Robert A. Johnson- On Becoming a Painter

In case you haven't figured it out, I'm a book-aholic.  Its been pointed out to me that all chairs in my house (with the exception of the kitchen chairs- sometimes!) have a pile of books and magazines next to them.  Never want to be to far from reading material and never have enough time to read as much as I would like.

Today I want to highlight an art book that is both a book for an artist in terms of philosophy and a book for anyone who enjoys looking at beautiful art.  The book is Robert A. Johnson's On Becoming a Painter.

Robert A. Johnson is a member of the Oil Painters of American and Allied Artists of American.  He has won numerous awards and is represented by several galleries.  He has the credentials to talk about art philosophy. The book is 222 pages with 100 color images- several of them close up of brush strokes in larger paintings.   As with most books full of luscious color images it is not inexpensive.  The copyright is 2001. The forward is written by Senator John Warner of Virginia who has been one of Johnson's students.

The book is available on Amazon.  It may be available from your local library or art organization.  I have my art book collection out on Goodreads and if you live in or around Huntsville I'll be glad to loan an art book to you.

Pansies by Robert A. Johnson

14"x 18" oil painting

"While painting the vibrant, colorful pansies can be a delight- as this was- the real power of the painting comes from the high value contrast and the wide range of edges from completely lost to razor sharp."

 In this book Johnson asks and answers what is takes to become a painter like those whose works hang in Museums and whose works stand the test of time.  In his quest to become one of these type painters he is following the path of the old Masters- Vermeer, Rembrandt, etc.  To aid in this goal, he has become a copyist at one of the Washington D.C. museums.

The extreme close-ups of some of his brush work highlight how even representation art is made up of abstract shapes.

At the same time I watched "In the Studio with Robert A. Johnson- Azaleas and Oranges".  The DVD is produced by Liliedahl Video Productions.  The Liliedahl videos I have watched have been consistently high quality with good lighting, close up shots, etc.  The video is geared to artists as it takes a painting from start to finish.

Azaleas & Oranges

by Robert A. Johnson

Video Copyright 2007

Troy Crisswell - Artist of the month

Every month I am going to feature an artist whose work inspires me.  I want to learn their stories and share them with you.

The artist featured this month is Troy Crisswell-  all of the art work feature in this post is his.  In 2010 I had the pleasure of taking a workshop he taught at the Huntsville Art League.  That's when I first tried the two color value portraits featured in my last post.

I don't have one of his originals yet but I do have a copy of his book- "Thoughts on Painting".  Both the art and philosophy are very interesting.

"Self-Portrait" by Troy Crisswell

 How did you get started painting?

I first started like most people as a kid with crayons, then started again at about 10 or 12 drawing strange and hideous faces and heads with pen and ink, moved on to painting and peaked out at 18 or 19. I started again at age 26 for real, teaching myself how to do things “right”. Now, at 60,  I know there is no “right”….

What inspires you?

Mostly figures, but not necessarily.

by Troy Crisswell

Describe your techniques, favorite paint color,  and/or favorite thing in your studio.

Well, now the techniques are in my book, plus, there ever-changing…not very helpful, huh? No favorite colors – monochrome is as good as anything to me. No favorite “thing” either, but I would like a natural human skull if anybody out there has one to get rid of.

What’s the one thing you wished you know starting out or had learned sooner?  It’s the same thing – everybody is taught by parents, school and society that there is a right way to do things – anything…that’s garbage folks.

 If you could spend the day with any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

None, really – I would probably get on their nerves, and they on mine…I admire many artists work, but not always their different quirks and personalities – mine included.

The question that is usually expensive for me- What is your favorite art book or DVD and why?

Once again – I own many art books , but no favorites – I wouldn’t lock myself into such a thing…I do like certain painters though – Rembrandt, Manet, DeChirio, Picasso/Braque Cubism, Dali, Maxfield Parrish, Winslow Homer, Hopper, and certain illustrators of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.

Where can we see your art- galleries, website, etc.? 

 www.troycrisswell.com  

In Huntsville, I’ll be at Monte Sano Art Show in September – bring any wealthy art collector friends along.

(He also teaches a weekly class at Alabama Art Supply in Birmingham)

Check out his music video at 

Troy Crisswell

Anything else you want to share?

 Well, plenty….watch for the next book.

by Troy Crisswell

Values in two colors

Sometimes you just want to play around, learn something new, or try out a new technique.    Both of these paintings were done for those reasons.  

They are also an expansion on the values discussion we have been having for the last few week.  Although these are portraits of five people (and yes if you know them you would recognized them), they don't have ultramarine blue hair or faces.  I do have to admit that the hair color in the portrait of the three individuals while not exact is in family.

Both of these paintings were  done in watercolors using a lot of water to get the background puddles and drips.  It was fun to play in the puddles!

The first portrait is of a friend's children (if you recognize them no names please).  The second  portrait is of my sister, niece, and nephew.  One of the dangers of being a family member or friend of an artist is you might just become part of an experiment!

