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PUTTIN' ON THE DOG, by Patti Cramer48" x 40" (1 22 x 102 cm)Acrylic on canvas

Collection ofAuer's Women's Shop, Denver

BUNTING FACES AND FIGURESCAROLE KATCHEN

Patti Cramer Carole KatchenDeborah Curtiss Milt KobayashiDeborah Deichler Linda ObermoellerJoseph Jeffers Dodge Alex PowersEdwin Friedman Constance Flavell PrattLucy Glick Scott Prior

Stephen Gjertson Wade ReynoldsPauline Howard Will WilsonBillJames Stephen Scott Young

WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS / NEW YORK

Frontispiece

SHAWN IN LITTLE ITALY, by Carole Katchen12" x 9" (30x23 cm)Watercolor on paper

First published in 1986 in New York by Watson-Guptill Publications,a division of Billboard Publications, Inc., 1515 Broadway.New York, NY 10036Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Katchen, Carole, 1944-

Painting faces and figures.

Includes index.1 Human figure in art. 2. Face in art.

3. PaintingTechnique. I. Title.ND1290.K38 1986 751.4 86-11136ISBN 0-8230-3620-0

Distributed in the United Kingdom by Phaidon Press Ltd., LittlegateHouse, St. Ebbe's St., Oxford

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproducedor used in any form or by an means

graphic, electronic, or mechanical,including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage andretrieval systemswithout written permission of the publisher.

All works of art reproduced in this book have been previously copyrighted by theindividual artists and cannot be copied or reproduced without their permission.

Manufactured in Japan

First printing, 1986

123456789 10/91 90 89 88 87 86

777/5 book is dedicated to Sam Katchen. my father, whohad never even set foot in an art gallery or museum untilone of his daughters became an artist. Thanks. Dad. foryour tremendous support and encouragement.A special thanks to Doug Dawson and all the wonder-

ful artists who contributed their paintings to this bookand also to my great editors. Mary Suffudy and GinnyCroft, and my designer, Areta Buk.

RECLINING FIGURE ON RED CLOTH, by Lucy Glick12" x 15" (30x38 cm)Oil on panelCollection of the artist

CONTENTS

Introduction 9

EXPLORING TECHNIQUEAlex Powers: Combining Realism andAbstraction 1Wade Reynolds: Creating a Glow with Pointillism 1

6

B i 1 1 J am e S : Using Complements to Make Colors Vibrate 2 6Scott Prior: Painting the Illusion ofReality 34

Milt KobayashiM Tonal Approach to Painting 40

Carole Katchen: Making the Impossible Work 46Joseph Jeffers Dodge: Evolving into Simplicity 54

CREATING A LIKENESSWill Wilson: Re-creating a Classical Era 62

Constance Flavell Pratt: Seeing the Likeness as a Constant Challenge 70

Deborah Deichler: Making Portraits Surprise andAmuse 74Linda Obermoeller: Painting Portraits with Light 82

Edwin Friedman: Painting Who the Person Is 90

EXPRESSING A POINT OF VIEWPatti Cramer: Painting What Is Runny about People 98Deborah Curtiss: Seeing the Figure as a Metaphor 1 06Pauline Howard: Painting with a Journalist's Eye 110

Stephen Gjertson: Creating a Joyous Beauty 118

Lucy Glick: Using the Figure to Express Emotion 126Stephen Scott Young: Capturing Thoughts and Feelings 134

Biographical Notes 142

Index 144

DYLAN THOMAS, by Milt Koboyashi14" x 10" (35.5 x 25 cm)Oil on canvasCollection of the artist

INTRODUCTION

The human figurecomplex, elegant, powerful, rarelystillhas always presented the ultimate challenge to theartist. Unlike inanimate subjects, the figure reflects boththe artist and the viewer, demanding a personal involve-ment from each.

This book was designed to introduce a cross-section ofvery accomplished artists who paint the figure. Theywork in different styles and different media, each onepresenting his or her own vision of the human form.Portfolios of their work show the vast array ofpos-sibilities that exist for the figure painter and provideinformation about how paintings are created.

For purposes of discussion, I have grouped the artistsinto three main categories: Exploring Technique, Creatinga Likeness, and Expressing a Point of View. Of course,every artist deals with all of these areas when paintingthe figure.

The most obvious characteristics ofany painting relateto techniquehow pigment is applied to the surface.Each medium has its own demands, and this bookincludes works in oil, acrylic, pastel, and watercolor.However, even within a given medium there are tremen-dous options.

Look, for instance, at the watercolors of Bill James andStephen Scott Young. James works quickly, wet into wet,placing spots of complementary colors next to and on topof each other to create a vibrating surface. Young, on theother hand, works slowly. Mixing the three primary colorsinto varieties ofgray, he gradually layers these colors overeach other in glazes, as many as thirty glazes in just onesection of a portrait.

With oil the diversity is even greater. Several artistswork in a classical manner, building their values slowlyand then painting the color on top. In contrast, Scott Priorvisualizes his paintings so well that he can start at onecorner and work across the canvas, applying immediatehnished color in only one layer. Still another way ofworking is presented by the expressionists Ed Friedmanand Lucy Glick. For them the act ofpainting is anexploration of color and form; they work intuitively, neverknowing quite where they will end up.

Creating a likeness is not only a problem for profes-sional portraitists; any artist who wants to paint thehgure needs some of the same skills. In the secondsection of the book several artists pass on their methodsfor capturing a likeness. When do you use photographsand when mustyou paint from life?How do you convey a

sense of the subject's personality? Can you flatter thesubject and still have an honest portrait?One of the special considerations ofportraiture is

pleasing a client. How do you create your own personalart and still meet the expectations ofyour audience? Thisis a challenge for Constance Flavell Pratt, who haspainted thousands of successful portraits in pastel. Prattand others describe their procedures for seeing the three-dimensional human form in front of them and transform-ing it into a two-dimensional painting.

The third section illustrates the differences and impactofpoint of view. Pastel artist Pauline Howard sees theworld in an unemotional way and paints graceful, com-fortable views of dancers, sunbathers, and spectators at apolo club. At the opposite extreme, Deborah Curtissacrylics are all emotion; they are passionate, intuitiveexplorations into the subconscious. Some artists paint tocomment on what our society is; Patti Cramer's livelypieces are satirical statements about who we are andhow we live. In contrast, Stephen Gjertson paints theworld as it could bebeautiful, harmonious, at peace.

This book was designed to present the greatest possi-ble contrast in representational hgure painting while stillmaintaining a high level of artistic competence. It ismeant to stimulate the mind as well as the eye, to makethe reader ask: What is a hgure painting supposed to looklike? What do I want my own hgure painting to look like?

Writing this book was a great challenge for me as anartist. Faced with the task ofpresenting and analyzingsome of the strongest hgure art in this country, I won-dered how I would feel about my own art when Igotdone. Compared to the precision of Wade Reynolds, thegrace of Will Wilson, the humor ofDeborah Deichler,would I still like what I do?

This is a very real problem for every artist who doesnot live in total isolation; the strengths of other artistsseem to illuminate our own shortcomings. What I learnedwriting this book, though, was that the greatness ofoneartist should never diminish another. The work ofeachpainter in this book, including my own, contains strengthsand weaknesses, and we can learn from both.

There is no one way to paint that is the "right" way.Each artist must find what he or she wants to express andthen strive to express it in the most powerful and refinedway possible. I hope that reading this book and becomingacquainted with the artists presented here will help toachieve that goal.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

Combining Realism and Abstraction

Alex Powers is a watercolorist whose style is traditionalin its realism and contemporary in its abstraction. Hebegins a painting by making a realistic rendering of themodel, but includes only those lines and details that arevital. Then he places the hgure in an abstract backgroundwhere the colors and shapes work in a nonnarrative way.

Contrast is the key to Powers workcontrast in styleand contrast in technique. He uses transparent againstopaque paint, watercolor against pencil and pastel, fineline against loose splatters and dribbles.Powers says he gets his inspiration from the model.

Although he believes anyone can be painted successfully,he finds that more interesting subjects inspire moreinteresting paintings. He likes models who look different,act eccentric.

Although his paintings look spontaneous, they are verywell planned. Before he went to art school, Powers was acomputer programmer, and he says this discipline en-ables him to organize his art. He doesn 't plan everything:that would be impossible with his fluid use of watercolor.What he plans are the three elements that make up thedesign:

1. The movement of light. First Powers places the mostinteresting shape, usually a light shape within the figure.Then he lays out the other lights, defining rhythm with themovement of light in the foreground and the background.

2. Use of space. Powers likes to use both two-dimen-sional and three-dimensional space within the samepainting. He usually puts the strong value contrasts thatcreate a three-dimensional feeling at the top of therectangle. At the bottom he paints a brighter, flatter area.In the middle he adds a transitional band of color to unitetop with bottom. He also uses the shapes of light to movethe eye across the page.

3. The pose. Powers doesn 't like working with asymmetrical composition: so he often places the figure toone side. He also avoids symmetry in the pose itself.Since he doesn 't like the model's eyes looking straightforward, he often will pose the figure looking to the sideor looking down to capture shadows in the eye sockets.He always starts out working transparent, but will go

wherever the painting leads in terms of opaque paints,pastel, charcoal, or conte crayon. As his paintings havebecome more graphic, this has increased. To enhance thegraphic nature, he works with stiff-haired brushes, paintswith the paper vertical, uses a very smooth paper,emphasizes surface texture, and often draws with char-coal or chalk into the watercolor.

