Improving on my figures

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Since last winter I have kept in the back of mind my desire to improve the figures that I paint in my watercolors. It has taken a while but I think I may have found a watercolor sketchbook that I can take with me to places such as a cafe or the library where I can capture on the spot, people and their postures. 

Most little watercolor journals from my experience are too cheap as the paper will buckle once you get it wet. This mixed media sketchbook by Stillman & Birn has much thicker paper which can absorb more moisture and lays flat with it's ringed binder which I find essential. In addition, my approach is to paint wet on dry as this seems to be the quickest drying method that I know of.

As I have mentioned in prior posts, once you put a person in the picture they become the focal point so it really is important to get the figure right. This requires getting the scale correct along with positioning the figure so that it reveals the activity they are doing within the atmospheric qualities of the time in question.

Still life oil painting

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

This is the second oil painting I did at Qiang Huang's workshop at the Village Arts in Putney, Vermont. It has been a challenge painting in oil this time in part because I am following someone else's process. However, I figured I may improve greatly over these four days if I persevere. 

There are many inaccuracies such as in the perspective, development of values and the shape of the tin creamer, but I am beginning to embrace the greater use of color. 

Once home in the evening, I have continued to work on a watercolor I began last weekend of the mist lifting off the local river valley. Beneath the rising mist are the lingering fall colors of umbers and ochres.

Qiang Huang's Oil Workshop

2016 Photograph of Mary Cassatt painting

This week I will be attending Qiang Huang's oil painting workshop with the Village Arts in Putney, Vermont. Qiang paints impressive still life's which are characterized as having a freshness to them. Of the paintings I have seen of his work, which have all been online, none seem overworked. As in most media it seems quite easy to end up overdoing it. He admires Richard Schmidt's work as most of us do, so perhaps we will luck out and get a visit from the master.

When my wife and I were at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine this summer, we checked to see if some of our favorite paintings were still to be found hanging on the walls as we often do. I would say that this Mary Cassatt(1844-1926) painting, Anne and Her Nurse circa 1897 is one of my favorites. This was proudly exhibited in one of the main galleries.

This photograph was posted because I need to be thinking in an oil painting mindset for the next four days. I particularly like the warmth of the colors Cassatt used and more specifically the child's skin tone.

The sound of music

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

The local farmers market offers great subject matter for a studio composition or even plein air painting. It is good to run in to people you know and meet new folks. It is also a good spot to people watch. In general, I enjoy trying to capture the postures and characteristics of people, as we are such a diverse population. There are often musicians playing in the summer under one of the big maple trees as on this particular day.

This painting was a challenge because I do not usually paint facing into the sun. When painting into the sun there are opportunities to paint backlit subjects such as the light coming through the foliage. However, I didn't capitalize on those qualities even though I am proud that I was able to achieve some depth in the canopy through layering the foliage. In many ways this is a totally new experience for me as the shadows project in different directions from my typical late afternoon timeframe.

There is a charming quality with the two men standing under the protective element of the tree in the shade. I think the informal layout, posture of the musicians and soft ground give this picture an overall warm feeling.

Sign-of-the-times

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

In a recent post I mentioned that I have been considering updating how I sign my finished paintings. Usually I sign a painting in sepia or black in a discreet fashion on the bottom of the picture in from the corner so once it is framed it is still visible. I have been using popular micron pens, which come in a wide range of colors. I have been using my first initial followed by my last name to keep it simple and not take up too much space. Up to this point I have hand lettered my name rather than signing it in cursive.

Since reading master watercolor painter Joseph Zbukvic's book on painting where he mentions signing his pictures in red, I have taken to experimenting with his approach. In the above practice run, I practiced using cadmium red right out of the tube with no water. I like that it adds some flair yet does not overwhelm the other colors. I find the red really gives life to the grays and blues so often used in watercolor painting. I also gave a try at putting my first initial within the first letter of my last name to create overlapping D's.

New products & materials

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

These are some of the new paints I have acquired since the end of summer. I always seem to be experimenting with new color combinations to acquire greater effects.

