as well as drop occasional bytes of wisdom. If anyone out there has a special request for a blog post let me know via comments and we will do our best to oblige.

Here are links to the ARA blogs out there on the web.

Julie Beck: http://juliebeck.blogspot.com/

Emmy DeMusis: http://emanuelademusis.blogspot.com/

Brian MacNeil: http://brianmacneil.blogspot.com/

Joseph Pfeiffer-Herbert: http://jphfinearts.blogspot.com/

Small Figures: Frank

2011-05-21T19:58:00.003-04:00

This was one of the first portraits that I drew from life for an extended period of time. the model was Frank, and he was really great. He spent a large portion of his modeling time counting in his head. Sometimes without telling him we would vary the number of minutes in the pose and afterwards he would always know how long it had been. I think he is working on a computer science masters degree somewhere.

Frank Sketch - sold

Double Figure

2011-05-19T22:24:00.003-04:00

This last Fall quarter I worked on a drawing at the Academy of Realist Art that was unlike anything I had done before. It was a drawing of two models at the same time. It was surprisingly easier to block in all of the major proportions and features of these models because there are so many horizontals measurements that match up between the two models. Normally you just have one model standing in front of you and nothing but empty space off in either direction for measurements. If for some reason you artists out there get a chance to draw from two models, don't pass it up.

This drawing was done with carbon pencil on Watercolor paper. The type of paper was 300lb hot pressed if anyone is interested. The reason for this was to keep a fairly smooth texture with just a little bit of grit to it.

Small Figures: Mike

2011-05-19T22:17:00.003-04:00

This pose was actually done at the Sprinkler Factory Atelier run by my friends JoEllen and Chris Reinhardt. As a quick plug for them they run a drop-in figure drawing session at their studio on Tuesday nights at the Sprinkler Factory building, in Worcester, MA on Tuesday nights. For more information go to JoEllen's website http://www.joellenreinhardt.com/page9419.htm.

My attempt for this drawing was to work in some cross hatching techniques when I began modeling the form. Let's just say I've at least improved that ability since this drawing.

Mike Sketch

Small Figures: Robert

2011-05-19T22:11:00.004-04:00

This model was named Robert. I remember working with him because he was practically a statue standing absolutely still. Dana Levin, our instructor, said that everyone had a nice drawing that day because of his strength at posing. Another interesting note about his model is that he as a night shift worker who came to our school after work at 9am and then went home to sleep. We were glad for his dedication to the arts, as well as his killer mustache.

Robert Sketch

Small Figures: Catarina

2011-05-15T17:53:00.004-04:00

This was a great model that sat for us at the New School. She also sat for a few poses for Dana Levin. The results of those paintings were pretty spectacular. The model had another part time job working with autistic children in Providence. Most models have a part time job on the side, even the famous Ernesto. This drawing is one of the rare times where I added some form modeling in the lights, particularly on the leg.

Catarina Sketch - sold

Small Figures: Maya

2011-05-15T17:15:00.014-04:00

Maya Sketch - sold

This was a small sketch for a larger figure drawing that I did in charcoal. Unfortunately the large version of this images was damaged and is no longer viewable. The model was a great actress and is now currently working as a stunt-woman setting her self on fire.

I usually like to make a smaller sketch before making a large drawing. This is useful for getting a better understanding of the drawing beforehand. The mistakes you make in the small sketch will pop up again in the larger version so it is to the artists benefit to work out all of those drawing problems in the beginning.

Portrait of Thomas

2011-05-15T16:20:00.002-04:00

This is a portrait of a friend of mine named Thom. At the academy we spent three weeks in pairs sitting for each other's portrait. It was a good experience to learn what it was like to sit as a model, and it gave me a chance to work on an extended portrait.

This was drawn in red and white chalk on toned paper. It has won two different awards. It received Honorable mention in the North Rivers Art Society's "Focus on the Figures" show. Also it was a 'Juror's choice' award winner in the Cambridge Arts Association. Thom is very proud.

If you're in the area of Cambridge and you're interested in going to the show's opening (Friday May 20th) you can get details about it at their website. http://www.cambridgeart.org/

New Blog

2011-05-13T14:11:00.000-04:00

It's all the rage to do blogs these days. So I am going to try again and post a blog about my artistic adventures.

I plan to start this blog by posting some of my favorite drawings and paintings from the past. This will sort of get me in the blogging mood and hopefully will help familiarize people out there with my work.

As I begin new paintings and drawings I will post the 'work in progress shots' so that everyone can see how I work through a painting/drawing.

At some point I will also post a few procedural blogs about the various ways that I stretch paper, make canvas boards, or any of the other material related topics that people out on the web might be interested in reading about.

Finally if you are interested in purchasing any of my smaller sketches you can browse through them on my new Etsy site. http://www.etsy.com/people/JPHerbert