WORKING METHODSFor practical reasons Powers often paints from photographs. Heuses slides, projecting them onto a permanent daylight slidescreen, three feet square, with the projector at the rear.He draws his image onto the watercolor paper with a dark 6B

charcoal pencil. He does not like to sketch onto the paper withlight pencil and then pretend the lines are not there. On thecontrary, he makes his very obvious lines part of the painting. Heoften continues to draw on the painting in progress; if he needsto draw into wet color, he uses a 6B Stabilo pencil.

Powers' other materials include Winsor & Newton watercolorsand gouache, gesso, compressed charcoal, conte crayon, andRembrandt soft pastels. He has worked on different types ofwatercolor paper, but he now prefers Strathmore high-surfaceBristol paper, which is very slick. This smooth paper allows himto scrub and lift off color because the color sits on the surfacerather than being absorbed. Also, the smooth paper makes iteasier to draw into the painting with pencil or pastel.

Often he works on toned paper, either introducing color to afresh sheet or scrubbing the dark color off an old painting. Heprefers toned paper when doing low-key paintings because itallows him to keep his darks more transparent.

To reuse an old painting, he scrubs off the dark paint with astiff-bristled kitchen brush. He uses the color that is left as histone. Sometimes he deliberately leaves some of the underlyingshapes. While the paper is still wet. he staples it to homasote orbedding board.

Powers paints with his paper tilted almost vertically. Thismakes the paint dry faster, keeps the paint lively, and adds to thegraphic effect. He paints with large, loose brushstrokes, using aP/2" (3.8 cm) flat, short-haired bristle brush to scrub in color andattack the paper, and a 2'/2" (6.4 cm) flat, short-haired mottler forlarger areas. He does a lot of splattering, and he often sprayswater with a plastic spray bottle to soften edges.

His palette consists of the transparent, staining primaries

alizarin crimson, Winsor blue, and new gamboge yellowandthe more opaque burnt sienna, cadmium red. yellow ochre, andcerulean blue. If he wants to veil a color that is too strong, hefloats acrylic gesso, thinned with water, over that area. He placesthe paper flat on a table and pours a mixture of two to five partswater to one part gesso over the color to be muted. The opaquegesso, when dry, imparts an interesting granulated texture andalso makes the painting lighter in that area.

Powers often juxtaposes transparent watercolor with opaquegouache within a painting. He says it is important to usegouache for its opaque quality, not trying to paint transparentwashes with it. but using it for thick areas of solid color.

ISTUDIES OF AUBREY23" x 29" (58 X 74 cm)Watercolor, gouache, and charcoal on paperCollection of the artist

This piece gives us an excellent example ofPowers' use of toned paper as the basis for awatercolor. In this case the tone was not onlycolor, a light beige, but also texture, what lookslike stiff brushstrokes through the painting.

This texture creates a two-dimensional qualitythat Powers bounces against the three-dimen-sional rendering of the faces.He used two views of the same model here

to break his habit ofcomposing with a singlefigure. Another compositional element is thecontrast between the areas of transparent wa-tercolor and the shapes ofopaque whitegouache.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

SOLDIER STUDY I17" x 17" (43 X 43 cm)Watercolor on paperCollection of the artist

Powers photographed this subject during thefilming ofa television drama on the Civil War.He changed the color of the hat for the sake ofdesign. This is a good example of his use ofselective realism, painting only those aspectsthat are necessary for recognizing the subject.With his fast, immediate style ofpainting.Powers must select only the most importantlines and shapes to include in the painting.This selection process is an intuitive one thatimproves with experience.Knowing when to stop is often the greatest

problem with watercolor, Powers says, becauseit is so easy to overwork a painting, and hewarns that it is usually better to "underdo "

rather than "overdo " a watercolor. He got somehelp with finishing this piecehe was inter-rupted while working on it, and by the time hereturned, he was able to see that it was alreadyfinished.

S

DETAIL

Here we get a good example ofhow Powersmixes realistic with abstract elements. Using aminimum of detail, he placed the eye, nose,and ear so that we know what they are andwhere they are. Then he used color withinthose features more for abstract design than forliteral description. Look at the red of the nose;that color works along with the deep red of thecheeks and the background to keep our eyesmoving through the painting.We can also get a sense here ofhow he

applies his paint in runs and splatters to get arich, organic feeling throughout the painting.

s#

X

NUDE WITH FACE IN SHADOW23" x 25" (58 x 63.5 cm

)

Watercolor on paperCollection of fhe ortisf

7"/?e subject for this painting was a model in asketch class. Powers likes to draw unusual-looking models; his least favorite subjects areattractive women. In this case he has hiddenthe model's face, making her more mysterious.

This painting is uncommon in that he drewthe initial image with watercolor rather thanhis usual 6B charcoal pencil. Also he paintedalmost the whole painting in browns, addingthe complementary blue toward the end. Noticehow he balances the blue of the background

with the accents of blue in the figure. To createinterest in the background without specificshapes, he worked to achieve a sense of verylively paint.

Powers considers the lost-and found aspectsof the face in shadow to be the most successfulelement in this work. The challenge was to usethe head as a dark shape connecting with thedark background and contrasting with the lightbody but still keep the head connected to thebody. He maintained the connection by usingjust enough realism in the face and head sothat we know intellectually that they are con-nected and by leaving spots of highlight in thehair and profile to relate to the light torso.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

GRAY NUDE22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm)Watercolor, gouache, charcoal, and red chalkon paperCollection of Nancy and Eugene Fallon

This painting grew out of the use of a papertoned to a middle gray. Because he was work-ing on a surface that was already a middlevalue. Powers painted with watercolors darkerthan the toning and white gouache for lightervalues. Then he added charcoal and red chalkfor definition and dramatic accents of color.As in all of his work, contrast is very impor-

tant. Look at how the exuberant stroke in theupper background plays against the sombercolor and still pose. There is also the contrastof opaque and transparent paint. Powers saysthat when you use both watercolor andgouache, you should not try to use the gouachefor transparent washes, but let it provide areasof solid color for contrast.

NOONDAY STORIES DARCY II21" x 21" (53 x 53 cm)Watercolor, charcoal, and chalk on paperCollection of the artist

The subject here is a ftsherman Powers met ata marina. The background consists of abstracted shapes from the cabin of the subject'sshrimp boat.

This painting shows how Powers works froma solid, three-dimensional type ofpainting atthe top of the rectangle to flat, two-dimensionalspace at the bottom. The upper painting con-tains the subject's face with its careful attentionto detail of form and value. Also the top has thegreatest background detail. In contrast, thebottom is all very light, abstract shapes.Powers accomplishes a successful transition

by gradually diluting his colors so that there isa natural flow from dark to light. Also he usespastel and charcoal strokes to bring moreinterest to the middle. Look at the interestinginterplay of diagonal stripes in the center sec-tion near the chin, the ribbing of the hat (upperleft), and the detail of the boat (upper right).

RIVER FISHING I22" x 19" (56 x 48 cm)Watercolor, charcoal, and white chalk on paperCollection of Joy and Jay Burton

Powers considers this piece more of a drawingthan a painting because the rendering of thefigure and scene are ofmore concern than theabstract design of the total piece.

This painting gives the illusion of a verysolid image, but most of the piece is actuallyvery loose and ambiguous. Powers achievedthe solid effect by tightly rendering a few detailsof form and valuethe elbow, the rim and

handle of the bucket, the wrinkles of the skirt,the shading behind the arm and in the kerchief.All the rest is only implied, and the few detailspull it together into a solid, believable whole.Powers achieved a wonderful integration of

several media in this piece. He used watercolorfor its wide range of values, from the light tonesin the background to the intense brown oftheskin. To that he added loose strokes of charcoalfor contour and detail. Finally he created asense of bright sun by using white chalk forintense highlights. Notice how sensitively theyall work together.

SUGGESTED PROJECTSPowers suggests three exercises for im-proving your watercolor figure painting:"Do a painting of a head (or any

subject). Repaint it using just half theimagery as the first time. Repeat until itbecomes as poetic and selective as youwant. This exercise is good for anyartist, even for artists whose paintingsare novels rather than poems.

"Sketch a subject in the usual way,including background shapes. Pick outno more than twelve shapes in therectangle. Outline these and erase pre-vious lines inside the twelve shapes.Paint by placing detail where oneshape changes to anothernot insideany shape. This is an exercise in sim-plifying and grouping shapes.

"Tone a paper to a middle value.Sketch your subject in the usual way.Begin, not with transparent colorsdarker than the toning, but withopaque whites and off-whites lighterthan the toning. The purpose of thisexercise is to become familiar withgouache whites. The trick to usinggouache white is not to try to use ittransparently. Use it thickly and mix itwith transparent watercolors as neededto make opaque off-whites."

