Portrait of Robert Bakker

I did this portrait of paleontologist Robert Bakker to illustrate an article in a science magazine using oil wash over pencil.

Bakker has been a proponent of the hypothesis that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, smart, fast, and adaptable. He published a 1968 paper on dinosaur endothermy and wrote the book, The Dinosaur Heresies in 1986, which helped establish a scientific rationale for both Jurassic Park and Dinotopia.

Francesco Hayez

Francesco Hayez (1791 - 1882) was an Italian artist best known for his historical scenes and portraits.

He would plan his portraits with pencil drawings.

He produced many self portraits.

Francesco Hayez on Wikipedia

Repin's Portrait of Murashko

Ilya Repin (1844–1930) Portrait of Mykola Murashko ,1882, Oil on canvas, 48.5 x h58.5 cm

Mykola Ivanovych Murashko was a Ukrainian painter, devoted art teacher, art critic and art historian who belonged to the Russian movement of Peredvizhniki or Itinerants. He was also the founder and the first director of his own private drawing school in Kyiv which was supported by many well-known artists, notably Ilya Repin, a friend from the Academy.

Mykola Murashko (1844-1909) on Wikipedia

Observing How Sargent Painted

When Margaret Chanler was in London in 1893 with her sister Elizabeth, Margaret persuaded John Singer Sargent to paint her sister's portrait. 

Portrait of Elizabeth by John Singer Sargent, 1893

"It was his custom," said Margaret, "to admit callers, so that the sitting should not become too rigid. I was asked to keep the talk moving with those who came. I suggested that Mr. Kipling ought to fill the vacant poet laureate’s post. 'What an unpleasant American idea!' Mr. Sargent walked backwards to the wall of his studio, his brush held very high, then returned to the canvas. Lively conversation much amused but never distracted him. When the portrait was finished (he had painted the head in only twice), I overheard him: 'Miss Chanler, I have painted you la penserosa, I should like to begin all over again, and paint you l’allegra.'" According to Sargent, she had "the face of the Madonna and the eyes of a child."

This firsthand account confirms two observations about Sargent's working method:

1. He kept his models engaged and talking, not holding dead-still as is the custom now.

2. He used a form of the sight-size method, frequently backing up from the painting with the brush held aloft, presumably for evaluating slopes or measuring segments.

From Margaret Chanler Aldrich's memoir Family Vista, Available on Archive.org

Previously: Talking Models, Speaking Likeness, Setting Up a Sight-Size Portrait

Lavery's Portrait Fiasco

Irish painter Sir John Lavery lamented in his memoirs that it is impossible to both capture a true likeness of a portrait subject and also please that subject.

The problem is compounded by the fact that most portraits are not commissioned by the subject, but rather by a relative or spouse, and their feelings must be taken into account, too. 

He recalls one time when "A Lady Somebody wanted a semi-state portrait to hang beside the Gainsborough and Romney in the ancestral hall of her husband, who was to know nothing until the work was complete." 

(Portraits are by John Lavery but not the one referred to in this story)

"The day at last arrived and with it the husband. Planting himself in front of the picture with both hands resting on a gold-headed cane, he maintained an ominous silence while his eyes roamed over the canvas."

"At last, raising a hand, covering the figure, and concentrating on the head, he spoke. 'I pass the forehead and the eyes. I move my hand downwards: the nose the mouth the chin, them also I pass. I move my hand yet lower: what is this flat-chested modernity that I see? Where is the snowy amplitude of Her Ladyship? No, Sir John Lavery, that does not represent my wife.'"

"Her Ladyship stood by his chair almost in tears, saying, 'I will not have an eighth of an inch added.' I had tried to please both and, of course, had failed."

"Later, I wrote to His Lordship that I felt he was justified in his criticism, and that if he was still in the same mind I would, with his permission, cancel the commission, and that he should take back the very expensive and highly carved frame he had ordered. He accepted."