Recently, I have been experimenting with new pigments to portray distant mountains. For a while I have used a combination of Payne's gray and ultramarine. Lately, I have introduced a touch of permanent magenta to ultramarine to get a more dynamic color. For overcast skies I have introduced some raw umber and and a touch of quinacridone rose, which give the sky some dimension and a cool atmospheric affect.

When on vacation in Maine I picked up a small spray bottle in one of Portland's art supply stores. I believe the manufacturer is Holbein. I use this spray bottle everyday to moisten the paints in my palette before use. It is light weight with a good quality spray mechanism useful for travel and plein air painting.

A Simple Sketch

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Many may recognize this as a portrait of Carson Daly, the host of the television show the Voice.

I drew this portrait from a magazine with many photographs of celebrities in it. Most of the time I find the head on shot to be a rather uninspiring angle. However, in this case the facial features seem to have a degree of warmth and simplicity to them. Personally, I prefer the three-quarter view, which conveys a sense of depth pictorially in addition to potentially displaying more emotional content. 

In this situation, the proportions seem to be relatively accurate, yet there is a simple quality to the image as it is relatively large in scale. To add a wash of watercolor would make this image come alive as it would provide temperature and atmosphere; however, since I drew this drawing on thin sketch paper and not watercolor paper, I have held off. Some master artists such as Andrew Wyeth would say a particular drawing says all that it can say. In essence, adding color may not improve upon the drawing.

On the Farm

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Recently, when I was in Maryland, we came upon this structure, in one of the state parks,  full of history. There seem to be some ventilation openings on the left side of the structure which perhaps were used for drying tobacco or some other crop. The fact that the structure is elevated above the ground suggests the farmers did not want their product to get wet.

I have been eager to do a landscape painting on a full sheet of paper(22" x 30")with a structure in the scene. This image just spoke to me with this sense of history, the big tree and a southern setting. I also was excited because the overcast sky and moody light gives the picture some weight. 

Clearly there is a ways to go as the tree is enormous, even dwarfing the structure. Unconsciously, I have made the landscape more lush than it actually is as Maryland has had a very dry summer.

Joseph Zbukvic

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Recently, I signed out a book through our local library's inter-library loan program. This book, Mastering Atmosphere & Mood in Watercolor: The Critical Ingredients That Turn Paintings into Art, by Joseph Zbukvic, is a gem. It really is for intermediate or advanced watercolorists, as the author is a master of his approach. The book is in such high demand that it is virtually unavailable. It was first printed in 2002, however it sells for around $ 250.00 on Amazon. Yikes! Who says artists don't make any money!

When reading any of these art books that are authored by a master, I jot down any juicy nugget whether it is a color combination they prefer or how they stretch their paper, etc. In this little study I tried Joseph Zbukvic's color combination of ultramarine with a touch of permanent magenta for distant mountains. This paint is the purplish color you see behind the tree, which I do like for it's richness. I will continue to experiment and adjust the color ratio's to my liking. It is always fun to try new colors or combinations of colors as they really impact what you paint and how it is perceived.

Test sheet experiments

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

When my painting is interrupted, as it has been many times this summer, I often experiment with different techniques on a test sheet, which are often little landscapes in and of themselves. For the past two weeks we have had masons working on our chimney, which has disrupted my painting routine.

On this little painting I have been experimenting with a neutral tint, which is a watercolor pigment, to arrive at a richer dark earlier in the painting process. The neutral tint in this picture is used in the dark tree massing in the distance. I also have been using mask, which when lifted created all those fine white marks that were left.

Finally, I am looking for a better way to sign my paintings. I do not want my signature to be too dominant as to take away from or compete with the painting. However, I like the idea of signing my paintings with a vibrant red, which to some degree is absorbed into the picture. In many watercolor paintings there are various grays such as in some of Winslow Homer's work, which is the complement to red, offering possibilities to expand upon.

VWS 2016 Juried Members Fall Exhibition

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Recently, I was informed that my painting No Trespassing, was selected for the Fall Exhibition of the Vermont Watercolor Society. This exhibition takes place from October 21 - November 11, 2016 at the AVA Gallery on 11 Bank Street in Lebanon, NH 03766.

For me this is exciting as I also had a painting selected for the Spring Exhibition which took place at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, Vt. The painting selected for this show had been Heading up River, a picture of a kayaker paddling on a glorious fall day with many reflections cast across the water.

