ekitson

[ekitson]

Carlo and Ubaldo see Rinaldo conquered by Love for Armida

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)

The National Gallery, London

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‪The bones from dozens of cadavers were used to create these 18th century anatomical wax models

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The Surprise, 1827 // by Claude-Marie Dubufe by Miguel Catalan

Claude-Marie-Paul Dubufe (1790 – 1864) a French historical, genre and portrait painter, was born in Paris in 1790, and studied under David.

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Some short in-between-teaching graphite sketches for #sketchbooksaturday (at New York Academy of Art)

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#sketchbooksaturday Terra cotta pencil sketch of Quinn over some old notes. My New York Academy of Art CS courses start up in two weeks! Looking forward to a summer filled of figure studies!

https://register.asapconnected.com/Courses.aspx?CourseGroupID=18029

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Perspective lecture notes for my Drawing 1 course at HACC York last Fall. I've been getting a lot of questions about perspective from students lately. What's something about perspective that gives you trouble? Or, what do you wish someone had taught you about perspective? (I'm designing a course...) (at HACC - York Campus)

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Graphite studies, always looking for gesture in the form as well as the light

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Classic Architecture Studies by Chema Pastrana

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Charles Landseer’s (1799 – 1879) Anatomical Studies

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Israel Hershberg’s tree paintings have had an incredible influence on me over the past few years- his ability to design his perception on the surface absolutely astounds me. 

http://www.israelhershberg.com/

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“Boar Skull”

Evan Kitson 9"x12" Graphite on Paper

evankitson.com

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Early works by Edward Hopper, c.1900-1905

Here is a great source for many works of Hopper’s that I’ve never seen before - I haven’t quite hacked it yet (just found it today), so I’m not sure how to get to the full-res files. 

I’ll keep trying, but in the meantime, if any of you have these in higher definition, or have hacked the site, please let me know. 

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Some of my favorite photographs. 

Andrea Modica

Cathrine Ertmann

H. Goetz

Inigo Aragon

Karen Knorr

Perttu Saksa

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

Tom Chambers

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Skull study- Graphite. Every time I buy a whole pile of new fancy art supplies, it seems I only draw with an eraser, stump, and mechanical pencil.

Layer after layer after layer... after layer... 

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Little sketch of the David’s right eye after class, drawn in my sketchbook. Graphite

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What are your thoughts on drawing from photographs? I've been told repeatedly that nothing can compare to drawing a live model with proper lighting, but that's something I don't necessarily always have access to. Do you have any tips or thoughts on using photographic references for portraits?

Hey- Thanks for your question. A lot of times I hear the “advice” on not working from photos, but rarely do I hear the explanation of why an artist, specifically a student, shouldn’t work from photographs as their reference. I personally believe that gesture (which I take to mean the staging of the structural landmarks in space), proportion, perspective, value, hue, chroma, and morphology are the most important aspects of drawing/painting needed to convey the illusion of realism in any context. In a photograph all of those aspects are distorted in some fashion- first, the camera lens is sensitive to light, and can’t account for any structural information- so your gesture, proportion, and perspective will all be a little off, and the spacial relationships will all be a bit flat because of that. We all know that the color relationships the camera provides aren’t what we see in reality, so you can’t really trust the camera to provide accurate hue and chroma information, and when it comes to value, the camera is much, much more limited than our eye, which can lead to a flattened space. Photographers spend a great deal of time working on their images after they take the photo, fine-tuning and getting the exact result they’re looking for, usually tweaking the value, hue, chroma, and playing with spacial relationships. Most of the time, students won’t put that much effort into their photo reference.

The general idea is to work from life while you’re learning and building up your technical facility, draw/paint/sculpt from life as much as possible. There were (and still are) many months where I didn’t have access to a model so I created a ton of self-portraits from a mirror. When I grew tired of that, I drew from whatever was around me- interiors, landscapes, and still-life setups. I draw in my sketchbooks as much as I can- they give me a safe place to make mistakes and experiment and push myself. Once you’re creating solid drawings from life, and have a good understanding of structure in your work, my recommendation is to provide yourself with adequate photo reference. I found when I was an illustration student that taking multiple photos of my subject from multiple angles under multiple lighting situations helped to provide me with enough information. Working from life gives you an immense amount of information to work with- so you should do your best to match that with your photo references. Light your subject, take photos not only from the angle you need, but from over, under, and side-to-side (3/4th, 5/8th, etc). Then, turn all the lights on and repeat the photos so you can see what the shadows in your references are hiding. The more information the better, always. You never know when your concept may change- and the pose needs to shift- this way you'll have reference to help with that- you'll have options. 

It’s also worth noting that you should always take your own reference photos if possible. Be very careful to avoid copyright infringement.

As far as the portrait goes- a solid understanding of the planar relationships of the head and features, an in-depth understanding of the skull’s boney landmarks, and perspective. Sculpting a small head a few times will really, really help. Lookup Vanderpoel’s planes of the head, and George Bridgeman’s drawings are really great for looking how important perspective is and how it can help with the head (and anything else!) For a lot of my early undergrad work, I would use photographs as reference, and I'd always set up a skull in the lighting situations and photograph that as well so I knew what was happening structurally in the head. That really helped. I own a number of skull casts which I use as reference when I teach- they're really helpful, and if you get a good one, you'll only need one. The Bone Room is great for picking up a cast of a skull (or a real one!)

At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter if you work from photography or from life to make your own work- as long as you’re aware of what both of them provide, and what they each lack in relation to your own goals as an artist. I know many incredibly skilled folks who use photography exclusively as their references, as well as others who only work from life. The end result is what really matters, not just how you arrive there.

So yeah, if you’re going to use photo references, make sure they’re exactly what you need them to be. Sometimes it’s worth just hiring a model than dealing with the frustration of a poor reference photo. I have many friends who sit for me at no cost when they have some free time. I could go on and on (and on, and on…) about this subject- but I hope this was helpful in someway.

All the best, and good luck!

[ekitson]

Sketchbook Skull