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

Creating a Glow with Pointillism

Every square inch of a Wade Reynolds' painting is a treatto the eye. The total painting is built up with virtuosoattention to draftsmanship, composition, and value, but itis the pointillistic application ofpaint to the surface thatmakes the painting glow. With a tiny brush Reynolds addscomplementary colors, reflected colors, and darksagainst lights to give his colors depth and vibrance.Reynolds began drawing recognizable hgures at age

three. At ten he took his savings and sent off to Sears for aset of oil paints. He learned to mix paints by trial anderror, trying to duplicate what he saw.

Despite his early interest in art, Reynolds did not thinkofpainting as a career; he wanted to be an electronicsengineer. So hejoined the navy and studied engineering.Later he worked as an engineer to support his studiesand early career in acting. After some success as an actorin New York, he gravitated back to design and painting.

His earlier careers seem to have had a dehnite influ-ence on his art. He designs and executes his paintingswith the precision of an engineer. His work is intenselyrealistic, although not, he says, photorealistic. He ana-lyzes and organizes each element of a painting. He has afascination with how everything works, never acceptinganything at face value.

Reynolds' theatrical experience shows in the elaborate"staging" of his hgures. He must always have the rightpose, setting, and light. How does he know when it isright? "From my own innate sense of what will work forme, " he answers. "When I start a painting, I have alreadyseen in my mind what it will look like hnished.

"

He also tries to hnd a dramatic surprise in everypainting, something in the light, balance, or pose that isunexpected. In his portrait of Leza, for instance, he wasworking with a glamorous woman in an elegant situa-tion. They tried numerous costumes and poses, lookingfor something that would make the painting a bit moreexciting. Finally when Leza dressed in her robe and puther foot up on a glass table, Reynolds saw what hewanted. Suddenly she was no longer the typical glam-orous woman. The foot on the table expressed hercandid, artistic side. She was still glamorous, but now shewas something more. That is the kind of surprise Rey-nolds wants in his paintings.Reynolds is not attracted by the commercial sense of

beauty. He says his subjects must have a flaw, a counter-point, to make them believable. He chooses by intuitionand must feel that his subject is someone he wants topaint, someone who warrants the time and commitmentneeded to produce one of his beautifully renderedportraits.

WORKING METHODSReynolds paints on either linen or cotton primed with two coatsof plain gesso and two layers of titanium white toned to a lightgray with raw umber and phthalo blue. These are applied with a2" (5 cm) brush in Crosshatch. The third step is the same tonedacrylic applied with a Vz" x 2" (1.3 x 5 cm) broad-tipped,flexible palette knife. He sands lightly if necessary to removeany small lumps after each coat.

Reynolds uses a water-soluble felt-tipped pen in umber todraw the image onto the canvas. Then he develops the entireimage in line-drawing form using thinned umber acrylic and ano. 1 or no. 2 round sable brush.

After the image has been established in line form, it's just likea coloring book. The light and dark relationships are firstblocked in crudely with umber washes applied with no. 12 sableor sable-type brushes. These are refined and intensified withheavier and heavier succeeding layers until there is a strong butunrefined image. Next Reynolds paints a simple blue scumbleover the entire surface, followed by a drybrush of mixed blueand umber to intensify and refine dark areas and edges.

At this point he gears down to no. 5-000 brushes, which arethe largest he will use for the remainder of the painting, exceptfor occasional drybrush. Colors and patterns are laid in asbroadly as is possible with a no. 5 and then refined somewhatwith smaller brushes. The colors are mixed to approximatelywhat the eye sees. Then every area is enhanced with smallpoints of pigment in cool and warm variations.Many artists would stop at this point with the colors and

values close to what the eye sees, but for Reynolds this is just theunderpainting. At this point he "takes down" the entire paintingwith succeeding drybrush scumbles first of umber, then ofphthalo blue, and finally a deep, deep red. These are appliedcarefully only to tone, not cover up, the previous painting.Then he starts all over again, painting the colors and values as

they appear to the eye, gradually building back to the light withthe finest dots of color. He uses a little red or umber to warm thecool spots and blue to cool the hot ones. Tiny dots of thedeepest blue and the deepest red intensify dark edges next tolight and bring highlights back to full intensity.

Reynolds says this is where the excitement begins. He goesback over the entire canvas and introduces the complementarycolor into every color area. The reds get green; the greens getred. He says it is the painting of complements next to each otherthat gives his colors the glow of reality.

In the final steps he takes down and builds up all the colorsone more time. All the areas that should go into shadow gettaken down with drybrush of deep red; again, this is just a verysubtle toning. All the highlights from outside light sources gettoned with blue, and all the highlights from interior lights orreflections get toned with umber. Then he goes back and picksout the highlights again with whited dots. If a highlight shouldglitter like glass or metal, he surrounds it with a halo of deep redand blue dots to make it seem to leap from the canvas.

Reynolds intensifies his final darks in two ways. In those areasthat are dark because of absence of light, he introducescadmium orange for more depth. All the blacks that are receiv-ing light are reinforced with dark blue and red.

BART40" x 30" (102 x 76 cm;Acrylic on canvasCollection of Mr. and Mrs. Allen Feldman

When Reynolds has asked someone to model,they pursue the subject's normal routine ofactivities until something clicks thatjustifies apose in terms of reality. With Bart, the welder, itwas a quick cigarette break when he wouldstep to the edge of the welding booth, stillclutching his mask under one arm. ("This hadto be an early break or we would have had to

deal with a substantial amount ofgrime on hisface.

")

Reynolds paints unusually sensitive portraitsofmen. He explains that he has a great antipa-thy for the accepted macho image of what aman is supposed to be about. He sees a periodin life when all a man s options are still open tohim: that is what he tries to capture in hisportraits of men. In the portrait of Bart, hewanted to show that when this welder comesout of the black booth, he is a young man full ofpromise.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

iMIRROR IMAGE36" x 48" (91 x 122 cm)Acrylic on canvas

Courtesy of James Corcoran Gallery,Los Angeles

This self-portrait was painted with all the ad-

vantages and disadvantages the artist haswhen using himself as a model. The advan-tages, obviously, are the availability of the

model and the fact that the model understandsthe exact nuances of the desired expression

and pose. The difficulties are in trying to poseand draw at the same time, and in presenting atruly honest view of one's self

Reynolds says this was an exercise in com-

position and light. The background is dividedbasically into a dark half and a light half, withits severity tempered by the door and theframed graphic. Most of the shapes are markedoff with sharp, straight lines. This geometric

effect is softened by the pose. Notice the S-curve

of the figure: imagine a line beginning in thesubject's head, curving through his right shoul-der, then dropping down and curving backthrough his left hip.As in all ofReynolds' work, the light is

beautifully developed. See how the highlightsand shadows model the figure. Notice thehighlight on the seam of the mirror as it

changes intensity going from the dark back-ground to the light background.

DETAIL

In this detail we can see how Reynolds buildsup a believable skin tone from a wide varietyof colors. Notice especially the reds and greensagainst each other. It is this juxtaposition ofcomplements placed as distinct spots of colorthat makes the painting glow.

EXPLORINC TECHNIQUE

STUDY FOR LEZA25/2" X J9'/2"f65 x 49.5 cm)Acrylic on paper

The artist did one very careful preliminarypainting for the portrait ofLeza. He composedthis study just as it would appear in the finalversion. Often he begins with a study thatshows a larger area than he wants to include inthe major painting; then he can work out hisformat by cropping the study He experimentswith "framing " by using two right-angle card-board cutouts, adjusting them on the page untilhe finds the most desirable format for hissubject.

After he finished the study, having workedout the pose and composition, he added a gridand used that to transfer the image to the largercanvas.

LEZA72" x 60" (183 x 152 cm)Acrylic on convasCollection of Mr and Mrs. Eric Lidow

Many elements combine to make this an out-standing portrait. First of all. there is the treat-men! of the subject herself. Reynolds pickedthis pose because it showed Leza as a strong,assertive artist, as well as a glamorouswoman. The pose is also integral to the com-position; the standing figure provides a neces-sary contrast to all the horizontal shapes in thepainting

It is remarkable that the artist was able tointerweave so many facets and still maintainone unified image. Notice the balancing of theintricate patterns at top and bottom, creating aframe for the simple, solid shapes in the center.

Also, look at the rendering of detail through-out the painting. There are the obi ious detailsof the Oriental rug. the painting within the/Hunting, thejeu elry and lamps, but also noticethe carefully developed reflections and thedelicate interplay of highlights andshadou sWhat makes these details more exciting is thefact that they are developed not with lines andsolid colors, but rather a it/i /avers of dots

Notice the modeling of the sofa, the sheen ofLeza s slacks, and the spots of bright accentthat add sparkle to her eyt 'S

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

PRELIMINARY DRAWING19" x 25" (48 x 63.5 cm )

He used this simple composition study to de-cide how to "frame " the painting. Notice howhe brought the edges, marked by the whitelines, in from the sides to make a strongervertical format.

PRELIMINARY DRAWING22" x 16" ("56 x 41 cm)

This sketch was to help work out the shapesand gesture of the main figure. Reynolds likesto work out all the elements of a painting sothat he can see the finished work in his mindbefore he even starts to paint.

m DETAIL

In this detail we can appreciate Reynolds'draftsmanship. Look at the delicate renderingofMimi's face and hand. We can also see houhe uses light. Notice the gradation of valuesfrom the lightest area on the back of the handwhere light is falling directly, to the dark, shadowed area on the inside of the thumb. You can

his i" nntillistic approach works here.The brighter areas are achieved u ith lightcolored dots and the darker areas with dots ofdeeper values.

