Saturday, February 27, 2010

Feminine Model Study in 5 Values

Feminine Color Study in 5 Valuesby David R. Darrow
6" x 6" (15.2cm x 15.2cm)
Oil on Panel

SOLD
Collection of Denise Rich
El Cajon, CA – USA

About This Painting

Sometimes an artist wants to see what he or she can accomplish with as few strokes as possible and still communicate to the viewer the essence of what the artist saw.

To do this four fundamentals are needed, Drawing (Proportion), Value (Light to Dark), Edges (Transitions between shapes and hues) and Color (Hue). These have been listed in the order of importance, in my opinion.

Here, I did a study using 5 values of a few hues in rapid fashion to "make notes" of the model's face. Rendering and realism are not important here, just the placement and shape of the values.  ◙


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Black Man in Golden Neckshirt

Black Man in Golden Neckshirtby David R. Darrow
11" x 14" (27.9cm x 35.6cm)
Oil on Panel

SOLD
Collection of Georgann Bourgeois
Baton Rouge, LA – USA

About This Painting

This portrait came about several years after I last saw James, who was a student of mine when I taught at an Institute of Art in California, San Diego.

James was not only one the best students I ever had at this school, but was also a kind, well-mannered, friendly and talented, but had the most magnetic and engaging genetic gifting (good looks) I'd seen in a fellow of his particular ethnicity.

On the last day of class I asked if he might sit for some snapshots for an eventual portrait. This is a studio study from that moment in the past.  ◙


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Sarah A

Sarah Aby David R. Darrow
6" x 6" (15.2cm x 15.2cm)
Oil on Panel

SOLD
Collection of Dan Medcalf
Indianapolis, IN – USA

About This Painting

This study is of one of the viewers of my internet broadcast (Dave the Painting Guy) who is an enthusiastic artist and my friend, Sarah A.

This started purely as an experiment to paint using our modern technological advances. Sarah, who lives 2500 miles from me, posed for me via a Skype video connection, and this ended up being painted from a screen-capture. I was going to try to paint her live, but was having tech-issues with the connection that day.

Sarah is a lovely young woman, gracious in personality and appearance and was a pleasure to paint.  ◙


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John Wayne Head Portrait - Acrylic

John Wayne Portraitby David R. Darrow
5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.8cm)
Acrylic on Panel
SOLD
Collection of George Reis
San Diego, CA – USA

About This Painting

The Duke. I grew up with this fellow on TV all the time. Our TV was black and white all the years I lived at home, so I never got to see John Wayne in color unless I 'went to the movies' or saw him on a friend's color TV. The last movie I saw him in was his last movie The Shootist.

It's reported that John Wayne's gravestone is engraved with the inscription Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.

I painted this one evening on my internet broadcast as a demo. Someone in the accompanying chatroom asked why I never paint in acrylic... and I responded with this acrylic painting of John Wayne. As an illustrator for 20 years, I painted in acrylic all the time, but 10 years ago I switched to oil.  ◙


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The Colors of Black

The Colors of Black - a Portraitby David R. Darrow
8" x 10" (20.3cm x 25.4cm)
Oil on Canvas Panel
SOLD
Collection of J. Arce
Jacksonville, IL – USA

About This Painting

Ever since I was a child, I thought it was odd that they called some people black and others white, red, yellow or brown – okay, I got the "brown" reference, but it seemed to me, at that young age, that we were all some variation of brown, anyway... dark browns, light browns, pinkish browns, yellowish browns, reddish browns...

As an artist I have always been intrigued by the colors I see in a dark-skinned person's flesh, and enjoy the particular challenge of mixing those colors. Color Theory tells me that, in its most basic elements, color is a combination of the following things: the color of the light landing on an object, the spectrum absorption of the object, and the spectral reflectance of that same object all combined with individual color perception (it's possible others see the same color differently than I do, which theoretically makes it a different color than I see).

Color Theory says that an orange, for example, has properties that reflect the orange range (red and yellows) of the available light spectrum but absorb all the other colors, and therefore our eyes only pick up the "orange light waves" that are reflected at us.

So, from an observational standpoint, and depending on the environment, some people (their flesh tones) reflect or absorb colors of the spectrum differently than others.

Wen painting this, I observed that there were very few mixtures that included actual white pigment, and many that included blues or purples to balance the golden browns, while much of the other color was absorbed deep into shadow.  ◙


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Friday, February 26, 2010

Sofa Nude, Alla Prima

Sofa Nude, Alla Primaby David R. Darrow
14" x 11" (35.6cm x 27.9cm)
Oil on Stretched Canvas

SOLD
Collection of Kathy Brusnighan
Greensboro, NC – USA

About This Painting

This nude was painted as perhaps the first demonstration I ever did on my live broadcast Dave The Painting Guy. I was painting for no one, then someone showed up and started asking questions... the rest is history.  ◙


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Thursday, February 25, 2010

5-Value Head Study, Female

5-Value Head Studyby David R. Darrow
6" x 6" (15.2cm x 15.2cm)
Oil on Panel

SOLD
Collection of Linda Reynolds
Tampa, FL – USA

About This Painting

The following may only be interesting to other artists. It's a long-held principle that a good portrait has a reduced set of values. Five values is common among the great painters, especially seen in the work of John Singer Sargent.

I decided to give it a try, and I started by mixing 5 equally-spaced values using a mixing knife and two tubes of oil paint: raw umber and titanium white.

I quickly painted this head study starting with my darkest dark, then filled in the rest where appropriate.

Two values for shadow, and 3 values for the lights.  ◙


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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Sitting Nude Alla Prima

Sitting Nude, Alla Primaby David R. Darrow
11" x 14" (27.9cm x 35.6cm)
Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD
Collection of Shelley Lampman
Oak Harbor, WA – USA

About This Painting

This seated nude was done in 2009. Thick and thin oil on canvas panel.  ◙


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