Pencil study

(C) 2019 Dale DiMauro

Sometimes a pencil sketch says it all. A little drawing done in five minutes, with such simplicity, can communicate more than a large detailed piece. At least that is what I think when I come back to this drawing.

Without any color added, I feel the sun over the snow-draped landscape. Even the rough pencil marks remind me of the shaggy bark curling in every which way it can.

Originally, I was inspired by the sight of this deciduous tree with it's Winter silhouette, as I drove by my town's common. This tree has a life of it's own, just as each individual human being has a story to tell. From this experience I was looking to capture more of it's presence so others could notice it. However, I wanted to give it context and scale so I included the the woods in the background. I believe a painting will come of this but I am not yet completely sold on the composition.

Happy 4th of July!

(C) 2018 Dale DiMauro

Recently, my wife and I attended a family reunion along the shore in Connecticut. I was struck by the great expanse of ocean, beach and sky. These horizontal qualities, in contrast with the perpendicular posts, holding up the wrap around porch, were striking.

This quick sketch was inspired from that experience, reminding me of one of Andrew Wyeth's  paintings, with an individual set against a rather sparse background. What I like about this composition is that it makes you look into the painting for something you may not find. The posture and introspective quality of the subject influences the viewers understanding of the scene. This psychological quality not spoken, resonates throughout the image. In fact, the subject matter is backlit, strengthening the profile of the face. 

In this sketch I am trying to find ways to eliminate any unnecessary elements and position the subject so that the composition is as strong as possible. For example, it may be best to lower the horizon or eliminate the railing or even move the post.

Postage-sized sketches

(C) 2017 Dale DiMauro

Since we had this extreme cold recently, at least in Vermont, I keep thinking about painting a summer scene to warm things up. Last summer while paddling my kayak I took a photograph of a small sailboat moored off the shore.  

These small sketches are quick little doodles. They are the result of searching for alternative compositions to develop into a painting. They lack clarity as I have yet, been unable, to arrive at a singular composition.

However, I have become intrigued or even obsessed with tweaking the shoreline so as it will not compete visually with the focal point, which is the sail boat. One of my ideas is to push the foliage back on the left side of the boat which will make the boat more visible, strengthened with it's shadow. Behind the boat on the left there is a beach which I may enhance, with a sand bar arcing out towards the water. Or maybe I will be inclined to go in another direction.

 I do like the vertical orientation of the boat on the page in a likewise format.

American Watercolor Society

(C) 2017 Dale DiMauro

The deadline for the mother of all watercolor shows is fast approaching. November 15 is the deadline to enter the 151st Annual International Exhibition of the American Watercolor Society. This exhibition runs from April 9 - April 28, 2018 at the Salamagundi Club in New York City.

This is certainly a prestigious show with lots of prize money. However, I am undecided about which painting to enter. 

This is one of many compositional studies explored through quick pencil sketches. Perhaps, I will produce a new painting on short notice. For some reason, I am leaning towards starting a painting on a half sheet, which is 15" x 30".

Pencil studies

(C) 2016 Photograph Dale DiMauro

My art mentor Gerard Doucette impresses upon me the importance of developing quick pencil studies as a means to improve upon your composition before you start painting. I have filled the back of my small sketchbook with many of these postage-sized pencil studies. 

Through eliminating unnecessary details and improving the arrangement of elements you can strengthen your composed picture. For example, if you have an individual in your picture, by lowering the horizon you can strengthen the presence of that individual.

Mr. Doucette helped me develop these pencil sketches last spring for a watercolor composition. It is of a winter scene at a local ski jump. However, since it is of a winter scene I wanted to put it off until at least late fall, after the summer season had passed. Now I am eager to start it.

Five-minute sketches

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

While on our vacation in Maine we took many photographs. Some definitely have inspired me. Even on the trip I was often thinking of ways I would compose a painting. Should I go with a horizontal format or a vertical one? How big should the picture be? Should the focal point be off center or even in the lower right corner? What should I include and what should I exclude?

The evolution of these sketches originated when we visited the Maine Audubon Society, which is in Portland, with lovely mowed passages running through meadows and woodland trails, providing shoreline views amongst mature oaks. 

We came upon a young girl taking a break, wearing a white t-shirt against this mass of dark spruce trees, with a distant estuary behind her. Her upright posture against all this dark growth was quite a contrast. With all these cool shadows projecting across the ground from nearby trees it was the perfect picture in of itself.

I had evolved to thinking that the best composition is a horizontal format where the focal point, in this case, is this girl placed in the right foreground. By placing her off-center, the picture attains a more relaxed feel, yet includes the distant landscape in contrast to the dark evergreens in the foreground on the right.