You can also see a subtle portrait of the artisthidden in the reflections on the poster. This isan example of the kind ofsurprise Reynoldslikes to include in his paintings.

ME, MIMI & LICHTENSTEIN54" x 38" (137 x 96.5 cm,)Acrylic on canvasCollection of Mr. and Mrs. Eric Lidow

Reynolds describes his subject: "Mimi ischeflownerofa delightful country French restaurant in Venice. California, that I had patronized for sometime, and is the possessor ofgreat effusive charm. When I had finallyworked up the courage to ask her to pose, itwas with the idea of a standing pose in herkitchen /office or the doom ay u here I hadusually observed her. When it came to finding apainting. I could not make it work for me; sothen we tried various tables in the restaurant.As usual with my work, there was no questionthat this was it when she sat down at this spotwith the Lichtenstein poster behind her.

"

He says the main focus of the painting is thesmile. He rarely uses "out-and-out beamingsmiles. " but in this case it was vital to thesubject. The most difficult problem was dealingwith the strong vertical lines that go frombelow to far above eye level. Notice howReynolds curved the lines on the large pictureframe to resolve the problem.As always in Reynolds' work, there are many

contrasts in this piece. Look at the variety ofpatterns, how they are set against each otherand also against the shapes of solid color. Alsonotice the strong geometric shapes as theycontrast with the feminine, curving shapes ofthe lamp. vase, and Mimi herself.

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EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

SUGGESTED PROJECTWade Reynolds suggests an experi-ment in using complementary colors:

"I think most people have been intro-duced to after-vision in game form aschildren; you study a dot on one page,then look at a blank page and see theimage surrounding the dot in a com-plementary color. It doesn't take verylong for the image to form, and I have atheory that you are seeing both thecolor and its complement at the sametime without being aware of it, at leastto some degree. I have found that nomatter how well something has beenexecuted, it will take a giant step to-ward reality when the complementarycolors are introduced into what yourmind tells you your eyes are seeing.The same is true of an intense area ofcontrast such as a light edge with darkbeyond or the glitter of a reflection; theafter-image of light is correspondinglydark, reinforcing the dark edge andvice versa.

"There is another area where manyotherwise facile artists seem to falldown. How many times have you seena beautifully painted group of fruit thatwere static because the artist neglectedto establish the interaction of theirindividual colors? Every surface, even afuzzy peach, is reflective to some de-gree and will trade colors with its line-of-sight neighbors.

"So, my project is this: If you've got apainting stashed away that just nevercame to life, dig it out and introducecomplementary colors into what youhave and watch a miracle happen. It isabsolutely amazing to see what life redwill give to green foliage or green willgive to pink skin. And if there's anapple and an orange, make sure they'reaware of each other

paint some red

into the orange and orange into thered."

SKETCH19" x 22^2" (48 X 57 cmj

Reynolds likes to familiarize himself with thecontours and volumes of his model's facebefore he begins to paint. This is one of severalpreliminary sketches for the portrait of Dylan.

SKETCH19" x 25" (48 x 63.5 cm)

Here he has drawn the basic pose and gesturethat he will use in the final painting. Noticehow he has located the horizon line above the1 1 nt< 1 of the page. Since the figure is at thecenter from left to right, the painting wouldhave been too static with the horizon also atthe middle.

DYLAN32" x 44" (81 x 112 cm)Acrylic on canvasCollection of Mr. and Mrs. Don Dennen

In this commissioned portrait of an eleven-year-old boy. Reynolds didn 't settle for a ster-eotypical cute-child picture, but captured aserious young person with his own very defi-nite personality and moods.

To findjust the right setting and pose, Rey-nolds and Dylan spent several days in theMendocino countryside, with Dylan scamper-ing through old buildings, duck ponds, and

beaches and Reynolds following in hot pursuit.When they finally came to the "space rocketdisguised as a redwood log, "Reynolds knewthey had found the painting.

The blue sky and water, the gray log, and theblue and green clothes could have made this avery cold painting. However, the artist's tech-nique of building colors with complements andreflecting colors kept it a warm and invitingscene. Look at the array ofcolors in the shad-ows of the log where Reynolds has stippledreds and blues into the basic gray-brown of thewood.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

Using Complements to Make Colors Vibrate

As a successful professional illustrator, Bill James tried alot of different techniques over the years. After working forsome time in a style of severe realism, he decided he wastired of creating tightly rendered paintingsso heloosened up. The result of that decision is the vibrantimages he now develops with bits of color laid on top ofeach other or next to each other.He paints with both pastel and watercolor using a

separated-color technique. This means that he lays downstrokes of different colors side by side. He doesn 't blendthem, and therefore, up close, the painting looks like amass of unrelated strokes. However, as the viewer backsaway from the painting, the colors are blended optically,creating a strong, unihed image.

To get the strongest impact from these individual colorstrokes, James places complementary colors next to eachother. Whether they are exact complements, such as blueand orange or red and green, or whether they are just awarm color next to a cool color, the juxtaposition makesthe colors vibrate.

Balancing the complexity of strokes in James paintingsis a bare simplicity of composition. He uses a simpledivision of space in which there is usually only one hgure.sometimes only head and shoulders, against a starkbackground. The design is made up of the pattern ofshapes within the figure and the larger shapes of thehgure dividing the negative space.

The simplicity of the composition does not mean thatJames' portrayal of hgures is simple. His subjects arealways unusual, interesting-looking people whom hehnds at dog shows, at swim meets, or even just lying inthe street. He looks for provocative expressions andintriguing situations.He is often a storyteller in his paintings; even without

detailed backgrounds he presents a protagonist at adramatic moment. A good example is his pastel calledBefore the Race. The subject is a young man, emotionallypreparing himself to compete. James gives us all thetension of that momentjust by showing us the intensity ofthe athlete s facial expression and the prayerlike gestureof his body. The drama is enhanced by the starknessbehind the electric strokes of the hgure.Many artists are memorable for either their mastery of

an unusual technique or for a special content in theirimagery. Bill James is an artist who gives his viewersboth.

WORKING METHODSBill James chooses unusual people as subjects. He looks forstrong emotions and interesting situations. Because he likes tocapture the subject in a candid moment, he generally worksfrom photographs, not just creating a new version of the scene,but letting the photograph serve as a jumping-off point.From the photograph he works out small pencil sketches to

develop composition and values. He might also do small colorsketches, which are especially helpful when he changes thebackground from the original photograph or when he introducesnew colors.

When James works in pastel, his next step is to select a sheetof paper, either on the basis of color or texture. If he is planningto leave an unpainted background, he will choose paper with astrong color. Sometimes he chooses paper in a color that is acomplement to the colors he will use for his subject; thecomplementary paper color will seem to vibrate where it showsthrough the pastel.He works with soft pastels, Rembrandt and Grumbacher,

drawing the contours with a complement to the color that willcomprise most of the figure. He doesn't necessarily use exactcomplements, such as a blue line where the skin will be orange.Sometimes he simply juxtaposes warm and cool colors, drawingthe outline with a cool color and filling in with warm colors.

After he has laid in his drawing, he blocks in the basic colorsfor the main shapes of the painting. He starts with the darkestvalues and gradually works up to the lightest. He uses comple-ments for shadow and detail, thereby making all of the colorsmore vital.

James often paints first in the areas of greatest interest, suchas the face. Then he works out from there, often enlarging hisstrokes so that the face is a fairly tight rendering in small strokesand the background is a looser, almost abstract area of color andpattern.

He takes colors from objects of clothing or background andpaints reflections of those colors into the figure: this adds to thetotal color harmony of the piece. Another technique he uses is topaint a green area, for instance, and then add strokes of blueand Yellow, the colors that comprise green, to the same area.He never uses fixative on his pastels because he feels the

fixative dulls the color.

For watercolors James also begins with photos, sketches, andthen a drawing on the painting surface. He says the drawing isthe most important thing; if it isn't correct, the painting won'twork.He paints watercolors on gesso-coated board so that the paint

doesn't dry as quickly. Again he concentrates on complementarycolors. For instance, in an area where a warm color is drying, hewill work into it with cool colors.Due to the fluidity of watercolor, the colors tend to flow into

each other and blend more, causing his complements to be lessobvious than in pastel. To compensate for the lack of control,watercolors give him the advantage of "happy accidents."

With both media his technique has gotten looser and bolderthrough his career. He says the only thought he gives to hispaintings as he works now is in the design and the dark and lightshading. The rest is intuitive.

YELLOW HAT25" x 19" (63.5 x 48 cmJPastel on paperCollection of the artist

This piece illustrates the artist's powerful con-tour drawing. Even though much of the paint-ing is highly developed with hatched strokes ofpastel, there are places where the figure isdefined only by a simple contour line (look atthe legs). The fact that those areas seem assolid as the others shows the artist's mastery ofdraftsmanship.

The contour lines also show the artist's useof complementary colors. In the warm areas offlesh and hat, he has drawn his outlines withcool blues and greens. For the blue bathingsuit, he used orange for the contour. Notice howthese contrasting lines add visual excitement.

