Preview: Figure Painting Demonstration

Hi Everyone,

Here is a preview of my new Figure Painting Demonstration. It is one hour long and portrays an 18 hour process that takes you through the drawing, the color study, an underpainting and two stages of form modelling. It is $30 and available for download on my website: www.scottwaddellfinearts.com

I hope you all enjoy!

Thanks,
Scott

The Woodcarver

Hi Everyone, here is an image of a recently completed portrait. It is titled "The Woodcarver". It is 32"x28".

Also, I expect to post a new downloadable video, A Figure Painting Demonstration, this weekend. It will be available for $30 on my website: www.scottwaddellfinearts.com. Check back here on the blog for a preview and a link if you're interested.

Thanks!
Scott

Two New Paintings

Hi Everyone,
Here are a couple paintings that I've been working on. They go together (which I suppose is obvious). I had to bring a lot of elements together for these paintings (much coming from my imagination) which was challenging and sometimes frustrating. The narrative was what really motivated me on these paintings and it was a good learning experience to see my way through the ups and downs of the process. Each painting is 24"x20" and together they are titled "Half World".

Thanks for looking!
Scott

Head Study in Oil

Hi Everyone,

Here is a head study for a larger painting I plan on doing. It was a difficult pose but a lot of fun to do. It is 12"x9".

I want to thank everyone for the comments on the last webisode. I appreciate all of the questions I received both in the comments section and by email. I've been fairly busy lately as my wife and I just recently had our second child but I hope to put a post up soon that will answer some of the recurring questions I've received.

Thanks!
Scott

Webisode 6: Painting the Effects of Light (Available in HD)

Hi Everyone,
Here is Webisode 6. It's taken a little while but I'm excited to be back with this new installment. I appreciate all of the support I received with the Portrait Painting Demonstration. As a result, I can now produce these videos in High Definition. If it's not already set, you can switch to the 1080p HD setting in the lower right hand corner of the Youtube viewing window. I'm already working on a new downloadable video that will be in HD and am in talks with a couple other artists to have even more videos in the future.

I hope you all enjoy this webisode and can indulge me on the cinematic scope of the music and editing (I have trouble remembering that I'm not making the 4th installment of the Lord of the Rings). Also, you will notice some animations throughout. I've become very interested in using simple 3D models to illustrate some of the concepts that are important to my process. I think there is a lot of potential with this although I'm only in the early stages of learning how to do it. These animations are only intended to illustrate certain points that I make throughout. They do not represent the actual physical behavior of light.

Thanks for watching!
Scott

Back from Oklahoma

Here is a photo of me with the group who took my portrait painting workshop last week. It was at the Conservatory for Classical Art in Edmond, Oklahoma. I had a great time. Everyone I met was wonderful and I enjoyed seeing Oklahoma City for the first time. My thanks to Leslie Lienau for inviting me out and hosting the workshop.

Also, my good friend Douglas Flynt will be out there this September doing a Figure Workshop. If you're in that area, check it out:
http://www.theconservatoryforclassicalart.org/index.html

-Scott

PREVIEW: Portrait Painting Demonstration (available at www.scottwaddellfinearts.com)

Hi Everyone! Here is the preview for my new downloadable demo. In this video I share my personal form based approach to portrait painting. Covering a painting process that took 9 hours to complete, this 48 minute long video shows me creating a preliminary drawing done in graphite on paper, how I transfer this drawing to my linen and ultimately my execution of the painting using oil paints. Throughout the video I describe my thought process and the artistic concepts I utilize while working.

$20
AVAILABLE AT: www.scottwaddellfinearts.com

Also, new free webisodes are in production and will be coming soon!
Thanks,
Scott

Spanish Subtitles for Webisode 4

Webisode 4: Modeling Form in Paint now has Spanish subtitles thanks to Ariel Gulluni! Ariel decides to do these translations entirely on his own. I've heard from others that to do this requires a lot of time and I think it's wonderful that he is that dedicated to making this information available to as many people as possible. Thanks again Ariel!

Webisode 5: Drawing the Figure (part one)

Hi Everyone,
Here is Webisode 5. This first part focuses on the first 40 minutes of the drawing. I do not recommend necessarily following the steps as I lay them out. Rather, I'm more recommending an approach that consists of constantly analyzing the problems you're having and an evolving drawing structure that responds to those problems. For example, I'd struggled for a longtime with figure drawings that didn't appear balanced or gestural. I found that incorporating a rigorous stage of vertical plums left to right early on helped establish a pose that was consistent all the way across. Therefore, I recommend breaking down your procedure in the beginning and thinking about how you can order things to most effectively problem solve your way through figure drawing.

In the near future, I will advance the drawings by shifting into a more conceptual mode that will include discussions of anatomy, light and form.

Hope you all enjoy!
Scott

News and answers to some questions

I haven't quite finished Webisode 5 yet . . . I've been painting a lot lately, recently had family in town and just waged war with a particularly evil computer virus--a battle I seem to have won for the moment. But, in another week or so I hope to have it posted.

