Physiognomy: Comparing People to Animals

Can you guess a person's personality by the shape or appearance of their head? Do some people look like animals, or some animals look like people?

Those were questions asked by people in the field of Physiognomy. Here Italian scholar and playwright Giambattista Della Porta compares a sharp-featured man with a hound, in De humana physiognomonia, in 1586.

To Della Porta, another man's face resembles that of a bull. (More examples from Della Porta are at Public Domain Review.) 

The question kept appearing since the days of the ancients: Does the face determine someone's destiny, or does the face reflect the life they've lived? 

Leonardo rejected the first proposition but accepted the second. He said, "Lines caused by facial expressions could indicate personality traits. For example, he wrote that "those who have deep and noticeable lines between the eyebrows are irascible."

Charles Le Brun

In the late 1600s, French painter Charles Le Brun did a series of drawings of physiognomic heads, comparing a variety of metrics such as the axis of the eyebrows and the angle of the eyes, and he drew parallels between they faces of certain human characters and those of animals. 

He was also fascinated with the way emotions played out on the face in humans and animals. Le Brun was influenced by the idea that the area around the eyebrows were of extreme importance, based on the discovery by Descartes of the pineal gland at the base of the brain. Descartes believed that spot was the seat of the soul.

The interest in this topic lasted well into the 19th century. In 1866, James W Redfield published Comparative physiognomy: or, Resemblances between men and animals. 

Though in recent times physiognomy has been discredited in scientific and academic circles, the idea still surfaces in the work of artists who design anthropomorphic (human-animal) characters. 

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Plein-Air Portraiture in International Artist

The upcoming August/September issue of International Artist magazine contains my article "Painting Candid Portraits in the Wild," which recaps nine recent adventures in plein-air portraiture.

In the article I address a question that comes up often:

Is it OK to Sketch Strangers in Public?
Yes. In most public places people have no expectation of privacy, and you have a right to sketch them. However, for both ethical and practical reasons, it’s better to assume otherwise. Whenever someone notices that I’m sketching them, I try to introduce myself, and I show them what I’m up to. My standard line is: "Hi, I'm just getting some practice sketching people, hope you don't mind. Keep doing what you're doing. I'll be done in five more minutes and I'll show you when I finish." Most often, they just want to take a photo for Facebook. If they look annoyed after I say that line, I’ll switch to someone else. But nine times out of ten, being open will erase their worries and perhaps make a friend. Sometimes I’m sitting too far away to make such a connection, or I’m dealing with a language barrier. In that case, I hold up the sketchbook and smile. That clears the air and gives them the opportunity to decline politely. If I want to do a portrait with a lot more commitment, rather than stealth sketching, it's best to get permission and set the terms at the outset. Then I can say something like, "Hey, are you going to be around here a while? I'm an artist and I'd love to sketch your portrait while we talk."

International Artist was voted the Best Art Magazine by GJ readers. 

Sunset at the Supermarket

Here's the view across the parking lot of the supermarket yesterday at sunset. 

Supermarket, gouache, 4 x 7 inches.

The painting sequence was a little different on this one. The sky is a transparent wash. I used ultramarine blue and burnt sienna gouache for the dark silhouettes. I painted tree darker at first, but I went in later with yellow and orange opaque gouache, painting the whole silhouette lighter as it approached the sun. 

I didn't have a camera at all to document the place or steps.

How Movement Aids Face Recognition

Every face you're familiar with, whether friend or celebrity, has a distinctive shape and proportion. But familiar faces also have a set of characteristic movements. Those movements, scientists say, are stored in your memory, and play a crucial role in face recognition.



This effect is understood by actors who are masters of impressions. Watch as Kevin Spacey does a series of impressions (Link to YouTube). Before he even gets into doing the voice, he concentrates on the characteristic movement and posture of his subject.


The same is true with these "nano-impressions" by Ross Marquand. The movement is a bigger part of his impressions than the voice. For the impression to work, the movement, voice, words, and timing combined have to be powerful enough to override the contrary impression given by the impersonator's face metrics (Link to YouTube)

Psychology professors Karen Lander and Lewis Chuang of the University of Manchester showed in a research project that moving faces are much easier to recognize, especially when the person is moving in a distinctive way. An expressionless face simply rotating doesn't offer much. They write that the "distinctiveness of the observed motions may be important, with the beneficial effect becoming more pronounced as the face moves in a more "characteristic'' or distinctive manner."