In the solid areas of the body, particularly inthe upper back, we can see diagonal strokes ofcomplementary colors in a pattern of alternat-ing colors. The blues mixed with orange andpink achieve the necessary value changes andalso add to the total richness of color.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

BEFORE THE RACE30" x 20" (76 x 51cm)Pastel on paperCollection of Syntex-Anaprox Corporation

James went to a swim meet to capture peoplediving, but he became more interested in thepeople who were warming up, the intensity ofemotion as they prepared to compete. He de-cided to create a painting that would show thetension and deep concentration needed tocompete in an athletic event. This particularswimmer seemed to epitomize those qualities.He started with a photograph. He decided

that all of the activity in the background of thephoto diminished the concentration of the fig-ure. So in a preliminary pencil sketch he extrac-ted the figure and used a solid background toheighten the dramatic effect.He painted with soft Grumbacher and Rem-

brandt pastels on a textured paper that wouldgive more vitality to each individual stroke. Heused black paper so that he could leave thenegative space as stark as possible.

PHOTOGRAPH

Notice how the emotion of the figure is almostlost in the chaos of the background. The vari-ous textures, the bright yellows, and the sharpangles of intersecting lines all pull the viewer'seye away from the subject. In the paintingJames eliminated all the background confu-sion, leaving a simple dark stage for the in-tense emotion.

PENCIL SKETCH

With bold strokes of a soft pencil, James drawsin the basic contours of the figure. He indicatesvalues with crosshatched lines for dark areas,pencil smudges for middle values, and whitepaper for highlights. He makes the edges be-tween major light and middle values with aquick, light line.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

PHOTOGRAPH

When you look at this original photograph andthen the finished painting, it becomes obvioushow James uses the photograph as a referencepoint to capture values and the basic spirit ofthe water but then applies color in an inventive, playful way that goes far beyond thephoto.

1-

PENCIL SKETCH

The pencil sketch is an intermediate step inwhich James abstracts the light and dark pat-terns from the photograph. In this sketch he hasalso indicated the movement he wants toachieve in the finished painting.

U BRYAN IN POOL26" x 18" (66 x 46 cm)Pastel on paperCollection of the artist

The artist saw his son Bryan playing in thepool one day and got the idea for a paintingii it!) i ippling water. He wanted to focus on thebeautiful patterns of color, but in order not tolose the reality, he drew the subject's heademerging from the water. After studying Bryanin the water, James decided that standing overthe boy at the edge of the pool gave the bestpose. From that angle he shot a whole roll offilm just to get the right rippling of the it att /

This painting is a wonderful example of

James' separated color technique. We see herehow the artist applies individual strokes ofvarious colors to create interesting abstractpatterns and how those patterns combine at adistance to convey a total image The rhythmicstrokes in the water are especially obvious, butlook also at the head, where slightly smallerlines of color bounce against each other.Look at the shadows in the face where the

artist has used cool blues against the comple-mentary oranges and browns. Throughout thepainting he lays warm colors against coolcolors to create visual excitement. Notice howred against blue sustains our interest to thevery bottom of the painting.

THE FLOWER SHIRT19" x 75" (48 x 38 cm)Watercolor on boardCollection of the artist

Bill James frequently attends dog shows. Hegoes because his wife breeds and showsDoberman pinschers and also because he hndsmany of his most colorful characters at dogshows. That is where he found this subject.

The focus of this painting is obviously theshirt. James painted the shirt with the same

kind ofseparated color strokes he uses for hispastels. Up close the strokes seem to be ran-dom bits of color; at a distance, however, adefinite floral pattern emerges. Notice howJames used the same type of stroke in thesubject's beard and hair, providing greater con-tinuity in the painting.

To provide maximum contrast with the shirt,he painted the rest of the piece in a subtle,almost flat way. He chose the simple back-ground to bring out the pattern of the shirt.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

PHOTOGRAPH

The original photo shows how freely Jamesuses his photographic studies. He has extrapo-lated the figure, faithfully reproducing features,pose, and expression, but has totally alteredthe background and colors.

AT JUPITER DOG SHOW16" x 13" (41 x 33 cm)Watercolor on boardCollection of the artist

James chose this subject because of the shapeof his hat and the patterns of light and dark itmade on his face. The face was the main focusonce James started painting. He savs it was themost difficult part of the painting to develop.but also the most successful. Notice hou m >stof the painting is done with soft, loose areas ofcolor; only in the face are the strokes small anddefinite. It is this precise building up of colorsthat creates the expression.

James paints on a gessoed board because itkeeps the watercolor from drying too quickly Itis the sustained wetness that allows him toblend colors and to float colors in the back-ground and also to rub out highlights as in thehat and shirtMost of the painting is executed in the com-

plementary colors blue and gold. For the sakeof design. James decided to make the shirtblue, then made the sky a soft blending ofgoldand blue. A gold underpainting of the shirtshows through the blue, enriching the color.Notice the vibrance of the blue accents againstthe warm tones of the face

CHRISTINEJ 9" x 15" (48 x 38 cm)Woferco/or on boardCollection of the artist

Although this is a portrait of the artist's daugh-ter, James was more concerned here with cap-turing a mood than a likeness. He wanted thehighest contrast and the center of interest to bearound the eyes and therefore positioned herso that the dark shapes of the eye and nosewould contrast against the light fence. Hewaited until sundown to get a golden quality tothe light

After a preliminary pencil sketch, he drew theimage with a no. 3 pencil on a gessoed board.He applied his paint in a wet-into-wet mannerusing Winsor & Newton watercolors and sablebrushes. He used no. 2, 6, and 8 brushes, with a3" (7.6 cm) brush for the background.As in his pastels, here James relies heavily

on complementary colors. Notice how almostall of the figure is painted with blue andorange, often covering one another or bleedingtogether. The complements provide contrastand the limited palette gives the painting anoverall color harmony.

SUGGESTED PROJECTWorking either from a model or aphoto, draw a simple figure study usingpastel or colored pencil. Select a coolcolor for the outline or contour. Thenloosely block in the main shapes of thefigure with the warm complement ofthe contour color. For example, if youdraw the contour lines with blue, paintin the flesh with oranges. (You couldalso use green and red or purple andyellow.)

Use the blue again to mark the shad-ows and details of the figure. In largerareas of darker blue, Crosshatch overthe orange with blue. Do not blend thecolors together or you will turn them toa muddy gray. Notice how the individ-ual strokes of blue and orange vibrateagainst each other.

In this painting or another, find anarea that is orange, green, or purple.After you have blocked in your basiccolor, add more strokes to the area withthe colors that comprise your originalcolor. For instance, in an orange areaadd strokes of yellow and red; in pur-ple, add blue and red. Again, do notblend the colors together. You will seehow adding strokes of the componentcolors enriches the total color.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

Painting the Illusion of Reality

"I get a lot of satisfaction out of creating an illusion ofreality, turning something that was just white canvas intoan illusion of trees or a chair or a person. Up close youknow it's a painting, but from a distance there is the effectof reality."

Thus Scott Prior explains his work. His large canvasesalmost convince us that we are looking not at a painting,but at a view out a window. Most ofPriors paintings arelandscapes or interiors. When he does include a figure, heconsiders the painting to be not so much a portrait as apersonal landscape or an interior with a person in it. Hissubjects and settings are always familiarhis wife andbaby or dog, sitting comfortably on the porch or in thekitchen. The elements are intimate and personal. He sayshe hopes they depict an experience or situation that isalso familiar to the viewer.

After majoring in astronomy in college and studyingprintmaking, Prior began painting about fifteen years ago.He is precise, almost mechanical about his painting. Hesays that after all these years he knows what he wants apiece to look like before he begins. Much of the creativeor poetic aspect of his work starts before he picks up abrush.

He relies heavily on photographs to develop the imagefor a painting, but during the process ofpainting heconstantly refers to reality. He changes the original colorsand scale to make his art look more real than a photo-graph. For convincing subtleties of skin and hair, he musthave his model sitting while he paints. Although his arthas a sense ofphotographic realism, it is certainly nevera copy of a photograph.

Unlike classically trained painters who work in layersover the whole surface ofa canvas, Prior paints in zones.He starts in one section, usually the top or background,and puts in a single layer of finished paint. He movesfrom section to section, completing each small area of thepainting as he goes along.He says he doesn 't worry about continuity even in very

large pieces. He explains, "I can usually see the way Iwant it to end up. I am a steady, disciplined painter and Iknow what I am going to get when I put down the color. 1know it's not the way you 're supposed to do it, but I taughtmyselfpainting, and that works for me.

"

Prior is concerned that his paintings continue to im-prove. Much of his development has been through trialand error, working on his own without the benefit offormal training. However, he doesn 't work in a completevacuum; he has a group of friends, also realist painters,"who come over and point out what's wrong. " With eachnew painting, he says the work gets stronger and he getsmore confident.

WORKING METHODSPrior's approach to painting falls into three phases: preparation,drawing, and the painting process.He begins with an idea of a setting or a mood that he would

like to convey with a figure. He explores the idea with photo-graphs, thirty to forty exposures, which are posed, notsnapshots. He lets his eye do as much creative work as possible,editing and eliminating to get a refined composition in terms oflight, color balance, pose, and costume.