In other news, I've also been working on a longer portrait painting demo that I will be for sale as a video download on my website. I'll keep you posted on that.

In the meantime, here are some answers to questions I've received:

I was asked whether I always window shade or finish my paintings as I go. The answer is no, but it's the method I use most often. The concepts I describe in these webisodes seem to work best when I carefully think through every brush stroke and what they're meant to describe. Naturally, I have to make corrections to this first pass (as seen in Webisode 2: Painting the Eye) but the intent is to get it right from the start. That being said, I'm not opposed to other working methods and can easily imagine myself experimenting in the future.

I've also been asked how I keep my hue stable while modulating my values. This is certainly tricky and we've all had instances where we mix a hue down in value and have it steer into another hue. I simply try to identify the two directions my hue could go. If I started with a yellow it could either go towards green or orange. If it starts to move towards one or the other, I think of what colors on my palette might bring it back to a stable radius on the color wheel.

Lastly, I've had a number of questions concerning my materials; namely my brushes and medium. I use synthetic rounds generally small to medium in size. You can find these at all art stores and even some craft stores. I buy new ones every couple of weeks as I am pretty fussy about their tips. One could easily use sables and practice the same concepts and methods I use and teach.

When it comes to using medium, I mostly just rely on the natural consistency of paint from the tube. I like my brush strokes to be fairly opaque. If I have a particularly sticky pool of paint, I will use a little linseed oil. When I do touch-ups, after my first pass, I will typically oil out using linseed oil and use a little in my mixtures of paint resulting in a slightly translucent second pass. This seems to help create continuity between the first and second pass.

Hope this helps! See you all soon in Webisode 5: Blocking in the Figure

My Summer Workshops

Hi Everyone. Here is some information on my summer workshops. Follow the email links if you're interested.


PAINTING THE PORTRAIT (5 Days)
June 8th-12th
The Violet Door Studio
Edmond, OK
thevioletdoorstudio@gmail.com

FIGURE PAINTING (10 Days)
July 5th - 16th
Grand Central Academy
NY, NY
gcaclasses@gmail.com

Webisode 4: Modeling Form in Paint

In this webisode, I discuss and demonstrate some of the ideas that help me model form. I hope you all enjoy it. If you have questions please post in the comment section or, if you prefer to be more anonymous, just email me directly. I likely won't be able to answer all of them since I've been getting a high volume of email lately, but I will try to answer the recurring questions in an upcoming post.

I also want to give a big thanks to those of who have made donations. I wasn't able to thank all of you individually (as there wasn't always contact info with the donation) but please know that it meant a lot and went directly towards an upgrade in equipment--THANKS!!

Lastly, I want to thank my friend Douglas Flynt. He isn't working directly on these projects with me but has offered valuable advice throughout. Those of you who haven't seen his blog should check it out: http://douglasflynt.blogspot.com/

Thanks Everyone!
Scott

Webisode 3: Imagining a Composition

I decided to take a little break from technical issues in this webisode and focus more on my creative process. This is perhaps my favorite part of painting: when I daydream about new narratives and sketch various compositional ideas. Actually making paintings becomes very difficult and arduous; therefore, I think it's healthy to have these less regimented and more carefree periods wherein you can be most creative and focus on the content, mood and effect you want your paintings to have. Also, I'd like to mention that, while the music in this webisode may be a bit over-dramatic, it actually was what I listened to while planning a number of my whaling paintings and therefore influenced the tone of the series.
Those of you who are interested in more technical topics need not worry as Webisode 4 (coming later this month) will be back to business as usual.
Also, you might notice a new "donate" button on the side margin. There is absolutely no pressure to ever donate anything but if you feel so compelled, I would greatly appreciate it. There are some production costs to this series and I have plans to expand it this year.
Hope you all enjoy!
Scott

Anatomy Books

Happy New Year Everyone!
I'm back from my holiday vacation and beginning work on a couple of new webisodes for January. In the meantime, I thought I'd answer another question I've received by email. A number of people were curious which anatomy books I was referring to in Webisode 1, Part 2. They were "Artistic Anatomy" by Dr. Paul Richer and "Human Anatomy for Artists" by Eliot Goldfinger. While I do refer to other anatomy books, these two are what I rely on most often. Goldfinger's book is most valuable to me as an encyclopedia of anatomy. If I want to identify something quickly I always turn there first. Richer's book is where I look when I want to see the various anatomic components beautifully integrated in the French Academic tradition. Richer's plates are all beautiful and inspiring. Together, these books answer most of my anatomy questions.

Please note: I've installed links to these books through the Amazon associates program. For those of you who don't know, this means that if you link through my blog to purchase these books (or anything else at Amazon), a small percentage of the sale comes to me (at no additional cost to you). I felt a little weird just sneaking this in the blog so I wanted to be upfront about it. If you have an interest in supporting this blog and the webisodes this would be an easy, free way to do it (that is, if you were going to buy stuff at Amazon anyway). If not, that's totally fine--the webisodes will stay free because...well...I enjoy making them so much!

Take Care,
Scott