Life Drawing Class 4/7/18
This is from last week’s life drawing class, in which the model wore traditional African dress.
Life Drawing Class 4/7/18 Read More »
This is from last week’s life drawing class, in which the model wore traditional African dress.
Life Drawing Class 4/7/18 Read More »
Serving suggestion: Preheat garden to 75 degrees. Place one incredibly patient portrait sitter in an uncomfortable chair and one struggling artist in direct sunlight. Grill for 4.5 hours until medium rare…
Portrait Session 12/6/18 Read More »
This is a portrait drawn using a prototype version of Tim Jenison’s Vermeer device.
Given my enthusiasm for David Hockney’s controversial book, ‘Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the lost techniques of the Old Masters’, I don’t know why it took me so long, but I recently watched the Penn and Teller documentary, ‘Tim’s Vermeer’.
It’s a fascinating (and, yet again, controversial) investigation into the theory that the Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer, might have used optics to assist him in achieving his incredible paintings.
To test his theory, US-based inventor and self-proclaimed ‘non-painter’, Tim Jenison, created a full replica of the room that Vermeer portrayed in his painting, ‘The Music Lesson’, together with its contents.
He then went on to develop an arrangement of optical equipment in which an ‘image is projected through the 4-inch lens onto a 7-inch concave mirror on the opposite wall, and then onto the 2-inch-by-4-inch mirror he’d have right in front of his face as he painted.‘
Having discussed the conclusions of this documentary with my venerable portrait sitter, Paul J, he agreed that I could test the theory on a portrait he had commissioned from me of his grandson, Leon.
My prototype was of Tim’s earlier, simplest version of his device, which required a small mirror to be placed at 45 degrees to a vertically fixed (and, ideally, reversed/flipped) image, and a horizontally placed sheet of paper (see second image below).
Lessons learned from this experiment:
In summary, it was an interesting experiment, and one that I’d like to repeat, especially to test:
In closing I would say, however, that as an artist I really enjoy the challenge of looking and analysing an object, as well as the ‘trial and error’ of trying to interpret and represent what has been seen, and I quite like seeing the imperfection of the hand and the eye in the finished drawing.
Using optics, whilst effective and accurate, is really rather boring and certainly made me feel like a human photocopy machine, so I wonder if the masters of old would have tried their hardest to keep their reliance of optics to a minimum so that they could spend more of their time using the fun stuff. Paint!!
Portrait Drawing Made Using Tim Jenison’s Vermeer Device Read More »
Portrait practice with Paul Jennings (acrylic on canvas 60cm x 50cm)
Portrait Practice 31/5/18 Read More »
This is the latest picture of the ever patient Paul Jennings from today’s portrait practice session.
Portrait Practice 24/5/18 Read More »
Acrylic on paper A1 size (84cm x 59cm) approx 3 hours
Whilst we were stewarding at the annual Island Art Group exhibition in the David Hughes Centre in Beaumaris, Tudor very kindly agreed to sit for a portrait.
Live Portrait Demo Read More »
Portrait practice with Paul Jennings (water based oils on canvas 40cm x 50cm approx)
Portrait Practice 10/5/18 Read More »
Portrait practice with @PaulJennings (acrylic on canvas 50cm x 60cm approx 3.5hrs)
Portrait Practice 3/5/18 Read More »
This is another portrait of Paul Jennings painted in Acrylic on Board (61cm x 51cm over approx 5 hours. I used a new lighting setup using three separate LED light strips on the subject, palette and canvas in an attempt to ensure a consistent colour temperature (see picture below). They are probably a bit too cool (being 6500K), but they certainly made for a pleasant painting environment.
Portrait Practice 17/04/2018 Read More »
This is a first attempt at painting Paul Jennings, who has very kindly agreed to sit for some portrait practice sessions. Hopefully he won’t mind too much that at this stage he looks a bit like Sean Connery… Shorry Paul!
Portrait Practice 16/4/18 Read More »