Still Life Painting Atelier Review

This post is my review of Still Life Painting Atelier: An Introduction to Oil Painting by Michael Friel.

Still Life Painting Atelier Michael Friel

In my last post, I reviewed Jane Jone’s book Classic Still Life Painting. Today I’m reviewing Michael Friel’s book Still Life Painting Atelier. His book covers topics such as studio safety, lighting your still life, stretching paper, and several painting demonstrations that show how he uses limited color palettes, scumbling, glazing, and more.

Michael’s book has over 20 pages of information about painting materials (brushes, paints, oils, varnishes, supports, etc.). He discusses how someone can arrange objects and set up a still life. Michael talks about how he paints reflections and translucent surfaces (something very intimidating to beginners). He demonstrates an alla prima (wet into wet) still life painting, in addition to a still life painting executed by painting a grisaille (a monochromatic underpainting) followed by transparent glazes of color.

A lot of the information in this book is rudimentary, but for a beginner, the information is necessary. For someone that’s new to oil painting, the breadth of information covered in this book is enough to inspire and set the wheels in motion for their artistic development. Compared to Classic Still Life Painting by Jane Jones (see that review here), I think Still Life Painting Atelier is a better book for the beginning oil painters.

If you’re an artist that likes to paint with watercolor and now you’re looking to try oil painting, I think you might may want to first read Jane Jone’s book Classic Still Life Painting, and then read Still Life Painting Atelier once you decide you want to try some different approaches to painting. Although I think Still Life Painting Atelier is a better book for the beginning oil painters, Classic Still Life Painting focuses on the technique of glazing oil paint (the oil paint equivalent of watercolor washes), which should be more familiar to the watercolorist. By all means, read Still Life Painting Atelier and Classic Still Life Painting.

Little Marker Monsters

Little marker monsters. That’s what happens when I am left alone with markers, pens, and some paper. I had some scraps of printmaking paper left over from my printmaking class and I was curious how markers would handle on the printmaking paper and what they would look like. I believe the paper is Rives BFK. I used Prismacolor Premier markers and Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens (mostly the brush pen).

Most of these little marker monsters were amorphous marker blobs on the paper and after the marker splotches dried I used the Pitt pens to create creatures. I didn’t know what I was going to draw but I let the shapes feed my imagination and I let my pen discover the creatures hidden in the blobs of color. At that point, if I wasn’t completely satisfied I would add some additional shapes or coloring (like a shadow) with the Prismacolor markers.

The Rives BFK paper really soaked up the ink from the markers and bled a bit (marker bleed is when the ink from the marker is soaked up into the paper like a sponge and it spreads out). I couldn’t do much coloring on top of the Pitt pen ink because the alcohol in the markers caused the ink from the pens to smudge and bleed a little bit too.

Each one of these tiny little marker monsters is about 1-1.5″ x 1-1.5″. They are TINY. That’s part of the fun for me. The words and odd colors in each image are part of my experiments and notes when I was testing out the markers on this paper. The notes and other marker tests aren’t really relevant to the little marker monsters so I cropped that stuff out (and some of the little monsters were upside down and this way you can more easily view them). I definitely plan on doing more of these little marker monsters. And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for!

First up is Angry Big Head (yay for creativity in choosing names!):

Angry Big Head

Next, we have the Cocoon Monster:Cocoon Monster

The Cowering Baboon Creature:Cowering Baboon Creature

One-Eyed Dog Creature:One Eyed Dog Creature

Parasite Gradient Gryphon (my favorite):Parasite Gradient Gryphon

Television Head:Television Head

Two-Armed Sideways Mouth Monster (an example of my terrible naming ability):
Two Armed Sideways Mouth Monster

Long Gray Face:

Long Gray FaceWhat do you think?

Classic Still Life Painting Review

This post is my review of Classic Still Life Painting: A Contemporary Master Shows How to Achieve Old Master Effects Using Today’s Art Materials by Jane Jones.

I recently read two different still life painting books because I have been in the mood to paint some still life paintings. I did some research online and ended up reading Classic Still Life Painting, and Still Life Painting Atelier. Watson-Guptill publishes both books (it seems like almost every book I read is published by Watson-Guptill).