This is why I don't mind if a portrait subject is moving. In fact, I like it more if they're moving. It gives me a better sense of their character, and helps me decide the best pose and expression.
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Tutorial:
Portraits in the Wild: Painting People in Real Settings
Resources
Why are Moving Faces Easier to Recognize? (free PDF of the study) by Karen Lander and Lewis Chuang
Previously: 
Eyebrows and Face Recognition
Disrupting Face Recognition Technology

Lovell Book Announced

Publisher Dan Zimmer has announced that he's working on a book about Tom Lovell's work as an illustrator. Here is the unfolded dust jacket design.

There was a previous book about Lovell from the 1980s, but it mainly covered his western art work. This one spans his whole career, focusing mainly on his magazine illustrations. 

The book begins with a biography and shows his early pulp illustrations. But this book will be mainly pure pictures, reproduced large, the way art books should be.

It includes the wide range of subjects: pretty women, male action, romantic subjects, and historical reconstructions. The book will include some scans of tearsheets so you can see how they appeared on the page. There's also some discussion of his method, with examples of his thorough preliminary sketch process. 

There are plenty of original art scans showing paint texture and brushstrokes. Lovell has always been the artists' artist, one whose style doesn't seem particularly locked into a given time period.

Young artists today can learn from his use of color, his sense of dramatic staging and lighting, his striking compositions, and his paint handling. You can see more page spreads from the book in a low rez preview at this link.

The Lovell book is coming out this October. Dan isn't doing a Kickstarter campaign this time because he's already got enough early orders to cover the printing.

Instead at this stage he's taking prepublication orders. Since this is a limited edition, it might be wise to order one now, because they'll probably sell out by the publication date (like his last book on Dean Cornwell) and they'll be hard to get after that.

Here are the specs:
The book is 224 pages, 9”x12”, full-color on premium low-gloss stock, hardbound with dust jacket.
A Standard Edition copy of the book is available for only $44.95 plus postage. It's limited to just 900 copies.
A Special Edition copy of the book is available for $65.00 plus postage.
The Special Edition book is signed and numbered with slipcase. Limited to 100 copies.

Painting a Complex Subject in Watercolor

(Link to You Tube) Painting in transparent watercolor requires careful planning, and that's especially true when there's perspective and lettering involved.

In this case I spent nearly one hour of the 2 hour session on the preliminary pencil drawing. After I was sure of that, the rest went pretty fast.
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Watercolor in the Wild Gumroad tutorial

Gouache Materials List

I was putting together a gouache materials list for an upcoming workshop, so I thought I would share it with you, too.

Surface

You can use illustration board, watercolor paper in sheets, a watercolor paper pad or spiral bound watercolor sketchbooks. However, I prefer to paint gouache in 5.5 x 8.5 inch hardcover stitched-in watercolor journals.

The two I recommend are Pentalic watercolor journal (which has 100% rag, 100 lb paper), and the Strathmore 400 Watercolor Journal  (which has 140 lb paper and comes in hardcover and softcover formats). The Moleskine book is OK too, and has more pages than the other two, but the paper is thinner, so I'd recommend that one if you're doing more drawing and dry media compared to watercolor.

Brushes
• Flats, synthetic 1/4", 1/2", and 1"
• Rounds, synthetic or Kolinsky sable, assorted sizes 4-10

A good bargain is to get a watercolor brush set with carrying pouch (regular length handles) or a short-handled water media brush set with carrying case. The latter will fit over the left hand page of the open sketchbook.

There are a lot of brands available, including very expensive Kolinsky brushes, but I don't think you have to spend that kind of money for most purposes. The cheaper synthetics can be very good. If I find a good brush, I buy a few extras to have on hand. I've found brushes of acceptable quality at the big box craft stores for very reasonable prices, but you have to check them out. What you want to look for are brushes that have good spring or snap, not floppy. The brush should come to a fine point — or edge in the case of a flat. That way you can use a fairly large brush to paint your picture.

If you're painting in casein, use only synthetics; don't use natural hair brushes (bristles or sables) because the paint can be hard on the fibers.

Paint
The Holbein gouache sets are good quality, and you get a lot of colors for a good value. Holbein makes a set of 12 colors of the normal size 15 ml tubes. They also make a set of 18 that sells for an inexpensive price, but the tubes are much smaller, only 5ml.

They also make an Acryla Gouache line, which has a closed surface after it dries, meaning water won't dissolve the dry paint.

