Felix D'Eon

Diary ~ Painting James #1

Winter, 2006

 

I started a 12 hour pose of James last night, for an oil painting, and will be posting my progress on the painting as I go. Check back on this page every week for the next month to see how its coming. I usually hire models for 3 hour sessions, once a week, for a month. This painting will be of James sleeping, most likely in an outdoor setting.

First I suggest the kind of pose I am looking for to the model, and have him hold numerous 2 minute poses that he could theoretically hold for a 12 hour period; I do up to 20 of these 2 minute drawings, like the ones above, until I find the pose I want. Then I light the model and mark him so he can get back into the pose, and take a photo as reference so we can reconstruct the pose in the following weeks.

In the photo above you can see James in the pose, while I work from life on the preparatory drawing. The drawing takes up the full first session. Oil paint is transparent, so I make a drawing that I can transfer to canvas, that way I make my mistakes in the forgiving medium of charcoal, rather than the unforgiving medium of oil. After the first session, I transfer the drawing to canvas, and with the second session, start the underpainting.

In the photo above you can see the finished preperatory sketch; the pose is finished and the proportions are worked out. Now its only waiting to be transferred to canvas. In the photo below you can see the reference photo of the model. The drawing will be made available for sale at the same time as the painting - I need it in the meantime as reference.

Below, I have primed and painted the canvas a mossy green as an undercoat, and transfered the preliminary drawing to the canvas, before the model arrives for his next session.

After the first hour or so of the next session, this (below) is how the canvas looks. I have re-drawn it, and laid out some of the basic tones. For the first painting session, I use a limited pallate of only red, brown, black and white. When those colors dry (it takes about a week), I will be ready to paint over them on the following session with cooler tones and yellows.

Below is the painting about halfway throught he session. I reworked the head and reiforced the warmth of the arms and chest.

Below is the painting as it appeared at the end of the second session. All of the fundamentals are laid in, and I am happy with the face, which is the most difficult part of a painting. I have also started to lay in some values to the background, preparing it for the beach scape which the figure will eventually be placed in.

Next week I'll start the glazing process and start to lay in the backgound. Check back for updates!