jayme del rosario | sketchblog » portrait

Going Big

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:02:04 +0000

I’ve been getting finicky lately and needed to “reset” meaning take what I learned from Rick Piloco’s sketch class (which I took a few years ago). Think big, get the right value/color right, put it down and leave it alone.

My smallest brush was a large round size 6. It was a great way to prevent myself from getting too tight too soon so that I could properly work from general to specific. Also, in a 3 hour sketch (I’m just used to much longer) I usually run out of time before I an get to anything specific and I find that this can be a good thing for me.

oil sketch, 18" x 24"

Portrait sketch, graphite

admin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:36:37 +0000

Here’s a 3-hour portrait sketch done in graphite.

Jackie, graphite on paper

Portrait Sketch: Ilya

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:34:39 +0000

3hr portrait sketch, oil on paper

Portrait Sketch: Lee

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:44:12 +0000

3-hr portrait sketch, oil on paper

Portrait Sketch: Whittnie

admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:22:28 +0000

Here’s a quick 3-hour portrait sketch of Whittnie that I did at the studio during Kate‘s quick portrait sketch class. The exercise is a push towards color accuracy, but is highly dependent on a very good drawing and structural knowledge of the head/portrait. A block-in in 20 minutes is one of the hardest things I find that we do at the studio, though it’s great practice. It’s quite an adrenaline rush. Ay….3 hours flies!

3-hour quick portrait sketch, Whittnie

Andrew Loomis and Matthew Innis’ latest blog post on his blog, Underpaintings, offers great reading material for these quick portraits.

Menzel Copy

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:03:40 +0000

Copy of Menzel drawing, Head of Bearded Man, graphite

Here’s a new copy I’m working on from another visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is a copy of a beautiful drawing by Adolf Menzel, in graphite. I’m going back for a second session since I didn’t have time to finish. I spent a lot of time just admiring Menzel’s handwork. Here’s a shot of what I have so far after the first session.

The Portraits of Pietro Annigoni

admin — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:06:44 +0000

Milan born painter Pietro Annigoni studied and lived most of his life in Florence where he studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti taking classes in painting, sculpture and engraving. Though he was popular for his evocative landscapes, he enjoyed great success as a portrait painter painting prominent figures such as Pope John XXIII, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Queen Elizabeth II.

Annigoni’s style is greatly influenced by the great Old Masters of the Italian Renaissance though he learned the art of painting in tempera grassa (ie, “fatty tempera”) while studying under the Russian painter Nikolai Lokoff. What makes the tempera paint fatty are particles of oil mixed in with the egg tempera. The oil allows the paint to have slightly more blending effects though the medium remains to follow the drying properties of pure tempera rather than oil paint.

I am not sure whether these portraits were painted in pure tempera grassa, pure oil paint or a mix of both mediums, regardless they are exquisite.

Born in 1910 and being a realist painter at a time when realism and traditional painting was a dying art form, Annigoni signed the manifesto of Modern Realist Painters in 1947. The group consisted of 7 painters who were openly opposed to abstract art and other styles and movements of art in Italy at the time. Despite representational art’s fall from grace, Annigoni continued to produce work that bore the style of Italian Renaissance portraiture executed with technical bravado and enjoyed worldwide success in the face of modernism and post-modernism. Nelson Shanks of Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia and Michael John Angel of the Angel Academy in Florence were both Annigoni students.

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Images courtesy of Artron
Annigoni on Art Renewal, more images
Angel Academy of Art
Studio Incamminati