Portrait of Duchamp, ink on paper, 5 x 5″
Portrait of Duchamp
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Category Archives: Drawing
Portrait Triangulation Time-Lapse
Video
Portrait Triangulation Time-Lapse 24 sec. One of the great drawing tools is triangulation. You fix two points, for example, the bottom of the chin and an earlobe, from these two points you find the angle of a third point. You now have three points of reference. Using any of the two points you established you find another third point. It resembles something like a star chart.
When the axis lines are erased you end up with a very natural looking object.
Adam Pastel Time-Lapse
Video
27-sec time-lapse of a pastel color study for the painting Adam. Pastel on dark paper is drawing pure color vibrations – pulling out the color and the light. The technique I use is to build towards the light using spaced strokes and a light touch.
Anatomy of Light
Understanding the makeup of light and shadow is a fundamental art tool. Indeed, you cannot create forms without it.
Three-Quarters Classic Light
A 3/4’s light is falling on this egg form. This means that 3/4’s of the object is directly lit and the rest of it is in shadow.
Four Key Elements
Just looking at the form, there are four elements: highlight, mid-tone, core shadow, and reflective light.
In the light: the mid-tone and the highlight are the areas that are being “hit” by the light source.
In the shadow: the core shadow and reflective light.
Mid-tone: The tricky part here is to mold your mid-tones so that they accent the form of the object. Artists tend to flatten their mid-tones by making them too light, and by making the contrast between the core shadow and the mid-tone too strong. Continue reading
Transparency – A Key to Spatial Depth in Painting Part 1, Black/White
Art Tutorial
Transparency – A Key to Spatial Depth in Painting
Part 1, Black/White
This online tutorial is a transcription from a 2002 lecture I gave at the Courage of Your Perceptions Conference (Satellite to the EC’s Vision Scientists’ Conference) in Glasgow, Scotland.
We have examples of artworks from 30,000 years ago to the present in which artists have worked with spatial depth in their drawings and paintings. I have been fascinated by this phenomenon and, for years, I have asked myself how did these artists achieve these startling effects. The result of my query is the formulation of the concept that:
Given a two-dimensional surface, transparency and contrast are the means to place forms in spatial depth.
Transparency will place the forms in depth away from us, and contrast will raise them towards us.
Triangulation in Drawing – 10 Min Video
Triangulation is a drawing technique which you line up landmarks and use them to achieve proportions and perspective. It works great with the figure and still life.
Pastel on Dark Paper – Just Add Light
Pastel on Dark Paper – Just Add Light by Michael Newberry
Pastel and dark paper are a great combo to create light effects.
Whenever I am a little stressed or some of my big projects weigh on my mind I get out pastels and some nice black or beautifully dark paper, like a Cansons, and go to town.
I love working pastel on dark paper for one important reason: the pastel being lighter than the paper directly creates a pure colored light.
I remember being in a kind of down mood and when Kimberly arrived to model I wanted to shake off that mood and feel free. We collaborated on this pose, one quite difficult to hold for more than 2 or 3 minutes.
The paper is black Cansons, 19 x 26″.
Lights and Darks in 3’s
Lights and Darks in 3’s by Michael Newberry
One big problem that artists face when developing light and shadow in a work is that they tend to have the exact same darks and lights scattered around the surface. The result is that it kills the life out of the drawing!
A great way to solve that problem is to celebrate a hierarchy of lights and darks. The simplest way to do that is to focus on three different tones of lights and darks.
Here I will take you through what I mean.
Dreams of Round Things, 2006, charcoal on Rives BFK, 26 x 19 inches.
Ellipses: Don’t Start a Still-life Without ‘Em
Ellipses: Don’t Start a Still-life Without ‘Em by Michael Newberry
Ellipses make or break any drawn plate, glass, or bottle. When beautifully done they transport the viewer to experience serene harmony. It’s rare not to have a man-made cylindrical object in a still life.
It should not be surprising that da Vinci painted/drew beautiful ellipses. This detail is a from The Last Supper–it is the plate in front of Christ.
Feeling the Form
Feeling the Form by Michael Newberry
If the artist is going to convey reality, getting the forms right are absolutely essential. The realist artist is also at a disadvantage, in that if they present real objects, these objects have to have believable forms. As simple as forms look in art, they are one of the most difficult things to accomplish.
For example, no spectator is going to believe that the woman’s breasts were concaved, or that the sphere was flat.