There will be many other fine artists exhibiting their work, so if you have the time or are in the area I encourage you visit the AVA Gallery.

My Hand

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

You don't know your hand until you draw it. The process of drawing your hand makes you aware of the characteristics of your fingers and wrist. I find drawing the hand to be the most difficult aspect of the human anatomy. For me the face and feet are not nearly as challenging.

My left wrist was reset after fracturing it two winters ago in a snowstorm. As a result my wrist has a different shape these days. The light area on my wrist is usually where my fitbit sits. My hands are very slender, giving me great dexterity and touch. It is also creepy to see how your hand may actually be. I do believe the drawing is relatively accurate.

I tan quickly and have an olive complexion so this hand may come across as a hand of a darker skinned man.

National Portrait Gallery: Walter Payton

I took this photograph yesterday at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., in the hallway with new acquisitions. This is a painting by the late Merv Corning (1926-2006) done in 1981 in watercolor and graphite on paper. It is one of hundreds of portraits Corning produced from 1966 on of players for the National Football League.

Walter Payton was a Chicago Bear running back from 1975-1987, nicknamed "Sweetness." He was born in Columbia, Mississippi, went on to have a very successful NFL career, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993. He was named League MVP in 1977 and 1985.

One of the characteristics I admire of Corning's work is his tendency to leave a lot of the paper unpainted. To some this may seem unfinished, but I find it forces the viewer to zoom in on the player's posture and expression. In addition, he gives reverence to his subject by making us look up at him through Corning's perspective, while capturing Payton's true presence through realism.

Mood in the landscape

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

This past summer in Vermont we have not had many cloudy days or at least the string of overcast weather as in past seasons. It is great to wake up to beautiful, sunny days, but there is something special about the somber, quiet, stillness of overcast weather. This is the kind of weather that might make you want to curl up and read a book.

When studying Winslow Homer's watercolors earlier this summer, I noticed that there are many grays both warm and cool, and the subtleties of color really create strong moods on the landscape. I have used a lot of darks here by combining various degrees of shadow green, ultramarine, Payne's gray and sepia. These darks bring out the light, and as you can see there is precious little in this picture. I think there is a misty quality in this watercolor.

At the bottom where the water is, I lifted paint to suggest disturbance on the surface of the still water.

Spray fixative

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Recently, I purchased this hardcover, spiral-bound sketchbook from a local art store. I am determined to fill it with portraits until there is no paper left. After having experience with many different sketchbooks through the years I have learned that pencil smears and will dirty the front pages over time. Thus, after this first drawing in this new sketchbook I thought it would be a good idea to try using a workable fixative, which prevents smudging and wrinkling. I bought this spray fixative at the same local art store and am eager to see how it goes. 

To minimize smearing in the past I either have used sketchbooks with perforated pages where you can cleanly remove a sheet as needed and use pencils that lean more to the hard end of the soft scale. That is I tend to use an HB or 2B pencil instead of an 8B, for example.

In the past, when I used other fixatives, I had to spray them outside as the stuff smelled foul, but I was told this product is much better. I'll let you know what I think of this product in a future post.

P.S.: The source for this drawing originated from the USA Today Sports: Special Edition which I picked up locally prior to the beginning of the U.S. Open tennis tournament. I am interested in capturing the varied expressions on people's faces and their individual characteristics.

The Birders (Study)

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

This painting is a fond memory of this past summer. With the shorter days upon us and the humidity subsiding it is finally comfortable to paint again. I have been inspired and feel like I made significant progress on this picture. However, it is not completely resolved, but I feel I got off to a great start.

This watercolor is a study for a larger painting I hope to do in the fall. The reason it is a study is because I was not sure how best to arrange the figures for the composition. Figures in a picture immediately become the focal point so it is important to get them correct. 

I do like the presence of light in this picture and thus the shadows that reveal the various forms. There is an overall outdoor feeling conveyed by the light and the colors which is true to form, I believe. Through much practice I am mixing colors that are more accurate and attaining the degree of darkness I am seeking. The earlier stages of my paintings continue to be executed with an uninhibited manner and I slowly am getting better at depicting the human form.