Thumbnail sketches

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Before I took a little summer break, in part from the heat, my art mentor Gerard Doucette, urged me to develop a strong compositional approach. Not that prior paintings were weak, but early in the process emphasizing the value of quick ten-minute sketches. These are value studies where an artist determines what is important as well as what to prioritize. As such, the focal point of a picture is presented with clarity as well as how best to position it on the paper.  In some cases the focal point is best in the center of the piece but in others off to the side is stronger. Any unnecessary elements are discarded as they simply clutter the overall painting. Details are not a consideration at this stage.

These sketches above are compositional studies Gerard did with me regarding a picture I have been thinking a lot about lately. Annually, we have a local ski jump in my town and the man depicted is a fellow marker who helps determine where a skier lands on the hill. 

First of all, I like that the viewer is looking up at the individual, which conveys a sort of reverence for the man doing his job. Second, since the painting will be orientated vertically it strengthens his position on the paper as he stands upright. Since he occupies the right side of the paper, we have shifted the mass of evergreens from the upper right corner to the upper left which balances out the composition.

These are simply some thoughts I put out there in an effort to strengthen my painting process, hopefully resulting in better paintings. Perhaps you can draw from this or at least look at my watercolors with a broader perspective.

Settling on a composition

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

When preparing to lay out a painting I try to make the composition as strong as possible. On occasion, if it is a natural scene, there is nothing I feel I can do to improve on the composition. For example, the natural light can be spectacular, casting brilliant reflections on the water, and these abstract patterns I can't make up. There are times when I sketch what is literally in front of me, and I develop the picture from this initial start. 

I often take a photograph as a reference because of time constraints or because the outdoor light is continually changing. When I take photographs, I am thinking of the composition in advance by framing my picture to take advantage of a particular angle or subject.

As depicted in the above sketch, I consider the placement of elements of great importance. Should the focal point be in the center or off-center? What is the value range of the composition? In another words, what is the darkest or lightest subject in the picture. These questions lead to further questions based on my subject matter, which may lead me to paint at a certain scale. A larger painting takes more time, provides more impact to the viewer while requiring greater detail. Sometimes I evolve slowly by starting out with a small study, and then I realize some modifications would make a big difference. This is when I become inspired to start a larger painting.

Paddling in the Great Outdoors

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

Most of September we have had beautiful, clear, sunny days here in Vermont. I paddled with a group from the Brattleboro Outing Club on September 16, at Tully Lake and Long Pond in Royalston, MA. This trip was about an hour from Brattleboro, Vt. We even portaged along the way and hiked to several impressive waterfalls.

I recently started two watercolors inspired from kayaking in this great setting. There was a paddler with us, depicted above in a small sketch, with a new canoe which only weighs eighteen pounds and is the size of a kayak. It even has foot pegs.

After this outing, I started a full sheet watercolor (22" x 30") on Arches 300 lb. watercolor paper and a smaller painting on a 140 lb. 14'" x 20" Saunders block. For me the two surfaces are very different. The Saunders watercolor block is like painting on silk. It is very smooth paper, which the paint brush glides over. In contrast, the Arches sheet has much texture, which allows for a wide range of effects that I am yet to master, but I do like the greater scale.

The above sketchbooks, manufactured by Strathmore, with a fine tooth surface, I have taken a liking to, at least for pencil.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

(C) 2015 Sketch of Ingres drawing Dale DiMauro

Last week, my wife and I visited the Frick Museum in New York City. It is a handsome museum fitted into an elegant mansion across the street from Central Park. Of the many lovely paintings on exhibit, which include Rembrandt, Vermeer and Whistler, I admire Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres work. I am fond of Ingres work, not only for his paintings but superb drawing abilities. When you look at many of Ingres portrait drawings it appears as if he did not lift his pencil from the paper until he was done. 

Ingres has been considered one of the great masters of all time. He has been credited with depicting the transformation of fashionable women for over half a century in France and witnessing the development of a consumer society. There is even drawing paper available today attributed to Ingres. This is a wove paper with a very smooth surface, which Ingres preferred.

At the Frick, I was reminded that I had picked up a book in the spring on Ingres, called Ingres: 162 Master Drawings by Blagoy Kiroff. Since I was pressed for time, I did a sketch from Kiroff's book on one of Ingres portrait drawings, titled Armand Bertin, dated 1842. It was an opportunity to study Ingres' technique while utilizing these smearless charcoal pencils, which I purchased at the end of last winter. 

Portrait Painting

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

The book, Math and the Mona Lisa: The Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci, by Bulent Atalay, which I just read, was fascinating. The author explores how the sciences and arts have influenced each other with nature both the inspiration and resource bank. He discusses and sites examples of the golden rectangle, the golden triangle, and the Fibonacci sequence among other phenomena in nature and expressed in paintings and building design.

However, what intrigues me most is the data on portrait painting in western culture. Portrait painters typically place one of the subject's eyes in the very center of the picture, towards the top third of the canvas, suggesting the composition of the portrait has an unwritten order. Painters typically present the left side of the face towards the viewer, moreso than the right as seen in the drawing I did above. This is true of iconic paintings including the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer. This will definitely change the way I look at portrait painting.