He painted another portrait over the canvas.

Quoted from The Life of a Painter by Sir John Lavery.

Painting People in Rural France

Ohio-born artist Elizabeth Nourse painted directly from models in rural France. She was often "in villages with no inns or accommodations and lived either with members of a religious community or with the peasants, to an innate sympathy with women and children of the peasantry and enabled her to gain their confidence and observe them closely while living among them."

"Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942) had quite a different experience in Brittany. Writing about her unsuccessful efforts to get a Breton woman to pose for her, she observed, 'We found that the people, especially the country folk, did not really like les artistes.'"

Quotes from Elisabeth Nourse, 1859-1938, A Salon Career

Source: Wikipedia on Elizabeth Nourse and Cecilia Beaux

Mick Moloney, 1944-2022

Sad to hear of the passing yesterday of Limerick-born Mick Moloney, Irish music historian, raconteur, singer and banjo player, sketched at a concert a few years ago. 

He loved to tell the stories and sing the songs of Irish immigrants in America through his recordings, teachings, and publications.

How Oberhardt Achieved a Speaking Likeness

William Oberhardt (American, 1882-1958) was known for his charcoal portraits, always drawn from life, always of men. 

How did he achieve such convincing likenesses, where the subject seems animated and on the verge of speech?

The answer is that he engaged his subjects in a spirited conversation. He wanted to make sure that the sitter had a delightful experience, and he tried to bring out their best in the conversation. 

Most of his drawings were achieved within an hour. After laying out the overall gesture he would focus on completing the eyes early in the process, because he knew he needed to get them right or the whole effort would be futile and he would have to start over.

Sidney Dickinson by William Oberhardt

To convey an individual likeness, he focused on the unique attributes of the person's face. He preferred to portray celebrities because "they are free from the inhibitions that the average man is heir to. The celebrity usually realizes that lines, plans, and wrinkles cannot be removed without loss of individuality, the individuality that has made him prominent...The trouble is that some people don't like their own faces. When that happens, I admit, the cards are stacked against you. No matter how much of the milk of human kindness you mix with your pictorial effort, you're fighting a losing game because a portraitist cannot redesign a face and still preserve a likeness."

The new issue of Illustration Magazine has a 23 page article with dozens of examples of Oberhardt's portraits, both in charcoal and oil, together with many notes about his process, including extended excerpts from several articles by Oberhardt himself. 

There's also a very detailed article on pulp illustrator Earle Bergey.

Grisaille Portrait Video Now on YouTube

This new YouTube video takes you along on an unusual painting technique and some thoughts about what would happen if we could live our days in reverse order. Watch the 18-min video on YouTube at this link.

Outline vs. Tonal Shapes In Face Recognition

 Which is more important for face recognition: outline or tonal shapes?

Jim Carrey (left) and Kevin Costner.

According to vision scientists Pawan Sinha et al, "Images which contain exclusively contour information are very difficult to recognize, suggesting that high-spatial frequency information, by itself, is not an adequate cue for human face recognition processes." 

By contrast, the tonal shapes, even if they're out of focus, are relatively easy to recognize. The experts say: 

"Unlike current machine-based systems, human observers are able to handle significant degradations in face images." Shown here are Michael Jordan, Woody Allen, Elvis Presley, and Jay Leno.

That's why it's good to blur your eyes when you're capturing a likeness.

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Source: Face Recognition by Humans: Nineteen Results All Computer Vision Researchers Should Know About, Pawan Sinha, Benjamin Balas, Yuri Ostrovsky, and Richard Russell,

Abstracted Realism

Some call it "deconstructed realism," while others call it "disrupted realism" or "abstracted realism." 

Alex Kanevsky

The artwork suggests that the power of chaos rivals the power of order, or that the will to destroy equals the will to create.

John Wentz 

The painting contains both randomness and illusionism, signal and noise. 

