PROJECT
STARTING TO PAINT
Sargent always tried to paint in one
sitting if he could. If he was not happy
with his brushwork, he would smudge
the part he wished to reconstruct, and
begin again from a shapeless mass,
looking for the big form underneath.
“Don’t concentrate so much on the
features,” he advised at the early of
stages of a painting. “They are only
like spots on an apple. Paint the head,
not the mouth and eyes and nose.”
Begin by painting in the background
thinly with a mix of Rose Madder, Raw
Umber and a bit of Ultramarine to
cool it down. Let the background
colour overlap with the area marked
out for the hair. Then block in the hair,
overlapping it into the background,
trying to sometimes let it blend in and
disappear, and at other times have a
harder and more resolved edge.
The drawing will get pretty lost at
this point but don’t despair – we will
recover it continuously as we go, so
have fun with it. Scumble in the main
colours of the shirt, head and
background, letting them merge into
each other. Add in the halftones
thickly with no medium added to a
mix of mainly Yellow Ochre and
Ultramarine Blue with a bit of the
Vermillion Red and Titanium White.
The brushes will pick up the paint
readily so make sure to clean them
after every stroke.Sargent was taught by Carolus-
Duran, who focused on tonal values.
“Here lies the secret of painting,”
he said, “in the half-tones of each
plane, in economising each accent
and in the handling of the lights so
that they should play their part in
the picture only with a palpable and
necessary signifi cance.”In order to better see and identify
the subtle value transitions in your
subject, try squinting or looking
at it via a dark refl ective surface,
such as a tablet computer or
smartphone when the screen is off.
Doing this will compress the
values, making them easier to
distinguish.IDENTIFYING TONES
Soften any edges with a hog fi lbert.
I try to think of an apple and paint
round the head, working on the edges
into the shadows and background,
losing edges where they were lost and
then softly fi nding them again.
Work the planes of the forehead for
a good while, using a separate brush
for your lights, your halftones and
your darks. The halftone is where
most of the turning happens so pay
extra attention there. Don’t be afraid
to take the halftones into the
shadows and the other way around.COVERING THE CANVAS
Lay in the other colours and passages,
starting to work out a bit of the eye
sockets, slowly sculpting the head out
of the background, instead of just
laying down the features straight away.
Sargent recommends laying in the
mass of hair, recovering the drawing
and overlapping the fl esh of the
forehead. Fuse the fl esh into the
background, painting fl esh into
background and background into
fl esh. Repeatedly take a step back
to see your work as a whole.
Artists & Illustrators 63