At this point he considers size and format and crops the phototo the proportions of the painting. Sometimes he also makessketches to work out specific problems.He paints on preprimed Belgian linen to which he adds two

coats of Winsor & Newton oil gesso, gently sanding in between.Working from his main photo study, to which he has added a

grid, he draws the image on the canvas. The scene he is workingfrom is usually close at hand, and any changes from the photoor the actual scene are made while he develops the initialdrawing. At this point he might add or eliminate objects or moveelements around. He says he does a lot of changing of scalewhen he is working from photos. He often enlarges the scale ofthe slats in a chair or a railing. If done in a subtle way. thisenhances the sense of reality by making the objects fill the rooma bit more.

When he is finished, the drawing is a simple, light, outlinedrawing with everything placed just as he wants it to be in thepainting.

Prior uses Winsor & Newton oils. His palette consists oftitanium white; Mars black; cadmium red, green, and yellow;Prussian blue; Naples yellow; alizarin crimson; and burnt si-enna. His medium is half linseed oil and half turpentine. Hisbrushes are small sable watercolor brushes of different brands.He does not lay down an underpainting. From working

outdoors, he says he has learned to paint in one sitting. Heworks in zones, basically starting in one corner and painting across to the other. He paints one small section at a time,usually starting at the top of the painting. He says it is easier forhim to paint a large canvas if he can complete one small sectionof it every day.

Before painting a particular area or object, he mixes five toeight different values of the color he is using. He then paints thedifferent values where they fit, mixing the values together as heapplies them. His image is so clear in his mind that he rarely hasto paint over more than a few small spots.He proceeds through the painting, small section by small

section, with the unpainted areas remaining white until he getsto them. After he has finished the entire piece, he occasionallygoes back for small changes and refinements.

NANNY AND MAX58" x 54" (147 x 137 cm)Oil on canvasCollection of Elise and Jerome Pustilnik

The artist says about this painting, "My wife.Nanny, hadjust had a baby: and I wanted to doa painting about early motherhood. I wanted.Nanny's expression to depict the combinedemotions of exhaustion, elation, and content-ment. Maxwell was bom in April, and I thought

the conjunction of his birth and new life innature was too good to pass up. The apple treein the backyard was the only place with shadefor a portrait; so I had Nanny sit there while shewas nursing Max. 1 wanted the painting to beabout early spring sunlight as well.

"Once again I tried to get it right with the firstlayer ofpaint. I reworked the skin areas and theportrait particularly. The grass was painted in arelatively loose manner.

"

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

PHOTOGRAPHS OF DETAILS

Prior used these photographs to develop de-tails in the ftgure and the background Hiworks out all of the details in the drawingbefore he begins to paint. Photographs are avaluable tool for this artist, but mostly fordeveloping the initial drawing. Once he startsto paint, he refers as much as possible to thelive setting and model.

NANNY AND ROSE66" x 58"f/68 x 147 cm

j

Oil on canvasCourtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, BostonGift of The Stephen and Sybil Stone Foundation

Prior describes this painting: "In all ofmyportraits I've wanted the subject to be personal,something of a documentation ofmy life at thetime. This particular painting is ofmy wife.Nanny, and our dog. Rose. I rarely considerpainting anything that I am not already veryfamiliar with. This is the front porch of ourhouse. At the time we had only been in thehouse for a month. Since the inside of thehouse was in upheaval because ofpaintingand refurbishing, we would often have ourmeals on the porch. This painting came out ofmany breakfasts we had on the porch. I wantedthe feeling of early morning reverie, the quiettime before the noise of the day begins.

"I try to lay down only one layer ofpaint.Onlv in a few places do I have to overpaint. Iusually start a day by picking an area I know Ican finish in a day and then working andfinishing that area. In this painting the onlyparts I had to overpaint were the skin areasand the porch screen, which needed a lightglaze over the outside landscape to give theeffect of a screen.

"

PHOTOGRAPH WITH GRID

Prior used this photograph as the basis for thepainting Nanny and Rose. The photo was theresult ofmany sessions with the model posingin different positions, lighting, and costumes.After he selected this image, he covered thephoto with acetate and drew a grid over theimage. From that he drew onto the canvas alight outline of the image he wanted to paint.The drawing was not a simple enlargement ofthe photograph, as we can see here from thechanges in the table, socks, etc.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

EARLY MORNING BEDROOM78" x 90" f/98 x 229 cm)Oil on canvasPrivate collection

"This was the first painting I did where Iincluded a figure, " says Prior. "Although / hadwanted to include figures in my paintings for aii hi le. I was not sure how I wanted to utilizethe figure. I finally decided I did not want topaint the figure for its own sake, but more as asupplemental element in a larger view. I chose

to do a painting of a bedroom with my wifeincluded as a part ofwhat amounted to a large,elaborate still life

"I work in zones that I believe I can completein one day or a solid chunk of time. In thispainting I basically worked from the back tothe front or generally from the top to thebottom. For instance. I would complete theview out the window and then paint the plantsin the window, or I would paint the wall andcurtain before painting the figure.

"

NANNY AT THE DRAWING TABLE64" x 58"(?62.5Oil on canvas

147 cm)

Unlike many artists who use the setting just asa background for the figure. Prior gives equalimportance to each element in his paintings.The figure is used as one more shape in thecomposition, placed in a balanced pattern withthe other large massestables, rug, windows.

He provides harmony by repeating colors froma simple palette and by maintaining consistentlighting within the piece.He achieves the very realistic effect in his art

through precise draftsmanship and exactplacement of color and value. He paints onlywith small sable brushes, even on very largecanvases, so that the individual strokes arevisible up close but blend at a distance.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

A Tonal Approach to Painting

Milt Kobayashi's paintings have a rich, earthy quality, asif they had grown out of the soil. Much of that feeling isdue to the color, gradations ofbrown with an occasionalaccent of blue or red. He considers himself a tonal painterrather than a colorist.Because his main concern is tone or value, he begins

any painting with a two- or three-value thumbnail sketch.Then on the canvas he blocks out the large shapes,establishing light, middle, and dark values with hisbrown tones. Even as he adds other colors besides earthtones, he blends them with gray to sustain color harmony,enhancing the tonal emphasis.

Earlier in his career Kobayashi was an illustrator,painting very naturalistic works. Since then he has flat-tened out his color and light, creating more pattern-oriented designs. An American ofJapanese heritage, hesays he has been greatly influenced by studying Japanesewoodblock prints. In these prints the image is two-dimensional and figures appear almost as silhouettes.Kobayashi is more concerned now with shape than

with light. He rarely uses any strong light source, prefer-ring a diffused light, straight on, to flatten out the figure.He has eliminated all excess detailing and simplified allthe props, making them basic value shapes. He paintsjust enough detail to show what the figures are about.He likes to keep the action of his figures tight, restric-

tive. Even his ballet dancers are very compact shapes. Hesays that extended figures lose their mass for him; helikes solid forms with no holes in them. Then because thefigures are still, he also makes their expressions veryquiet. He says he has tried more expression, but it makesthe pieces too narrative. He wants his paintings to betimeless rather than moments in time.

Basically he looks at the figures as compositionaltools, to provide movement and take up space. Expres-sion is secondary. Most of his paintings are well-con-structed, many-figured scenes with people placed amidother shapes to create a total design.As much as he has flattened out his paintings, would

he like to achieve the absolute two-dimensional image ofthe Japanese prints? No. His art derives from Eastern andWestern cultures. The challenge for him is to achieve thesynthesis of solid three-dimensional figures set into well-designed, flat patterns.

WORKING METHODSKobayashi keeps a sketchbook with him at all times; he says henever knows when he'll get an idea for a painting. He records theideas in small sketches, drawn with chisel-pointed markers oflight and dark gray.Once he decides on a subject, he develops the concept with

drawings and photos of models and backgrounds. He generallypaints from photographs and elaborate sketches. He says thatpainting from life is too inhibiting; he feels it is a waste of hisand the model's time. He would rather be free to attack hispainting at his leisure and take frequent breaks to assess hiswork in progress.He draws many preliminary sketches to work out value,

composition, and figure placement. After half a dozen thumb-nail sketches, he enlarges the size to 3" x 5" (7.6 x 12.7 cm)figure "comps," working out the gestures and arrangement of thefigures on this small scale. After he picks his focal point from theselection of small drawings, he makes a larger, more elaboratesketch.

Composition is especially important because he is settingsolid figures into a flat picture plane. He may want to keep thefigures close to the viewer, in which case he will use contrastand overlapping shapes to make up for the shallow depth offield. Contrast is important in all of his work, light against darkvalues, transparent against opaque colors, hard edges againstsoft areas. He uses it to set off one figure against another or oneplane against another.