On solid ground

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Last week I started this watercolor of my wife at the beach along the Maine coast. I like the composition with the figure off center and the great rocks in the foreground. I have been adding a touch of red into my blues for the sky, which seems to add an element of drama, setting the stage for the painting. I have begun to appreciate an unsettled sky over the shoreline, second only to the setting sun, particularly since the viewer cannot see the water.

At this point I have not put much time into this painting but the most laborious aspect of the painting has been the rocks. I have been building up the quality of the rocks through various color washes, which has included spattering. By spattering I am attempting to suggest the texture of the rocks and create some variation of their form as they are in the foreground. In order to spatter, I tap a brush loaded with dark pigment against my forefinger, and the paint is thrown randomly in small areas.

My wife's left arm is darker than the rest of her body, which will have to be corrected further along in the painting's development. I will most likely be required to lift paint by wetting the area and wiping it with a paper towel.

With my art mentor, Gerard Doucette's input, I added a sliver of land to the right of the figure providing more depth to the picture and further uniting the landscape. In reality the scene is a very small island connected at low tide by a sand bar to Pompham Beach State Park.

Test sheet

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Sometimes the results of working on a test sheet are better than a finished watercolor. In a previous post, back awhile, I discussed the benefits of working on a scrap sheet of watercolor paper. You can experiment with your color mixes until you find what you are looking for. In watercolor it is important to understand that the pigments dry lighter than the mixed color you have created. Also, you can play with different techniques to convey texture and there are so many ways of marking the paper other than with a paint brush.

In this image I was really excited to come upon several color mixes that were new to me. The rock-like area under the figure was created by mixing three primary colors providing this rich gray/purple/blue color. The transparent pigments used, I believe, were aureolin, ultramarine blue and winsor red. Finally, the blue right of the figure was created with winsor blue and cadmium red conveying this rich sky color.

The white, wavy patterns towards the bottom of the sheet were created by using masking fluid to preserve the white of the paper. There are infinite marks that you can make using masking fluid which I have only begun to experiment with. It is generally used to preserve white subject matter or areas where light may be projecting off a surface such as the top of a car in the sun.

This week I have been working on a watercolor with a bit of rocks in the foreground. I have been stippling with darker colors to give the rocks greater texture which I sampled at the bottom of the above image.

I have found when you mix your own colors instead of use what comes out of the tube you can arrive at a much richer and dynamic palette.

(Local) Election time

(C) Dale DiMauro

When we arrived home from our summer vacation in July we had numerous political flyers piling up at the post office. With a late summer election, we were constantly receiving these colorful flyers profiling a candidates views on issues and what kind of endorsements they were accumulating. My father-in-law joked that the faces on the flyers grew larger each day.

Well this one did not do well in the summer election. 

When I was watching the news the other evening I started drawing his face from one of these political flyers. I noticed he had a very upright posture to go with his professional attire. 

It is always a challenge to add the glasses as they obscure the face to some degree. I do not know that the facial features are accurate, but I may have captured aspects of his demeanor. This drawing did not take long, maybe half an hour or so.

Watercolor study

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Last month on vacation in Maine I came upon this young woman against this backdrop of a wetland. I imagined the color of her white t-shirt against a clump of dark blue spruces, which one experiences along the Maine coast, as stunning, when done in watercolor. Part of it is the upright posture of the girl reflected in the vertical mass of the evergreens.

In the world we live in today, I constantly see people with a cell phone, water bottle or a dog all at close proximity. I want to portray these elements in some of my paintings in a natural unposed state. This is a challenge, as you can imagine. I hike in the nearby woods and fields where I live and come upon people walking their dog while talking on their cellphone with no one around nearly every day.

I did try mixing different greens to capture the evergreens and develop a greater sense of depth in the picture. For the evergreens, I mixed Winsor blue (red shade) with new gamboge yellow, which was a new combination for me. The other green in the foreground, is a variation of aureolin with Prussian blue. At this point in my practice I do not use any green straight out of the tube, unmixed. However, if I need to set a color back, distance-wise or in temperature, in a picture, I apply a wash of ultramarine blue or Paynes' gray.