Cube and Checkerboard Illusions

The dark square marked “A” is painted with the identical mixture as the light square marked “B”. (Link to video on Facebook.)

The square marked “A” is painted with the identical color mixture as the square marked “B”. Both are a neutral gray. (Link to video.) 

The lesson from both of these diagrams is that our visual system uses context cues to override the raw information that our eyes receive. It's good to keep this rule in mind when estimating the value and the color of objects.
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From my book "Color and Light: A Guide for The Realist Painter."

Available signed from my website store
and from Amazon

Józef Chełmoński's Wildlife Paintings

Józef Chełmoński (Polish 1849 -1914) studied in Paris and exhibited in the Salon. But after a decade in France, he returned to his homeland in Poland. 

He used his academic skills to paint evocative scenes of the people and the wildlife that he was familiar with. 

One of his best loved paintings shows a group of partridges struggling against the wind, surrounded by the bleak, infinite whiteness of the snow and sky. 

Józef Chełmoński, Partridges, 1891, oil on canvas, National Museum, Warsaw

There's no food or shelter in sight for these small, warm-blooded creatures. The image works on the literal level, but each viewer may identify with it on a figurative meanings, perhaps an expression of human struggle.

Józef Chełmoński , Partridges, detail

The details of their plumage are painted carefully, presumably from actual specimens. Chełmoński creates depth by blurring and obscuring the further individuals.

Wikipedia on Józef Chełmoński 

Images on Wikimedia 

Your Questions About Gouache

You had some questions on YouTube and Instagram:

Preston asks: Hey James, I want to start painting gouache en plein air. However, I’ve been having some trouble with the colors. I have experience oil painting, but all these gouache colors confuses me. There’s like 3 different types of reds such as “Spectrum Red, Primary Red, and Designer Red”, yet they all look like the same hue. Perhaps they have varying opacities? I plan on just buying Red, Blue, and Yellow with White and Black, and a few Earth Tones. I also plan on building the painting setup you discussed on your blog.

Gurney answers:  I would suggest buying gouache with well-known pigments, such as cadmium red, and avoiding colors with descriptive names like "spectrum red." As you probably know from your oil paints, the pigments are identified by Color Index Names (so cadmium red is PR108), and the reputable brands list pigments on the tubes. There's a website that tells you the pigment numbers. The opacity varies according to the pigment, and in my opinion, it's good to have some gouache pigments that are less opaque to use like watercolor in the lay-in stages.

Gouache is often marketed with "primary colors" or "spectrum colors" because it's so often used in art classes for painting color wheels. I would also beware of the cheap gouache sets that have weak pigment loads or pigments that aren't lightfast.


By the way, here's an interesting video about color pigments. (Link to YouTube)

Brady asks: "I was wondering how you frame a gouache painting once you have completed it. For example, a painting that you finish for a client or plan to put in an art show."

Gurney answers: I would mat and frame your gouache behind glass. You have to protect that delicate surface, because a splash of water, a sneeze, or an oily touch would spoil it. You could use a thin wood or metal photo frame and a generous mat to make the frame look museum-quality. It is possible to varnish gouache and treat it like an oil, but not really recommended, because the beauty of gouache is that matte surface, and a varnish will bring out lots of surprising layers. As always, experiment first!

Jonathan asks: What did you use to tone the paper tan?

Gurney answers: I toned the paper with a thin layer of casein paint (white, yellow ochre, and light red), but you could use Acryla Gouache or tinted gesso, or even brown India ink.

Tom asks: When working with gouache, or casein for that matter, do you wait a little while before folding up the sketchbook to avoid smudging, or does the paint dry sufficiently to allow you to pack up almost immediately? 

Gurney answers: It dries almost immediately (unless it's raining and 100% humidity), so I can pack i it up immediately.

Start a Gouache Landscape with Wild Brushstrokes

Sometimes like to I start a gouache landscape with loose, wild brushstrokes. (Link to YouTube)

ART SUPPLIES
Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils
Pentalic watercolor sketchbook
M. Graham gouache Ultramarine blue, terra rosa, yellow ochre, and titanium white.
Richeson casein paint (underpainting)
Travel brush set
Water cup
Homemade easel
Tripod

VIDEO TUTORIALS:
Gouache in the Wild (Download on Sellfy):
Gouache in the Wild (Download on Gumroad):
How to Make a Sketch Easel (DVD)

CAMERA:
Canon M6 (time lapse, video, and stills)

BLOG POSTS WITH MORE GEAR INFO:
List of Gouache Materials
List of Watercolor Materials

BOOKS:
Color and Light: A Guide for Realist Painters
Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist 
Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time: https://amzn.to/2xyamRM

OTHER OFFICIAL SITES
Instagram
Pinterest
Website

Oolu, Skybax Instructor

Here's Oolu, skybax instructor, shown with emblems for master, apprentice, and beginning riders, an illustration from the book Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time.

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Available signed on my website

Also available on Amazon

Glitter Path

A glitter path is a vertical reflection of a very bright light source on water, extending from the horizon straight down to the water near the viewer.

Glitter path, photo by Harald Edens

Typically the source is the sun or moon, so sometimes it's called a "moon-path." The glitter path widens where the water is disturbed, and it narrows in the areas where the water is calmer.