Finally, after all of his sketches, he is ready to work on thecanvas. He chooses a smooth surface, sometimes fine linen thathe primes with acrylic gesso, sometimes preprimed canvas,sometimes portrait linen. To relieve the stark whiteness, he maytone the canvas with gray-brown washes.He also will paint over old paintings. He likes the change of

pace from working on a clean canvas. The texture of theprevious painting feels sensual and grabs the paint nicely. Henever paints with heavy impasto; so there are no deep ridges onthe used canvases.He draws the image on the canvas with a loose painted line

using a color mixture of Mars orange and olive green. Drawing isvery important to Kobayashi; he says it's the core of all his art.After the drawing, he washes in big, blocky shapes of middleand darker values.He paints with Winsor & Newton. Grumbacher, and LeFranc &

Bourgeois oils. He uses a medium of sun-thickened linseed oilthat gives his paints a body that suits him well. His pattern isessentially tonal, relying heavily on grays and earth tones ratherthan a wide assortment of colors.He uses a variety of techniques for applying paint; after his

initial washes, he uses alia prima brushstrokes, scumbling,deeper transparencies, and palette knife work. To create a deepatmosphere, he applies transparent washes of earth colors, thenpaints with various opaque colors over the top.

Kobayashi says if he has done all of the preliminary work anddeveloped the concept well, he sees the painting in his mindbefore he even starts to paint. He says a good painting is paintedbefore it goes on the canvas; it seems to paint itself.

PATTERNS42" X 42" (107 X 107 cm;Oil on canvosPrivate collection

This diptych is Kobayashi's attempt to confrontthe compositional problems of trying to createtwo canvases that work well together or sepa-rately. The idea of a garment room seemed anappropriate format for the patterns, colors, andabstract shapes he needed.

He did several small black-and-white"comps" in an abstract form because the thrusof the piece was compositional patterns. The"comps" were abstract groupings of rectanglesand triangles he played with until he found apleasing look. The figures were then superim-posed over the shapes to complete the image.He says we should view this painting first as aninteraction of abstract shapes; then we canbetter appreciate its various design elements.

D^

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

BACKSTAGE21" X 21" (53 x 53 cm;Oil on canvasCourtesy of Grand Central Art Galleries,New York

This painting of ballerinas shows the dancersdevoid of the glamour ofstage sets, lights, andcostumes. Here they are very human, ganglyyoung women with loose bra straps and pro-truding ribs. The artist says he likes this ap-proach because it is more intimate.Successfully capturing an intimate moment isalways difficult, he explains. It comes withyears of re-examining until the point whenartist, subject, and art become one.

Besides the human element, the backstage

environment has other attractions. The am-bience ofthe ballerina s world allowsKobayashi to manipulate the props and spacein am direction. He can arrange at will theballet studio, the dancers, their colorful array ofcostumes and props, and any other abstractshape he chooses to add to his painting.He says this painting was so clear in his

mind that preliminaries were unnecessan: itpainted itself. He added the opaques over aseries of transparent washes: the figures weredone alia prima, and the floor was scrubbedand scumbled to give it a worn look as well asprovide a contrasting texture to the figures. Thelight tan area behind the figures was appliedwith a palette knife for the same reason.

JAPANESE MUSICIANS21" X 2!" (53 x 53 cm;Oil on canvas

Kobayashi chose this subject for the quiet,serene attitude of the figures. He likes depictingcraftspeople and other artists because the sub-ject matter is universal and never outdated.

The composition began with the foregroundfigure, the flutist, placed in front of the bright,round shape of the drum. However, the artistdidn 't want to become so involved with anarrative portrayal of the main figure that helost the other figures and the serenity ofthecomposition as a whole. So he moved the mainfigure out of the center and deliberately under-played his features. Notice that the faces in therear are as well-defined as the one in front; thiskeeps the visual interest divided.Kobayashi wanted to achieve a timeless

feeling in this painting. Notice how the quietposture of the figures enhances the subduedatmosphere. Also the tones are muted, dark,earth colors that create a silent, serene atmo-sphere. There is an introspective quality to thispainting that draws the viewer into it. All theelements work together: the compositional bal-ance, the subtle color variations in the trans-parent tones, and the muted accents of vaguecolor.

SHEET OF "COMPS"

In this sheet ofsmall drawings from the artist'ssketchbook, we see how Kobayashi developedthe various aspects of the composition andfigures for Japanese Musicians. In the upperright he tried different value schemes with thecomposition divided into basic geometric ele-ments. Across the middle he worked with thepose of the main figure and his placementagainst the circular drum. At the bottom hearranged the grouping of the figures. Noticealso the notes he made to himself about color.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

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m iPATCHWORK42" X 42" (107 X /07 cm;Oil on canvasCourtesy of Grand Central Art Galleries,New York

The artist was inspired here by Utamaru (theeighteenth-century Japanese print artist), whodepicted a wide range ofwomen at work inquiet moments. Garment workers, like ballennas, provide an endless source of colorfulprops and patterns. As Kobayashi has beenmore and more influenced by Japanese art, hisselection ofprops and patterns and his use ofspace have become more simplified. This com-position is basically three main shapes: the

light negative space at the top. the darker valueof the foreground, and the area of intenseactivity across the middleKobayashi composes with perpendicular

lines and shapes. He doesn t like diagonals. Heexplains that it looks too artificial to him whendiagonals are used to draw the viewer deepinto a painting. Horizontal and vertical elements work better for the serene quality helikes to achieve.He says he painted the figures alia prima, a

direct application of color, to avoid an over-worked look. He used scumbling, transparencies. and palette knife in the rest of the paintingfor contrast.

DETAIL

This closeup shows Kobayashi's loose brush-work. Notice how many of the features offacesand hands are not tightly rendered, but merelysuggested. We also see here the wonderfulcontrast of the transparent brown washes ap-pearing between areas of fiat color. Notice howthe textural patterns are created wih specificstrokes ofopaque color. Also notice the use ofred in the hair, shadows, clothes, and back-ground. This repetition of colorprovides a unityof color to help balance the complexity ofpattern.

DETAIL

Influenced by the Japanese. Kobayashi in-cludes a minimum of detail. Those props thathe does include are reduced to simple valueshapes. In this bag there are no specific details.The artist created a believable sense of the bagwith only the use ofsubtle value changes anddirectional brushstrokes.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

Making the Impossible Work

In writing about other artists, I compare my manner ofpainting with theirs, and again and again I ftnd that thethings they say can 't be done are the things that I do. I rubmy pastels together, I erase them, I paint light over darkand dark over lightand I still end up with color that hasa strong impressionist quality.

This unconventional, uninhibited manner of workingwith pastel grows out ofmy lack of academic training.Instead of taking art courses, I made funny, little linedrawings ofpeople doing things. By the age of twenty Ihad sold a children s book that I wrote and illustratedwith those simple cartoon drawings. It was only after Ihad a fair amount of commercial success (that hrst book,I Was a Lonely Teenager, sold nearly a million copies) thatI began to feel the lack of academic art knowledge.

I took classes in drawing, painting, and design wher-ever I happened to be living at the time. By my latetwenties, when I decided to be a gallery artist rather thanan illustrator, I had developed a strong line and anintuitive sense of color and design, but still had littleacademic knowledge ofperspective, anatomy, and classi-cal painting techniques. That has come later from teach-ing, looking at art, and writing about other artists.

Painting in Colorado where most of the successfulartists have a representational style, I felt my lack ofclassical training as a severe handicap for years. Finally,though, I see that it has been as much an advantage as adisability.

Before I even began to paint, I knew exactly what Iwanted to paint. I wanted to portray people involved withthe world and with each other, concentrating on specificgestures and emotions. All I had to do then was hgure outthe best way to create each image, and since I had notlearned the "right way " to paint, I was free to explore untilI found whatever method worked.What is it that this freedom of technique allows me to

achieve? Like the French Impressionists, I am moreconcerned with activity and mood than virtuoso render-ing. Rather than making statements about the subject, mypaintings ask questions: Who are these people? What arethey doing? What are they thinking?My technique allows me to use bold, slashing strokes

to convey excitement and then, in another part of thepainting, to provide a sense of serenity by blending thecolors together with my hnger or a cloth. I overlay strokesof color so that every square inch of the surface becomesan interesting abstract painting in itself, and solid sec-tions of color from a distance become unexpected bou-quets of color close up. I want the viewer to becomeinvolved with the scene or figures in my paintings, butthen to continue to be intrigued by the hidden surprises instroke and color.

WORKING METHODSMost of my paintings begin with a candid pencil sketch of aperson or scene I have observed. I develop the idea further in asmall watercolor study, concentrating on color and composi-tion. Usually I work from life and memory; sometimes 1 refer tophotos for details in a commissioned portrait.

1 work on large sheets of heavy Morillo pastel paper of amiddle tone or black. I do the initial drawing with Othello pastelpencils for a fine line; this is a simple outline drawing to showgesture and accurate contours. Next 1 block in my main areas ofcolor with loose parallel strokes. I use Grumbacher. Sennelier,and Rembrandt pastels.

I usually start with only a few colors of different values so thatas I place my color, 1 also begin to establish lights and darks. Inthe figure, for instance, I might use a light ochre for skin, a violetfor middle tones, and a deeper purple for the darks. I often usegrayed violets and purples to establish initial values. By usingone main color in the underpainting, I can provide basic colorharmony regardless of what colors I add later.

If I want strong surface texture in the finished painting, I leaveall the strokes as they go on. For a smoother effect, I rub out thefirst layer of color with a rag. I do not remove all of the color, justenough to leave a smooth, transparent layer over the wholepaper like a watercolor wash.

I develop color in layers rather like glazes, using hatched andcrosshatched strokes of pastel. If I have begun an area of skinwith ochre, I will hatch over it with pinks, light umber, andadditional ochres until I get a solid skin tone. For shadowedareas 1 usually add darker cool colorsviolet, green, or blue.

