How to Paint Like the Masters, Part 2: Drawing

20 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by Jessica Libor in How To, Inspiration, Journeys

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art expert, drawing, emerging artist, grand central academy of art, how to be an artist, how to draw from the live model, how to draw like a pro, how to draw people, how to draw realistically, how to draw well, how to paint like an expert, how to paint like the masters, how to paint well, jessica libor, Joshua LaRock, methods of the masters, Michelangelo, new york, new york art education, online art tutorial, painting

On the way to Grand Central Academy in NY, NY

Hello fellow artists! I’m back on my second post on how to paint like the masters, sharing with you all the notes that took from a particularly helpful workshop at Grand Central Academy of Art that I took this past summer. Let’s pick up where we left off, at the drawing stage.

In the previous post, we had all the major shapes blocked in and were starting to work from the inside out.

Continue to check your drawing against the model in front of you. Make sure all the shapes are correct. Continue in cycles from the inside out. Give youself a rule–no rendering (shading with your pencil) yet! Rendering will only look good and correct as long as you are drawing the shapes correctly.

As you are drawing, keep in mind that there are four basic lines:

1. Contour lines: the outside edge, sillouhette of an object.

2. Form shadow: the shadow cast by the form as it turns away from the light.

3. Cast shadow: the shadow cast by the form (like your shadow on the wall). A cast shadow will be crisper and more definite than the form shadow.

4. Plane change: the subtle shifts in the topography of a form, such as in the cheekbones. Plane changes are best suggested with a lighter line.

My first stage of sketching "Maria", by Jessica Libor 2011

In this stage, begin to work towards an organic quality rather than geometric. Adjust your harsher lines with a new sensibility. Every organic form is a bunch of fulnesses rather than concavities. Again, thinking of form this way, particularly the figure, will give you that lovely sculptural feel that Michelangelo achieved in his drawings. He naturally thought of figures as full and solid because he worked primarily as a sculptor. Your job, as a painter, is to think more three dimensionally. This will bring your work to life!

"Erythrean Sibyl" by Michelangelo, 1508

Study by Michelangelo

Think volume and commitment to a line.

"Drawing of Maria" by Jessica Libor, graphite on paper, 2011

How to Paint Like the Masters, Part 1

18 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by Jessica Libor in How To, Inspiration, Journeys

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artist bios, drawing, emerging artist, how to be an artist, how to draw, how to paint, how to paint like the masters, instruction, jessica libor, Joshua LaRock, masters, Michelangelo, painting, sketching

Portrait Study by Joshua LaRock, oil on linen, 2007

In this post I just wanted to share my extensive notes from a very helpful workshop that I took this summer at the Grand Central Academy of Art. Joshua LaRock was the instructor, and it was one of the most thorough and helpful classes I’ve ever taken. Joshua studied for four years at the GCA and now teaches there in addition to painting. If you’d like to visit his website and see his work, visit www.joshualarock.com. I would highly recommend any of his classes to artists who want to learn more about traditional ways of painting and add extra dimension to their work.

It was a two week workshop, and I’ll break down the instruction into a few posts, day by day: the drawing first, then the painting. First, came the drawing, something that many of us want to skip through because it’s not quite as fun and instant-gratification as painting. He made us slow down and take and entire week to draw the model, with only the next week to paint a complete painting. Through that, I learned a lot about value. “Value makes the painting,” he told us. After thinking about it, I came to agree. I couldn’t think of any major painting I didn’t have carefully chosen, subtle values. My hope is that you’ll be able to utilize these notes and use the information in your own work!

Drawing Demo by Joshua LaRock 2011

Note: All these instructions are made with the assumption that you have a live model in front of you posing.

Day 1

Blocking in. A messy, sketchy, but important step. Focus on LINE and FORM. Classically, the picture frame is supposed for be vertically tipped (window shaped), not horizontal (landscape shaped).

Notice where you are drawing the model from. (At this point Joshua put a piece of glass up on the easel and did a line drawing on the glass, tracing only as a demonstration)

Find a horizontal and vertical reference point on the model.

To begin blocking in, hold the pencil loosely. If it’s a portrait you are doing, imagine it’s not a head–take yourself away from the psychological attention of features. Establish a scale. Some tools to do this are:

1. Find points on the face/model and mark them on your paper.

2. Notice the tilt of the head.

3. Notice how the shapes interlock

4. Use comparative measuring.

See what’s actually in front of you, and draw on medium to fine tooth paper. Block out the larger masses. In comparative measuring, use your left eye with the left arm to measure, or right with the right. When you do comparative measuring, lock your arm, so that it’s the same distance each time you measure.

Take a central point between the face. Check distances to/from everything. Start with the VOLUME in the shapes, not the contour. This will give your drawing a feeling of sculpture and fullness, like Michaelangelo’s drawings.

Archers by Michelangelo, 1533

Seated Male Nude by Michelangelo, 1511

Choose one part of the face and make it fact–build around it. Use halves and quarters. And most importantly, don’t get too detailed to fast! Work on all the proportions at the same time and it will come together.

After blocking in, start getting more into the shapes. Start inside the face and work outwards, slowly raising the 2-D drawing to 3-D.

Watch the terminators–they’ll help you find the right shapes and fullnesses in the form. Terminator is the edge of form where light no longer can pass over a form–it turns and curves away from light.

Know your bad tendencies and guard against them (For me, this means guarding against overemphasis on contrast). Move from the center of the face and build out. Move forward from your easel when needed to investigate the shapes, especially around the eyes.