Tuesday, January 22, 2019

The Pig as an archetype, experimenting as I go

Armed with all the notes and test sketches that I had accumulated on my pig, I decided to launch the painting project in earnest.

I decided to sketch out my image.  Who was I kidding, I was very much concerned about the painting needing to look  "perfect".  I was willing to sacrifice a certain degree of spontaneity in exchange for the comfort of knowing that my brush wouldn't stray too far away from the intended targets.  I could recall when I first started with Chinese brush I was dead set against sketching.  I always thought that sketching was reserved for novices.  I've came to realize that I needed to do what was right for me, and not for anybody else.  So what if I was a novice.


I shied away from using too much ink as my shading base layer, especially on the face.  Too much ink imparted a grimness to the feel of the painting.  I also cheated by purchasing some cheap off the shelf flesh color acrylic.  I used that to lay down my base coat, and used vermilion as my main shading color and vermilion plus tea if I wanted a darker shade.



Again I resorted to the unbleached Xuan with fibers that looked like the butt wiper paper of the yesteryears.  The base color plus the exposed fiber added the "organic" nuance that I so endeared.  It happened that one of the fiber particles in the paper popped up in the area of the forehead, just above the eyebrow.  This was such a serendipitous delight for me, because now my pig archetype had a huge mole on his forehead, adding to the persona of my protagonist.  I couldn't have planned it any better.



I had mentioned in my mountain lobes blogs that the side-tipped contour lines denote more than the contour, but also the thickness of the slab we were describing.  I've applied the same technique and understanding to the strokes used to describe my shadows.  Here an example of a side-tipped brush stroke of uneven width gave the illusion of the lapel not lying flat against the chest wall.  The neck was farther away than the rest of the body, therefore a wider area of black void.



The side-tipped brush also worked well on describing the undulations on the robe.  The vertical brush strokes of vermilion on the right were simply a lightly loaded brush of very diluted vermilion with its tip dipped in undiluted vermilion.  The Xuan paper allowed the color to form its own gradient, demonstrating dark and bright areas along the robe.




I was not happy with the heavy drape lines on the front of the robe, especially after seeing how nicely the two vertical side-tips turned out.


So I reapplied the drape lines using a vermilion brush with ink tip for the color gradation.  Since the paper already had a layer of color on it, it became a sized paper effectively.  Thus the mixing of the color was not as dramatic as the vertical ones.  I believe that is one of the reasons that in traditional Chinese Brush we discourage going over a painted area repeatedly.  Doing so destroyed the fine details of the brush stroke.



I applied the same technique to the blue over coat.  I prepared a blue/ink dish and a blue/white dish to help me further differentiate thedifferent areas of the blue robe.



The upper arm area was done with the blue/ink side-tip and the forearm was done with blue/white



For the navel I judiciously darkened circular areas around the navel leaving a ring of the base color to denote the rim, and a much darker center and just below the navel to suggest the depression.




By writing a half arc as a shadow, a nipple was formed without much fanfare.



I bought some metallic gold acrylic to paint the lapel and the waist belt and the inner sleeves.  I used gold strictly for its dramatic effect and it worked well for my purpose.  The acrylic formed a thicker and harder surface than the rest of the painting not done with acrylic.  The buckled paper convinced me that these areas were more like collage art than a two dimensional painting.  Interesting.  Whether it would retain this look after mounting remained to be seen.  Perhaps I would deliberately not smooth out those areas during mounting so that I could preserve this illusion.


I was able to appreciate the difference between acrylic and watercolor, especially when they appear in the same painting. I definitely know my brush and the paper reacted quite differently to the two.
All the experimenting was invigorating, perhaps I was breaking all rules, by my own accord at least.  I sketched with pencil, I dared to use different media, and went over painted areas repeatedly.  I used metallic paint.  I dared to shade.  Nothing esoteric, but just experimented what I felt like.  I could now tell what a pure Chinese Brush artist deemed as dirty or muddy, versus the simple, single and transparent strokes of the traditional Chinese Brush.

I also added a faint shadow by using what was in my brush wash basin.  I was being mindful that the shadow did not diminish the ethereal quality of my archetype.  I wanted Mr. Pig to cast a subtle, non-distracting presence, as one would on a overcast day.


That was my photography alter ego speaking to me!

Friday, January 4, 2019

The Pig as an archetype, learning as I go

Now that I am pretty comfortable with my concept, I need to execute it.

I am basically on uncharted territory.  This painting now has become an experiment, a game for me.  I'll research, apply, and make corrections as I go.  Quite stimulating I must say.

I reworked the face and tried different ways of shading

I did not gauge the position of the snout correctly in the above example.  I had put in too long and wide a shading on the left side of the snout, which seemed to end on the cheek now, instead of along the smile line.

again the same mistake as the first example; improper shading of the snout, forming a weird structure.

As I was doing my research and reading up on portrait photography, I found out there is such a thing called the Rembrandt triangle.  It is the illuminated triangle under the eye on the dark side of the subject.  This triangle is bordered by the shadow of the nose and the sunken eye socket and renders a pleasing geometric form of the face.  Such Rembrandt triangle was sorely missing from the 2 examples above.

I knew my pig had fat cheeks, but I still would like to test the theory, so came yet another attempt



 This one did look more natural and pleasing with the Rembrandt triangle in place except that I messed up on the lower lip and now the pig seemed to have forgotten to put in his lower false teeth.  His lower lip was caving in.

I must also tried to find out what is the best color for the Marshal's clothing.

                                                                        all blue

red robe with blue pants

blue robe with red pants


I also tried different hand positions.  The bottom example has a higher grasp by the left hand.
I thought it left too much exposed real estate on the belly and chest.  I'll probably go for the lower grasp.

I tried a more relaxed and spontaneous brushstroke rendition, one that was not mired in a lot of details




I also fell in love with the paper with the heavy fibers.  This is a unbleached, unsized paper that reminds me of the ass-wipers from way back.  I certainly remember it from my childhood.  It has such a un-pretentious, wholesome feel to it.  The fibers also complement well with the lines of the figure.  I know the term organic has been way overused these days, but this is a fine example of an "organic" paper.

I definitely shall gravitate towards that as my choice paper for this painting.

Oink Oink Oink