Patrick Lee

Who are the inspiring progenitors of this movement? Beyond the abstract painters such as Franz Kline and Richard Diebenkorn, several realist painters can be identified as stylistic influencers: Andrew Wyeth, Richard Schmid, Antonio López García, and Gerhard Richter. 

Gerhard Richter

Richter, a painter with remarkable range and versatility, became known for taking a realistically painted face and smearing the oil paint with a squeegee.

Johanna Bath still II, Oil on Canvas, 19.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Gerhard Richter's influence can be felt in artists who use the rubbed out look, such as Johanna Bath.

Mia Bergeron

Seeing a painting created this way leaves no doubt that it's a painting, and it may remind the viewer of the struggle of creation or the fickleness of illusion.

Adam by Greg Manchess

When painters efface the surface of a portrait, they typically leave the eyes in a carefully finished state, both because of the psychological importance of the eyes, and to show that they're capable of painting realistically. 

But not always. Sometimes artists deliberately disrupt the mouth, eyes, or head. 

Artist Zack Zdrale says in the book Disrupted Realism, "I've taken passages of traditionally rendered figures and smashed them, breaking the illusion of form in space. I want to show the paint doing things that only paint can do."

Michelle Kohler

Michelle Kohler says: "Most of my years spent studying were focused on portraiture, as expressed through realism. As an artistic discipline, it has been a constant throughout my life. But it was only after a fortuitous departure into abstract painting that I was able to playfully and courageously combine two disciplines. Deconstructed Realism is my expression of artistic independence and creativity as it pertains to the depth and complexity of human portraiture."

(Link to YouTube) Mia Bergeron says that her approach to painting grew out of a frustration with the academic approaches to realism.

Jeremy Mann

The deconstructive approach includes not just figural work, but also landscapes and cityscapes. 

Other artists that you've suggested to check out in the comments: Julie T. Chapman, Patrick Kramer, Jenny Saville,

More info:

Book: Disrupted Realism: Paintings for a Distracted World

Joe Baer as Mark Twain

Last night, actor and writer Joe Baer performed "Tales of Mark Twain" in Rhinecliff, NY. I painted an impromptu portrait of him from the audience using sepia gouache. 

I set up my palette in advance with sepia colors because I anticipated it would be too dark to make out any hues. It was pretty dark.

Baer, a local writer, actor, and lighting designer created the show from Twain's own writings. The show is enhanced by projected slides evoking the writer's historical milieu, which gives context to Twain's trenchant observations about the human condition. 

Baer wore the classic white suit and wild hair. He gave a thoughtful, witty, and lively performance. He didn't stay long in the chair, or in any single pose, so I had to rely on memory as much as observation. 

Surrounded by Memory

This man was sitting by himself at the diner. I liked the cool colors of the walls and his jeans, in contrast to the warm-colored notes of his scrambled eggs and his face.

The painting is gouache and watercolor in a watercolor sketchbook and it took about an hour.

The words written around him with a fountain pen are a short poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory—
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the belovèd's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.

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John Wesley Jarvis, Portrait Factory

John Wesley Jarvis (1781-1839) was an American portrait painter who streamlined his process so that he could produce six portraits a week.

Self Portrait by John Wesley Jarvis

With studios based in New York and Baltimore, "he received six sitters a day at his painting room and limited each sitting to one hour. In that time he was able to do the face. Then the portrait was handed over to an assistant who painted in the background and the drapery," 

Quote is from a book called Hawkers and Walkers in Early America: Strolling Peddlers, Preachers, Lawyers, Doctors, Players, and Others, From the Beginning to the Civil War, 1927.

John Wesley Jarvis on Wikipedia

Shopping for Veggies

Well, this time I didn't actually set up my easel in the supermarket, like I did last time. The aisles are too narrow and it's just too busy. 

 

So I worked from photos while I painted my wife Jeanette. This one is in casein, and I captured the process in this YouTube video.