Classic Still Life Painting Jane JonesClassic Still Life Painting is focused on painting still lifes with transparent glazes of oil paint. Painting with transparent glazes (a la watercolor) creates luminosity not possible through strictly opaque application of paint because of the way light bounces through the paint (perhaps I’ll do a blog post about that). She covers five pages of materials for painting and then jumps right into some color theory and color palettes, also differentiating paints that are transparent and those that are opaque. Jane has some helpful tips on creating your own color charts (color charts/color notes are helpful formulas of color mixtures that the artist references to accurately re-mix paint if needed). Throughout the book, Jane shows her color notes/charts and it might seem overwhelming for the beginning oil painter. Don’t worry so much about the color mixtures that she mixes from her smorgasbord of oil paints, and instead focus on the technique she is using to paint.

She talks about preparing a support (the surface that receives the paint), blending, using an alkyd such as Liquin, and lighting a still life. Jane primarily photographs her still life setups and paints from many different photos of the scene. She discusses some tips for photographing a still life.

Jane talks about accurately drawing and perspective in the next chapter, as well as the steps she takes to draw her demo still life. She then paints an underpainting and begins glazing many layers of paint. She shows another painting using the same methods but with slightly different elements. This continues for the rest of the book until the end where she talks about varnishing.

Something that bothered me about the book Classic Still Life Painting, is that Jane naggingly reminds the reader that they should use alkyd medium in each subsequent layer on the painting. Sure, she could mention that once, but the reader might miss it and it’s kind of important. I suppose a couple reminders are okay, but she makes a point to slip that “helpful hint” into the text so many times that it started to drive me nuts. I get it! I should use Liquin in every layer! OKAY! Additionally, after the first couple demos, the book seems a bit repetitive and I lost my interest (but that doesn’t mean you will lose interest!).

Overall, I think Classic Still Life Painting is a nice book and it can certainly be of value to beginning oil painters, watercolorists transitioning to oil painting, and artists who want to try a classical technique to paint still lifes.

Stay tuned for my next still life book review blog post where I review Still Life Painting Atelier by Michael Friel.

Dad

Dad – Oil on Hardboard. 18″ x 14″

Dad

Here’s an oil painting of my assassin dad (note to FBI, he’s not actually an assassin). This painting took much longer than it should have. I finished it earlier this year (it was an assignment from one of my first oil painting classes a year or so ago). I basically used this painting over the course of a year or so to teach myself how to paint. By the time I was almost done with this painting I was taking an alla prima painting class and it was extremely hard to continue painting in this hyper-polished painting style (this was the kind of painting style I had to resist to complete this painting). A little bit of the alla prima painterly brushstrokes are visible in his facial hair. This painting went through a lot of major transformations during its creation. I don’t think I took many photos of this painting in progress but I’ll see what I can dig up. It was really hard to get my father to make a serious face for the reference photos. The painting looks a lot better in person because it doesn’t have those annoying glares that the scanner picks up.

 

On a related note this is one of the first paintings I did on my own hand primed surface. I used hardboard (it’s not called Masonite you buffoons!) that I purchased from Lowe’s. I believe it’s 3/16″ hardboard. My father and I cut the hardboard on his table saw. I sanded and gessoed (not using traditional gesso, but rather an acrylic emulsion) the hardboard myself. I applied the “gesso” with a foam brush. That was a terrible mistake (or maybe the gesso I was using was bad). Somehow little bits of hard gesso would catch on the foam brush and drag into the gesso application, leaving random vertical and horizontal indents. If I redid this painting I’d make sure to get an even surface on the board before painting (and I’d re-cut the board using a band saw).

Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Glue Max

Elmer’s Carpenter’s Wood Glue Max Strength Test

Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Glue Max

Because I need strong wood glue to keep a painting attached to the wood braces.

Lately I have been doing a lot of prep work for future paintings. I also am looking into wood bracing (often referred to as cradling) for two finished paintings (which, now that I think about it, aren’t even on my website yet). After searching through dozens of threads on WetCanvas and AMIEN, I still wasn’t exactly sure what type of glue to use to attach the bracing to the back of the paintings but I knew that I wanted the bracing to be strong. After reading about some strength tests with several types of glues, I made a not-so-quick trip to Lowe’s and I purchased Elmer’s Carpenter’s Wood Glue Max (they also offer a non “max” wood glue). For the test I used 3/16″ hardboard (often mistakenly referred to as Masonite) and 1″ x 2″ select pine wood for the bracing. I used the Wood Glue Max to glue the select pine to the hardboard. The glue was allowed to dry for 24 hours (although this test was actually done several days after gluing).

