Painting and Drawing the Head

Daniel Shadbolt

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781785001642
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

Painting and Drawing the Head combines technical instruction, art history references and thoughts on the day-to-day practice of painting the head from life. The rich text, supported by over 100 paintings, gives a thoughtful account of the process of capturing a likeness. After introducing materials, principles and ideas, it follows the course of painting a head in five sittings, providing unique insight and practical comment throughout: from the choice of ground for the picture, through the set-up, the structure of the sessions, guidance on how to compose and what palette to use, all the way to the later stages of developing a portrait over time. There are equipment notes about what to paint on and what to paint with; the importance of looking, and training your eyes; advice on tone, colour, perspective and composition; photographs to explain lighting decisions and set-ups; and notes on painting a self-portrait. Aimed at all artists, particularly portrait painters, and superbly illustrated with 265 colour photographs that explain lighting decisions and set-ups.

PART I: THE ESSENTIALS

CHAPTER 1

Equipment

When I was at Chelsea College of Art and Design, Mali Morris confessed how interesting she found each painter’s palette to be. The individuality of the palette potentially reflects something about the artist who uses it. She claimed that this subject was worthy of attention in itself. Exhibitions of paintings frequently have the painter’s tools placed in a cabinet as artefacts worthy of curiosity. When an artist is well known, the plainest objects associated with their working practice become of interest. These ‘tools of the trade’ give an insight into how an artist works and how they achieve particular effects through their favoured materials.

Self-portrait with Palette, 2010; the use of a large mirror makes a larger self-portrait more practical.

The equipment you are using may be the last thing on your mind, since you are so absorbed by the subject (what it is you want to draw or paint), but the equipment that you use is and will become very important to your painting and drawing. While all you may be concerned with at this point is how you want to draw or paint, an awareness of what limitations your equipment might have will give you a better understanding of how to improve what it is you are doing.

What your artwork is, whether it is a canvas or a drawing, will be the first thing immediately noticeable to the viewer. The materials I enjoy working with best are canvases that I have stretched, sized and primed myself. This can be impractical and time-consuming but it does give the best understanding of the craft and the tradition of using these materials, which goes back for several hundred years. Since paintings prepared in this way have survived that amount of time, it gives a picture a good chance of preserving its qualities. Also the process of sizing and priming a canvas can be applied to board and paper, so that once you have prepared your own canvas you will have the understanding and experience required for the preparation of many surfaces as the basic principles remain the same.

I have divided the equipment notes into two sections: something to paint on and something to paint with.

Something to paint on

Every painting is painted onto a surface of some kind and the term for this is the ‘support’. In order to prepare your own painting support you will need some canvas or linen, some stretcher bars, an amount of size (for instance rabbit skin glue) and some oil primer. Alternatively you may prepare a board or wooden panel. Even paper of a substantial weight can be stretched and prepared for painting; the paper should be heavy or thick so as to avoid wrinkling and is stretched onto a drawing board with a sticky gum tape.

There are a variety of primers that can be made fairly easily and which will be much more economical to make and use than the shop-bought primers. These can be researched but it is best to see first-hand by demonstration any method or technique before attempting it yourself.

Standard stretcher sizes

Standard stretcher sizes are given in inches, one advantage being that there is more chance of them fitting an older frame. (One inch is 2.54 centimetres, and this can be helpful to calculate the dimensions of a picture; the measurements in centimetres are rounded up to the nearest 0.5cm.)

Inches	Centimetres
10 × 12	25cm × 30.5cm
12 × 16	30.5cm × 40.5cm
16 × 20	40.5cm × 51cm
20 × 24	51cm × 61cm
25 × 30	63.5cm × 76cm
28 × 36	71cm × 92cm
30 × 40	76cm × 101.5cm
40 × 50	101.5cm × 127cm
40 × 60	101.5cm × 158.5cm

Initial purchases

These raw materials that I am suggesting will add up to over £100 but they will be an investment and you will get more use from them over time. If at this point it is beyond your budget then just use a shop-bought pre-primed canvas that you can paint directly onto.

The first thing you will need is your support. Buy some medium fine linen (approx. £30 for a metre – usually sold in 2 metre widths). This will be soft to the touch and flexible (not stiff like the pre-primed linen). Linen and canvas come in different weights and grain sizes (from fine to coarse).

Buy stretcher bars for the dimensions you require, let us say a 61cm × 51cm standard size (24 × 20in). Stretcher bars vary in design and depth; a standard 19mm depth (¾in) will cost £20–30 for all four lengths (usually sold in pairs).

Buy a pack of rabbit skin glue granules (approximately £10 for a 500g bag) and a small tin of oil primer (£40–80). The traditional primer is one which contains lead white. In my experience this is the best primer. It may prove difficult to get hold of due to recently introduced health and safety legislation. The oil primer that does not contain lead white will be more economical and will generally serve the same purpose. If you cannot get an oil primer then an acrylic primer can be used. Gesso is another alternative preparation.

Preparing a size

Prior to stretching your canvas, you will need to soak your rabbit skin glue granules. This is called a size and it acts as a barrier between your support (your canvas or board) and the paint, by penetrating the absorbent support. To prepare your size, use twenty-four parts of cold water per one part rabbit skin glue. This preparation can be a lengthy process, due to the drying times, and so it may be best to prepare a few canvases at a time. A third of a small cup of rabbit skin glue granules will be enough for two or three layers over several canvases.

Put this mixture of cold water and rabbit skin glue into an old saucepan. Stir well with a palette knife. There will seem to be a lot of water in relation to the granules at this point. Do not heat the mixture yet since the granules have not had time to absorb the water. Leave to stand for at least twelve hours. Stirring occasionally will help to circulate the grains and aid the absorption process. You will see the granules swell, so that by the end of the twelve hours there will be a lot less water noticeable above the layer of the thicker granules.

Rabbit skin glue granules in a saucepan with cold water, before absorption.

The amount of absorption after twelve hours.

Assembling the stretcher

Most stretcher bars will have smoothed rounded edges for the front, or a bevelled front edge. This is so that contact with the picture surface is minimized. Piece the bars together, putting the cross bars in first if there are any. Rock the stretcher on its end to ease the corner joints together. Use a wooden mallet to knock them firmly together and a set square to make sure that they are at right angles (90 degrees). It is frustrating and a waste of time if you realize, once the stretcher is assembled and the canvas stretched and primed, that your picture is not a true rectangle. Measure the two diagonal distances from corner to corner; if this distance is the same then the canvas is square. The wedges that are usually supplied by the stretcher maker are inserted into the inner corners, so that the right angle of their triangular shape is pointing towards the centre of the canvas. The wedges are useful for keeping the stretched canvas fully taut.

Stretching a canvas

Keep the direction of the weave of the canvas parallel to the stretcher. Lay the stretcher face down onto the canvas. Cut enough extra canvas surrounding the stretcher so as to cover the sides or depth of the stretcher bars. Two or three inches (5–6cm) on each side are usually enough.

Starting with the longest dimension first, put in a tack or a staple (staple guns are easiest to use) at the mid-way point. Opposite this first point is the position for your next staple. Pull up the slack canvas across the stretcher from your first staple to make it fairly taut, remembering to keep the direction of the weave fairly straight. (Y...