TALKING TECHNIQUES
“The light can make or break [a
painting]. If you light [a subject] from
the top, it can be like a stage light; lit
from the bottom it can seem creepy;
light it from the left or the right and
you have falling shadows. I think of
lighting as another layer I can use to
point at things and work with the
mood. Once you have your set up –
your objects that relate to each other
- you have your story, and then light
can really make it interesting.”
Working from life is a key element
in all of this. Early in his career, Todd
trained as an animator and this
experience taught him how to look at
three-dimensional objects, noting
how light falls on them. Working from
a flat photo can take away important
information, so he prefers to work
from life. “With a photograph it’s too
easy to just copy, but when you’re
working from life, you are learning
how to paint a beautiful version of the
thing you see in front of you. I do paint
from photographs from time to time,
depending on what I am painting –
but between monitors and print-outs,
the colour choices are compressed.
We see more with our eyes.”
He also recommends mastering
painting from life before trying to
paint from a photograph. “There are
no short-cuts: work from life and get
really good and it will make painting
from a photograph easier.”
Todd’s work has been shaped by a
lengthy classical training that began
when he met narrative realist painter
Warren Chang during his animation
studies at the Academy of Art
University in San Francisco. Warren
introduced him to other painters with
similar approaches and Todd went on
to study with artists such as
contemporary American realists
Jacob Collins and Max Ginsburg, and
atelier-method painters Camie Salaz
and Travis Schlaht.
“All of my teachers have influenced
or left some mark on me,” he says.
“I searched for many years on how
to paint like the French painter
Jean-Léon Gérôme. When I visited the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, I would
always look at the painting
L’Eminence Grise and just have no
idea how he could do a painting like
this. It was not until I studied with
Jacob Collins that I saw that the
lineage of Jacob had gone through
Jean-Léon Gérôme.”
While his training has largely been
based in the French academic
tradition, in which each layer of paint
is allowed to dry before applying the
next, he has also studied direct
painting (alla prima), in which the
paint is applied wet-on-wet, and he
enjoys combining the two methods.
Most recently, he has been
influenced by artists such as EdwinLEFT Figs, oil on
panel, 23x15cm