Military Tattoo

I am very fortunate to live in a country that is a democracy with free speech and the associated obligations that come along with that.  It has been a honor to send care packages to the people who are serving in our military.   In the past I have been able to do this because I knew a son or brother of someone serving.  Without having that personal connection, I had to do a little searching to make that connection.  There are many organizations out there that connection with our military personnel- this is one that I have chosen to work with 

Adopt-a-Soldier

Regardless of politics (and I really don't want there to be a discussion of politics on this blog), I hope that you will join me in a finding some small (or big) way to support our troops.

Thanks for listening...

Now to the painting part...

This was the first time I included a large number of people (in kilts no less) in a painting.  Figuring out how to do it was one of those easier said than done things.  However, once I actually started thinking the right way- just think big shapes not individual people- it became much simpler.  For example I didn't paint the individual kilts, I painted the big mass of kilts from the same regiment.

It was also interesting to figure out how to push the values to read night even with the dramatic lighting of the castle.  Back to that values thing again.

If you have the opportunity to visit Edinburgh, I would highly recommend it.  The Military Tattoo happens during the summer festival - August time frame.  The castle is lit up very dramatically, the bands wonderful and just a great experience.  There is even a free preview concert in the park at the base of the castle in the afternoons.

Values to Color

Last week I wrote about the value of values.  Today I want to show you some ways that I use value sketches to create better paintings.  I'm trying to do this more regularly as I think the resulting paintings are much more successful.  I have some paintings that have fallen a part about mid-way through and I couldn't pull them off. In those cases if I had done the value study, I would have figured out the problem and headed in a better direction.

The small value study was done prior to the actual painting.  I worked out the composition and values first before starting on the painting.  If you look at the value study you will see some fairly prominent dots of color and then if you look closer still you will see some dots of color that fade into the  original value study.  The dots that fade into the value painting are the same value as the grey in the value study- that means I nailed the value.  So colors have values too.

Here is the resulting painting based on this value study.

Then let's turn it back into values and see how I did.

I increased the amount of dark trees, hedges, and grass, bumped up the gravel path, and changed the value of the sky.  (I actually put the sky in based on the value study scraped part of it off and put it in a little darker with some different colors,)

This painting was started  as part of a class I took from Sara Beth Fair on Cityscapes.  I've worked on it for a few hours after class and there is still some work to do  You can see it in the color version of the painting but it really shows up in the black and white version- the very top of the building on the right looks like its about to fall over.  So some more work to do on this one.

Sara Beth's work is based on the old Russian master's techniques.  Her website is www.sarabethfair.com  Sara Beth is one of small group of us who get together to draw from life (people or still lifes).

Value of values

When I first started looking at art I thought the color was the most important thing to draw someone into a painting.  Then probably followed by subject, composition and that was probably it.  For drawing I just thought of shading as the equivalent of color.

Then I started studying art and discovered I had it all wrong.  The most important thing is value.  Value is the how dark something is.  If I take a picture of a painting and turn into to a gray scale on the computer, I can see the values without getting confused by color differences.  That is something artists actually do if they think there is something not quite right about a painting or if they are doing prepartory work prior to starting a painting. 

I can use any color to represent something as long as I get the values right.  For example, this window scene is done in one color, Ultramarine Blue, but you see the scene based on the values.

More on the values and color connection next week.

Thoughts on Colored Pencil Paintings

Thoughts on Colored Pencil Paintings

"Moving Day" by Joan G. Funk 

based on photographs from a NASA staff photographer.  

I was recently looking at the Colored Pencil Society's"Explore9!"online show.  There are some really incredible painting by some very talented artists in the show.
 
Explore This 9! award winners

One of the things I enjoyed about some of the paintings in the exhibit was the humor  in the work including the best in show award winner by Eileen Sorg.  In thinking about humor  in paintings I realized most of the paintings I remember from previous Colored Pencil Society's shows while being technically awesome also had the element of humor or surprise.

More of Eileen Sorg's work can be seen at Two Dog Studio.  While a large part of her work contains humor, another portion is highly realistic.  The common thread in her paintings is animals.  If you are an animal lover or looking for some humor I would suggest looking at the gallery on her website.

Mana Hewitt, Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Art Department of the University of South Carolina, was the juror for the show.  She definitely had a difficult job.  I can narrow my favorites down to ten or so.  But picking the best in show or which one should get one of the other awards would be very difficult!

Although I have done some colored pencil work and enjoyed it, its not something I do very often.  It took me a minute or two to realize why that is- Colored pencil paintings just take an incredibly long time to do, particularly if you are going for a realistic look.  For an example if you are doing a cat you will have to put in every single pencil stroke to get the "fur" and in some cases you are building up multiple layers.  Love the look!

"Moving Day" was the second colored pencil painting I did.  I had no idea I would be working on it for months.  Its the only painting I have done that is associated with my other profession.  In this painting a large composite cryotank is being lowered into a test stand.  The crane operator can not see inside the test stand so he was working blind.   The three men in the painting were talking continuously to the crane operator so he would know what was going on.   It was like watching a high flying trapeze act - well rehearsed with flawless hand-offs.