Study by Peder Krøyer

Wavelets present many small reflecting surfaces at a variety of angles. Wherever those surfaces are just the right angle to reflect the sun, a spot or dash of light appears.

The effect fascinated Danish artist Peder Krøyer (1851-1901), who did many studies of it, and included it in some of his most famous paintings.

In Howard Pyle's magical story, The Garden Behind the Moon, the "moon-path" appears one night and a young boy discovers that he can walk out on the water:

"There was the moon-path, and there was the wave, and there was this bar of moonlight right a-top the wave. I stepped out again, and this time I wasn't afraid. This time, would you believe it, I didn't fall into the water at all. All the same I had to jump off that wave on to another, for the moonlight was sliding under my feet. It was as slippery as glass."

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Books: How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea by Tristan Gooley
The Garden Behind the Moon by Howard Pyle
Online: Glitter Path, explained in Backyard Optics 

Joseph Ducreux's self portraits

Joseph Ducreux (1735 –1802) was a French painter best known for his unusual self-portraits.

He was interested in the study of physiognomy, and wanted to explore expressions that went  beyond the standard ones used in portraiture. 

Some also involve gestures, such as Le Discret (ca. 1790), which shows himself asking for silence.

He studied with Maurice Quentin de La Tour, who was known for his expressive pastel portraits. When Ducreux focused more on oil, his technique was influenced by Jean-Baptiste Greuze.

Portrait de l'artiste sous les traits d'un moqueur, 1793
(Portrait of the Artist in the Guise of Mocking)

When the French Revolution broke out, circumstances were more dangerous for Ducreux. He drew the last portrait of Louis XVI before the king's execution. Ducreux was forced to travel to London.

His self portrait with the mocking expression has inspired a huge number of memes.

We're not used to seeing old paintings or photos of people with facial expressions. See the Previous Posts below for some exceptions to that rule.

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Previous Posts: 

Smiling Presidents  

Happy Old-Time Photos

Maurice Quentin de la Tour

Wikipedia: Joseph Ducreux

Sketching Irish Musicians

(Link to video) It's good for a sketchbook to have a little Guinness spilled on it.

This article comes out in the next (April 2019) issue of International Artist Magazine. Blog readers have voted them the best art magazine, and I am pleased to have been writing a column in every issue since 2007.

Victor Perard's analysis of the figure

Victor Semon Pérard (1870-1957) was a Golden-Age American illustrator who trained at the École des Beaux Arts with Jean Léon Gérôme, and later at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League.

He also wrote many art-instruction books in the early 20th century. Pérard's book Anatomy and Drawing presents a sequence of steps for drawing a figure.

"1. Find the center of the paper by drawing lines from corner to corner. This is done to help center the study.

2. Measure with the eye or pencil to find the center of the subject and make a line at that point as related to the center of the paper. Draw a line at the head and another at the feet. With free lines, search for the rhythm of the pose, to help visualize the figure and to place it on the paper the size intended. Draw lightly so that the mental impression of the figure is not obliterated by a heavy drawing, and corrections can easily be made.

3. Decide where the pit of the neck should be placed, and draw a perpendicular line from the seventh cervical vertebra to the feet. Find the line of the shoulders, giving the angle of their positions. If a standing figure, first draw the leg on which there is most weight, to obtain the proper balance of the figure."

"4. Give the line showing the angle of the position of the pelvis. Indicate a line through the kneecaps. Draw the torso, indicating its bulk, marking the width of the shoulders, hops, neck, and head. Block with straight lines going beyond the intersections to obtain a better idea of the direction of the line and to avoid a cramped feeling.

5. Sketch within the lines a simplified skeleton, to check up on position of joints and bulk of chest. See that the pit of the neck, the pubic bone, the navel, the pelvis, the kneecaps, and the inner ankles are in proper relation to each other. Compare relative sizes of head to bulk of torso, hands to face, feet to hands, arms to legs, and thickness of the neck to that of the head, leg, and arm.

6. Go over the outline, perfecting it, searching for character and for grace of line."

"7. Indicate the outline of the planes and of the principal shadows.

8. Fill in the planes in large surfaces, and connect the shadows as much as possible.

9. Without losing their mass, model the planes keeping well in mind the direction of light. In drawing the head, decide on the bulk and draw in the planes of the face, then the eyes, the mouth and the nose last. It is easier to fit a head on a figure, than to fit a figure to a head."

Pérard's book analyzes the figure in many different ways, including drawings that show the expressive contours of action poses.

Books by Victor Pérard
Anatomy and Drawing
How to Draw Nearly Everything

Pérard is profiled in Walt Reed's book The Illustrator in America

Gouache as a Rehearsal Medium

Here's a new teaser for the upcoming article about T. rex coming up in the April issue of Ranger Rick. (Link to YouTube)


I do two quick sketches in gouache before launching into the final oil painting. I paint them over a scan of the line drawing, greatly reduced in size, printed out on my copier, and sealed with acrylic matte medium.

These gouache sketches serve two purposes. First, they help me imagine what the final result might look like. And second, they serve as a trial run, allowing me to rehearse the painting sequence.

I'll be releasing a full length tutorial download in a couple of weeks called "Unconventional Painting Techniques in Oil," intended for all sorts of painters, not just dino-artists. The focus will be on unusual ways of applying the paint to achieve naturalistic effects.

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Ranger Rick Magazine website