Here’s a video of my testing the strength of the glue:

As you can see, the glue held a strong bond and the wood broke instead of the glue. I will definitely be using this wood glue in the future, and no, I’m not being paid by Elmer’s to praise their product.

 

 

Casein Painting by Henry Gasser

Casein Painting: Methods and Demonstrations Review

Casein Painting Cover

Casein Painting: Methods and Demonstrations Review

What is casein paint? According to Wikipedia (teachers just love it when you cite Wikipedia), casein paint is a fast-drying and water-soluble paint made from milk casein (casein is a type of protein [eating casein paint will not make you stronger]). Casein paint has been used for a long time. When casein paint thoroughly dries it becomes water resistant (like acrylic paint). Casein paint is a fairly versatile medium. It can be used like watercolor or gouache, and dries to a nice velvet-like matte finish. When dry (and isolated using a varnish), casein paint can be used as an underpainting for oils. According to Casein Painting: Methods and Demonstrations, casein paint “provides an excellent stepping stone for the watercolorist who wants to do oil painting, and for the oil painter who may have hesitated in the past to attempt watercolor.” I was first introduced to casein paint in a Stephen Quiller book (maybe I’ll review it some day). If that’s not enough of an introduction to casein paint for you, feel free to check out this thread on the WetCanvas forum.

Now that we all know what casein paint is, we can move along to the review. The book is Casein Painting: Methods and Demonstrations by Henry Gasser. This book had its first print in 1950 (before computers, cars, fire, and language [basically the ice age]). You can buy it on Amazon.

Henry Gasser covers the materials used when painting with casein paint (brushes, palettes, surfaces), casein paint as watercolor, using casein paint opaquely like gouache, painting with casein paint on gesso panels, making an underpainting with casein, mounting paper, etc. If you want to know more about those things you should read the book.

Henry uses the following palette:

cadmium yellow lightCadmium Yellow Light

Cadmium Orange

Cadmium Red Light

Alizarin Crimson

French Ultramarine Blue

Phthalocyanine Blue

Phthalocyanine Green

Yellow Ochre

Raw Sienna

Burnt Sienna

Indian Red

Burnt Umber

Ivory Black

Titanium White

Chromium Oxide Green

Davy’s Gray

The paper in Casein Painting: Methods and Demonstrations has a nice gloss but tears easily when turning from page to page (the book is old so perhaps in its prime the pages didn’t tear so easily). There are a total of 7 color reproductions in this book. I wish all of the images were printed in color but I understand that the publisher saved money by printing it mostly in black and white. Casein Painting is a fairly short book, being only 67 pages long (or short), but had the author decided to bulk up the book by including frivolous information, then the book would be too long. The 67 page length seems just about right for Casein Painting.

I think that this book is a good introduction to casein paint and provides practical examples of how to use casein paint. If you collect art instruction books, this may be a nice addition to your collection (just remember to be careful when turning the pages). As of this review, Casein Painting can be purchased on Amazon for $15.20.

Here’s a taste of what Henry Gasser’s paintings looked like:
New England Winter Casein Painting by Henry Gasser

colored pencil painting bible front

Colored Pencil Painting Bible Review

My Colored Pencil Painting Bible review.

colored pencil painting bible review

The book that I’m reviewing today is Colored Pencil Painting Bible: Techniques for Achieving Luminous Color and Ultra-realistic Effects by Alyona Nickelsen. The first thing that I noticed about the book was the cover (duh). That’s a pretty great colored pencil drawing (or painting as the author calls them). The basic technique used throughout the book is essentially layering color with wax based colored pencils (Prismacolor pencils), using solvent (such as Gamblin’s OMS Gamsol) to remove visible pencil strokes and blend the colors together, and finally layering more colored pencil (burnishing where needed) to complete the “painting”.

In the Colored Pencil Painting Bible, Alyona talks about different types of paper, pencils, solvents, and other things such as erasing tools. She tells the reader about color charts and how the reader can create them. This book briefly covers art fundamentals such as composition, color, value, light, and shadows. The author also talks about different pencil strokes, blending, layering colors, burnishing, and image transferring.