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More resources
Gurney tutorials on Gumroad

Casein Painting in the Wild

Gouache Materials List

Inspiring Story of Young Nigerian Artist

(Link to YouTube) A young Nigerian boy named Waris Kareem has been creating a sensation with his large realist portrait drawings. It's refreshing to see how he has applied himself to his work and how he has been nourished by support from his family, community, and government.

Unfinished Portrait of Roosevelt

Elizabeth Shoumatoff started working on her watercolor portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at about noon on April 12, 1945. 

During lunch, the President complained that he had "a terrific pain in the back of my head" and he slumped forward unconscious. FDR died later that day of a stroke. The painting was never finished.

Hank Green includes this story in a thoughtful video about what unfinished paintings can show us about their creators and subjects.

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More about Shoumatoff's unfinished portrait on Wikipedia

Portraits of Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone's portrait was painted, sculpted, and photographed many times, given that he was one of the most influential figures in British politics of the 19th century.

According Royal Academy chronicle: "[John Everett] Millais’s portrait showed the seventy-year-old statesman standing, in a three-quarter view. It was a sombre portrait, in colour and tone: black clothing, dark skin tones, and a dark umber background. Gladstone’s famous turned-up collar, a feature endlessly exploited in his caricatures, provided the only lightly coloured note in the picture. Millais captured the intensity of expression and fierce eyes of Gladstone, but he succeeded also to convey modesty and gravity, even kindness, through his clasped hands and averted gaze."

"Nine years later, [Frank] Holl attempted to equal and surpass Millais, taking inspiration from the latter in the standing, three-quarter pose of Gladstone and his sombre dress...Holl, again, like Millais, focused on Gladstone’s head, leaving the right side in dramatic shadows and rendering his eyes in a deep black, almost glossy charcoal colour, which evoked the statesman’s oft-cited demoniac expression. Holl’s Gladstone was a visibly older man, but a more energetic character than Millais’s: his incipient movement captured by his hands clasping a vivid red book. If in Millais’s portrait Gladstone seemed to be intent in listening, Holl’s picture appeared to have captured him in the instant just before speaking."

Commentators at the time said Gladstone was difficult to capture in a painting because his expressions were varied and dynamic, and his legacy meant many things to many people. 

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Websites: Gladstone's Portrait and the Changing Iconography of Liberalism

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle 

BBC Podcast: Nick Robinson looks at how William Gladstone handled the top job in politics.

Wikipedia: William Ewart Gladstone

How to Draw Portraits

In his slim book from 1944 called How to Draw Portraits, Charles Wood offers practical tips on how to draw accurately.

But he doesn't neglect the importance of seeing beyond the surface. He says: "A student sometimes goes for years drawing photographically, copying, faithfully perhaps, but only superficially, and producing drawings which might have been done by any one of a dozen such people. No character, no life."

He describes how he became fascinated by portraits and lighting when he visited a train station as a boy, and saw the firemen working in a locomotive, lit by the warm glow of the coal fire. He tried to simulate the effect back home, using his father as a model.

Portrait sketch by Charles Wood using 3B or 4B pencils

By trial and error he figured out how to light the head, and how to render light and shadow. Gradually he built up the nerve to sketch in public. 

"Fortunately most people like being sketched," he says. "Even in trains and cafés, few people object, but if you cannot bring yourself to sketch in trains, etc., you can make mental notes, and train your mind to observe such things as colour effects or dramatic lighting effects."

He recommends drawing members of your family and friends, and he explains how to get them to pose in natural groupings.

Wood offers closeup details of eyes, noses, mouths, and hands. He says hands denote a person's character almost as much as the face: "Study your sitter's hands, give them something to do so that they do not look as though they have been left lying there in the lap."

This book is one of a series that The Studio produced in the 1940s, including:

How to Draw Portraits by Charles Wood
How to Draw 'Planes by Frank Wootton
Tanks and How to Draw Them by Cuneo