I do not rub or blend these colors together unless I am tryingfor an unusually smooth effect or I don't like the color I have putdown and I want to wipe it out. Generally I put the colors on inindividual strokes of pastel, creating layers of color with bits ofthe previous colors still showing through.

After I have arrived at the general colors, 1 work towardsubtleties of value and intensity. I never use black to darken anarea; instead I use combinations of deep blue, red, brown,purple, or green added in one layer or more of crosshatchedstrokes.

If an area is too bright and I want it to recede, I will gray thecolor by adding a layer or more of its complementorange onblue, green on red, and so on. Sometimes if the total pieceseems to lack harmony of color or value, I will lightly hatch overthe entire piece with a unifying color like a soft gray-violet. Foradditional spark, I often add strokes of arbitrary color to thecontours or details of the piece.

I finish my pastels by spraying them with Krylon WorkableFixative to minimize the pastel dust falling onto the mat orsticking to the glass. (Static electricity from washing the glasswill tend to pull the chalk off the paper.) I use several light coatsof fixative sprayed from twelve to eighteen inches away. Sprayedlightly and evenly, the fixative does not alter the surface or colorof my painting.

BRUNCH AT THE HOTEL GALVEZ39" X 27%" (99 x 70 cm)Pastel on paperPrivate collection

On Galveston Island, Texas, there is a grandold hotel where an elegant Sunday brunch isserved. The building is replete with columnsand chandeliers andjust enough scent ofmildew to mark it as a genuinely old beachresort. Sitting in the restaurant one Sunday, Irealized the setting was perfect for a portrait of

my breakfast companion, Frederica, a youngFrench woman who is also charming andelegant.

I did a pencil drawing in the sketchbook Ialways carry with me and made notes aboutcolors and details. I completed the paintingback in my Denver studio. I liked the contrast ofthe red, white, and blue, but to provide har-mony. I added ochre as a "mother color, " acolor that I blended into all the others to give asense of unity.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

STUDY FOR SACCO CAFFE9" x 12" (23 x 30 cm)Watercolor on paperCollection of Margaret Gaskie

This is a favorite cafe where I often meet afriend for coffee when I am in New York. Onerainy afternoon I stopped there for lunch. Ihappened to have a block of watercolor paperwith me; so I drew an initial sketch right on thewatercolor paper. On a separate sheet I madenotes about details and colors so that I couldcomplete the study later.When I took my first painting trip, an excur-

sion to Ethiopia in 1971, 1 deliberately tooksketching materials and no camera. I felt that Iwould be forced to see and remember more if Ididn 't have the convenience ofphotographs.Although I don 't remember everything, over theyears my memory has improved to the pointthat 1 can look at a quick sketch of a market inNigeria and recall not only shapes and colors,but also sounds and smells.

Step 1 This drawing was the first step for thepainting shown on page 50. 1 always use atonedpaper so I can add both lighter anddarker values; here the paper is green. I chose ayellow pastel pencil to draw the image becauseyellow would show up on the dark green. Theemphasis here was on placing all the elementsof the composition and establishing accuratecontours and gestures.

Step 2 Here I began to establish values andcolors. The lightest areas are the skin, a lightochre, and the background, very light grays.The darkest values are placed with CaputMortuum. The middle shades are green, violet,and a red-brown ochre. The color is drawn inwith a loose diagonal or hatched stroke, gener-ally covering the whole paper.

Step 3 Because the feeling of the originalwatercolor was light and airy. I wanted todevelop a smoother base of color. So I softlyblended each area of color with a rag, leavingthe colored shapes separate. With a comer ofthe rag that had dark chalk on it. I marked thefacial features and other dark details.

Step 4 After wiping down the colors. I redrewthe same shapes with the original colors tomake them more intense. Then I began to layerother colors, almost like glazing with water-colors. This is very obvious in the plants, upperleft. You can see that the original color wasgreen; over that was added a layer of light, bluestrokes.

Although 1 was building toward final colors. Iwas more concerned at this stage with estab-lishing form and value. Notice that all fourwomen s clothes were painted with the sameviolet, blue, and ochres.

I had begun to indicate highlights from thewindows by marking edges with a very lightumber.

Step 5 Here I was beginning to develop finalcolors, adding bright yellow, orange, and violet.Notice that the same orange was used through-out the piece wherever a bright, warm colorwas needed. This repetition of color adds to thecolor harmony. Notice the gray area in thebackground where the texture seems smoother.To soften selected areas. 1 wiped out areas indiagonal strokes with a paper towel over myfinger. I smoothed some of the skin areas byrubbing them with my finger.

I had decided that the intense value contrastof the small watercolor wouldn t work as wellin the large pastel, so I was gradually buildingup a deeper background color.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

SACCO CAFFE27/2" X 39" (70 x 99 cm)Pastel on paper

In the finished painting, each area of color isactually a combination ofmany colors layeredin hatched or crosshatched strokes. A yellowarea, for instance, may consist ofmany yel-lows, ochres, orange, and even violet.

After the basic colors and values were estab-

lished, I redefined contours and details. In mostcases I drew the details, like facial features,with specific strokes and then crosshatchedover them with a basic skin color to maintainthe same looseness throughout the painting.

Notice the short lines of rose and blue 1 in thecontours of the figures and plants. I often addthese arbitrary accents of color to give the finalpainting an extra spark.

sj-

U DETAILThis detail shows how each small section ofcolor is actually comprised of strokes of many-different colors. I like my paintings to have a lotof activity in subject and execution. Activity onthe surface is provided both by the roughtexture of the paper and by the variety ofindividual strokes.

U DETAIL/ wanted the woman on the left to have adreamy expression; so I blended some of thecolor around her eyes with my finger. GenerallyI like details in my art to be more suggestedthan tightly rendered. Look at her hat; we knowit's a large hat. but the color and shape are leftambiguous. I was working toward a total moodor impression rather than an exact representa-tion of a scene.

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

SUSPENDED39" x 27/2" (99 x 70 cm)Pastel on paperCourtesy of Saks Galleries, Denver

Painting dancers in motion is a tremendouschallenge, because even ifyou get the anatomyand the pose exactly right, you still might notconvey a sense of the movement. This paintingworks because of a combination ofanatomy,gesture, stroke, and placement on the paper.Notice how the slashing stroke and the shapeof the skirt add to the effect of upward motion.

I rarely draw anything from photographs andespecially not dancers. In order to capture themovement. I have to have a sense ofwhere thedancer is coming from and going to; in photo-graphs that continuity is missing. I have takenyears of dance lessons and I have spent untoldhours sketching in dance studios and theaters.When I see a dance gesture that I want to draw.I feel it first in my own body. Where is thestress 7 Where is the weight? What is contractingor extending? After I sense the movement in myown body. I can put it on paper in a few lines.

MIME LOVERS27!/2" x 39" (70 x 99 cm)Pastel on paperCourtesy of Dr. and M rs. James Friedman

This is a scene from The Nose, a production ofthe University of Houston Mime Troupe. Likemime itself. I wanted to convey the total scenewith no more than a few props and the actors'very expressive gestures.Besides showing his ardent devotion, the

man s outstretched arms serve a compositionalfunction as well. Notice how the diagonal of hisarms divides the space and also offsets thehorizontal and vertical lines of stage and cur-tains.

Originally I painted the background with asmuch contrast and definition as the figures.Then I decided it should recede more; so I wentover the whole background with severalcrosshatched layers ofpink and violet strokes

EXPLORING TECHNIQUE

Evolving into Simplicity

In 1940 Joseph Jeffers Dodge graduated from Harvardwith honors in fine arts. Although he has spent much ofhis time since then as curator and director of art mu-seums, he has also continued to paint the figure. In an artcareer that spans nearly half a century, Dodge hasexplored subjects and media, colors and compositions toarrive at what is now a strong and simple style. For someartists technique means virtuoso brushwork and dra-matic color combinations. For Dodge, technique is anelegant simplicity.

The surface of his paintings is smooth and placid. Hepaints many thin layers of oil. Brushstrokes are blendedtogether so that they present a solid rather than frag-mented surface.

His early paintings were filled with symbolism andallegory. The compositions included nudes and sun-bathers, guitarists and trombonists, tourists and rockclimbers, all painted in a stylized realism. They wereplaced in elaborate environments with tightly rendereddetails to show who the people were, what they weredoing, what they were thinking.Dodge says that although almost all his current paint-

ings are still about something "more than meets the eye,

"

now they are simpler. He uses one object instead often. Ina figure painting he focuses on the expression and thegesture of the model to convey who the person really iswithout resorting to involved scenes and props.He describes his work: "It is realistic, somewhat ideal-

ized in the classical sense. I tend toward order, balance,and clarity; it isn 't a conscious process. I look for subjectsthat have some sort of resonance or emotional overtone.

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He is concerned about light, in a way more like Vermeerthan Monet. He doesn 't think consciously about the lightwhile he is painting, except for the direction of the lightsource, which makes the light and shadows throughoutthe piece consistent. He also concentrates on the rela-tionships of light in one part to another; he adjustseverything in the painting to work together, striving for aglow of lights and shadows.

Unlike some artists who are con