At the end of the Colored Pencil Painting Bible the author includes charts that list the lightfastness (how permanent or unaffected by light the color is) of colored pencils. The information can be useful to artists who use colored pencils such as Caran d’Ache Luminance, or Faber-Castell Polychromos. The majority of artists that I know (including myself) who use colored pencils prefer Prismacolor Premier pencils. The charts have no lightfastness ratings for those pencils, which was a huge letdown for me. Thankfully for you, I took the initiative to find the lightfast ratings for the Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. You can see that chart here.

One nice tip I took away from this book is how to obtain a rich black color. Alyona applies black colored pencil to the paper (she prefers Stonehenge), and melts the wax with an OMS wash. Next, she layers indigo blue, dark green, and tuscan red. She then adds another layer of black and blends the mix with a colorless blender.

While I think that Alyona’s technique is nice, I think that the book could be shorter and have a smaller price tag (although as I write this review the book is only $17.15 on Amazon). I think that it has too many exercises in it that just bulk it up. This book provides a good foundation for anyone interested in furthering their knowledge of colored pencils, or anyone who is interested in taking colored pencil art seriously. I recommend at least checking it out from the library if you are serious about colored pencil art.

There you have it! That’s my Colored Pencil Painting Bible review. 

Peter Portrait Painting Process

Here’s a look at the portrait painting process for my painting of Peter (my brother). This is painted in oils and it was my first assignment for my Alla Prima class last semester. Sorry for the less-than-stellar photos (a couple of them were taken with a cell phone).

This was a very new technique to me at the time and I was very reluctant to make heavy painterly marks. I began the painting by laying down thinned down washes of color. The shadows in the painting were left fairly thin and the highlights are the thickest opaque spots of paint. I believe that John Singer Sargent painted the same way. This was also my first time painting on canvas boardPortrait Painting Process

Macbeth

Macbeth Painting Process

Let’s take a look at the process for my Macbeth painting.

Macbeth

Last year I had to paint a poster for a play or a musical (some type of theatre). My limitations were that I had to use only 4 colors, with the addition of black and white. I chose to paint a poster for the play Macbeth. I thought that I’d give painting with gouache another chance since I had pretty much abandoned it since my color theory class a few years ago.

The four colors I used were Flame Red (Holbein), Permanent Yellow Deep (Holbein), Iris (Holbein), and Primary Blue (Winsor & Newton). In addition to those four colors I was allowed to use white and black. I used Permanent White (Winsor & Newton) and Jet Black (Winsor & Newton).

You can see the thumbnail sketches I did below:

Thumbnails

Thumbnails

I then picked out my nine favorite thumbnail sketches and drew slightly larger refined thumbnails of those nine sketches. The nine refined thumbnails can be seen below:
Refined Thumbnails

I decided that I liked the bottom right corner thumbnail the most. I gathered some reference photos of Macbeth characters from on the internet.
References

I found a Sketchup model of a person and set up lighting to find the direction of the cast shadow. I’d like to use Sketchup more in the future.
Sketchup Reference

It was time to do the pencil drawing, which once completed, I projected onto illustration board and refined the drawing even further.
Macbeth Pencils

After the pencilled image was drawn I needed to decide what colors to use for the painting. I printed two reduced 3″ x 4″ images of my pencilled drawing and taped them to some cardboard with painters tape. Below are the two color studies I did:

Color Study Color Study

After the color studies were finished I proceeded with the painting.

Pencils on Board

Red Background

Purple Shadow

The trickiest part of the painting (besides maintaining a consistent viscosity of paint) was painting Macbeth’s flesh without mixing the colors together. Although I could use four colors plus black and white, I could not mixed the colors together (except with black and white). For example, I could not mix red and yellow together to make a nice orangey flesh color. I had to use red plus white and/or black, yellow plus white and/or black, without overlapping.

Painting the Clothing

Process

Clothing Detail Process

Almost Done

After the painting was completed I scanned it into the computer for the usual color correcting and removal of dust from the scanned images. My teacher recommended that I make the shadow a little lighter and I thought the painting looked better that way as well. I lightened the shadow a little bit and then I added the text.

 

If you don’t know the story of Macbeth, I highly recommend reading it. It’s a great story and although I read it years ago, it still resonates in my mind.