Winsor and Newton's set is good quality, but overpriced at $139. Edit: Here's a W/N 10-tube set for $43

Royal Talens  makes a set of 8 and M. Graham has a 5 color set, but they lack earth colors, one of the joys of gouache. You can always buy the set for the pure primaries and then supplement with individual tubes of raw sienna, yellow ochre, raw umber, and Venetian red or burnt sienna, plus black if the set doesn't come with it.

Shinhan Pass makes a 48-tube set of "hybrid" gouache/watercolor paints. They're pigment-rich, non-toxic, and use gum arabic as the binder and most of the colors can be used transparently or opaquely. But note that 8 of the 48 colors are not lightfast pigments, so they're better for designers or sketchers than gallery artists. The set is priced around $180, not bad considering they're 20ml tubes, while most other brands are 15ml.

Here's a link-rich previous blog post about the various brands you can choose from. You can always buy individual tubes from other reputable firms but the price will add up rapidly.

What I do in practice is try all kinds of brands and colors. At any given time I carry around about 12-15 colors of different manufacturers. When I set up for a painting, I select the smallest possible set of colors that I need to paint the scene. I store unused tubes in large glass jars with lids that seal tightly. That keeps them from drying out.

Palette
It can be a plastic or metal tray of your choice, and it should be white or painted white. There are gray palettes, but I don't like them for watercolor and gouache because they make it harder to judge transparent mixtures.

I use the lid from a a colored pencil box spray painted white. It attaches to the bottom panel of my lightweight sketch easel with magnets.

Rags or Paper Towels
Paper towels made by Bounty are lint free. They can be dampened and applied to the palette to extend the working time of the paint, and of course they can also be used to clean brushes. Another solution for brush cleaning is old T-shirts cut into foot-square pieces.

Water Cup
I recommend the Nalgene 2 oz. jar for a palette-side jar and a 32 ounce plastic food container attached lower on the easel for cleaning brushes.

Pencil
A graphite pencil (HB) will do for the lay-in stage. If you want to use watercolor pencils, I recommend the Caran d'Ache Supracolor set of 18.

Pens

I use a Waterman fountain pen with brown ink for written notes. Remember that fountain pen ink dissolves in water after it dries, so unless you don't mind your lines being blurred, save them until the end. If you prefer to do linework before adding washes of water, you can use waterproof pens, such as the Microns, which come in many colors, including black and brown.

Water Brushes 
I use Niji Water Brushes with round tips. I normally carry between three and five water brushes. One is filled with water, and the others are filled with blue, black, brown, and gray water-soluble ink, such as Higgins Eternal ink.

Transparent watercolor kit
Having a watercolor set as an add-on isn't essential for gouache painting, but if you have a transparent cake set, it opens up many more options. I recommend a small set with in an enamel steel box so that you can hold it to your easel with magnets.

Schmincke Small Watercolor Set (12 Half Pans)

Winsor and Newton 24 Pan Set with Metal Box

Sennelier Watercolor Metal Box  (12 Tubes)

Blockx Watercolor Set (24 half pans)

Erasers

I carry two erasers, a Kneaded Eraser and a White Latex-Free Eraser.

Sharpener

I've used a Kum Pencil Sharpener, which not only catches the shavings, but also has a little flap that covers the hole, so the shavings don't leak out and pollute the pages of the sketchbook as well as anything else in my sketch bag. Another good one is the Staedtler pencil sharpener, which has a flap to protect from shaving leakage, and two holes for graphite and colored pencil.

Plastic clamps
Here's a 2-Inch Plastic Clamp and a 3.75-inch Clamp. Of all the clips and clamps that I've tried, these seem to be the most versatile for holding the book open or clipping the watercolor box to the easel.

Chair and easel
The biggest decision of your setup strategy is whether to sit or stand. A tripod folding stool is a strong and lightweight option. I usually like to sit if I'm painting something that's close to the ground, like a flower, or if I'm painting an upshot.  It's good to have a chair if you want to hold the sketchbook in your lap. I use a homemade sketch easel that I described on an earlier blog post. The nice thing about a tripod easel is that it will work for either standing or sitting.

The workshop

The workshop I mentioned earlier will be in the Denver Botanic Garden in Denver, Colorado on September 15-16, 2016. Sorry, it's sold out, but FYI, it's called
Painting on Location in Opaque Water Media with James Gurney.

Video tutorials

Gouache in the Wild
Watercolor in the Wild

Previously on GJ
Watercolor in the Wild materials

Gouache Ingredients