Professional Artist Magazine, article by Ora Sorensen

ART N EWS + B USI N ESS ADVICE + R ESOU RCES + E DUCATION + TUTOR IALS DECEMBER 2013/ JANUARY 2014

Attain Big Dreams PAGE 32

Regional Museum Biennials DECEMBER 2013/JANUARY 2014

PAGE 58

Four to Remember in 2013

PAGE 16

Keys to Clear Communication

PAGE 54

Paint Glowing Skin Tones

PAGE 69

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Three Chandeliers

by Arnold Mesches

contents DEC 2013+JAN 2014

VOLUME 27 // NUMBER 6

58

features 12 The Great Indulgence

By Matthew Daub

16 Four to Remember

By Terry Sullivan

24 Book excerpt from

64

Create Your Art Career

By Rhonda Schaller

32 Attain Big Dreams

By Gregory Frux

38 Blend Business and Art

By Kristen Fischer

44

44 Photographer Wyatt Gallery

By E. Brady Robinson

50 Deal with Stress

By Elena Parashko

54 Keys to Clear Communication

By Annie Strack

58 Regional Museum Biennials

By Daniel Grant

64 Vision, Passion and Purpose

By RenĂŠe Phillips

69 Paint Glowing Skin Tones

By Ora Sorensen

69 2 Professional Artist DEC 2013+JAN 2014

Glowing Skin Tones Painting the

OF THE PRE-RAPHAELITES

I

BY ORA SORENSEN

n 1848, a handful of irreverent young artists began Britain’s first modern art movement — the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Led by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), age 20, William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), age 21, and John Everett Millais (1829-1896), age 19, they formed a cohesive group with a manifesto to seek truth and beauty in nature through their art. Their movement sought to emulate the values of the pre-renaissance period before Raphael, the Italian Renaissance painter.

La Ghirlandata, 1873, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. GATAG / Public domain.

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In the past century and a half, Pre-Raphaelite works of art have been both loved and mocked for their dramatic beauty and visual splendor.

T

he Pre-Raphaelite painters threw aside the day’s conventions regarding composition and technique. Instead of painting over a dark umber under-painting, as artists were doing at the time, they painted directly on a white ground. This allowed the light to show through the paint, yielding clean, vivid colors that still seem modern today. In addition to the unrestrained colors they were known for, the Pre-Raphaelites focused on realistic details and exaggerated all things beautiful. In their paintings, they amplified natural light, boosted the shimmer of silk, heightened the glimmer of gold and pushed the glow of the skin tones of their lovely models.

Their art was sumptuous, lush and flamboyant, with themes that emphasized romance and drama. In the past century and a half, Pre-Raphaelite works of art have been both loved and mocked for their dramatic beauty and visual splendor. But I remain an unabashed fan of Pre-Raphaelite art, and I have studied the works by Rossetti and Millais, seeking to achieve the clear, glowing skin tones prevalent in their paintings.

For instance, in Mariana, painted in 1851 by Millais,

themes of nature and beauty are used to portray a scene from Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure. In the painting, Mariana dreams of the return of her fiancé, who has abandoned her after her dowry was lost at sea. She is shown stretching her back after working on a needlepoint.

Adding drama to the moment, Millais uses bold and clean complimentary colors, such as the blue of the dress and the orange stool. His hyper-detailed attention to the shimmer of the objects in the background and the radiant skin tones of the model are typical of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Another example of the luxuriant and sensual style of the Pre-Raphaelites is La Ghirlandata by Rossetti. In this work, we again see the theme of beauty and nature. It shows a young woman plucking the golden strings of a harp.

Beautifully rendered flowers and angels surround her, and the intense green of her dress contrasts with her bright red hair. Her skin is delicate and luminous.

I’d like to demonstrate how I try to capture the same luminous quality in skin tones that Rossetti and Millais captured.

Mariana, 1851, by Sir John Everett Millais. GATAG / Public domain.

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Step-by-Step Demonstration I carefully draw out my composition on a primed, white canvas using a No. 2 pencil.

My model is lovely, and I crown her head with a wreath of flowers.

Using Liquitex clear gesso tinted with orange, I coat the canvas to set the pencil drawing. This gives a nice surface to paint on and keeps the pencil from bleeding into the oil paint.

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I like to paint in the background first to determine the values that will be needed on the face. To paint the foliage, I use chromium oxide green, cadmium yellow, titanium white, indigo blue and raw umber. Once I have the value of the background determined, I am ready to block in the face.

STEP 1 I carefully draw out my composition on a primed, white canvas using a No. 2 pencil.

STEP 2 Using Liquitex clear gesso tinted with orange, I coat the canvas to set the pencil drawing.

2

STEP 3

determine the values that will be needed on the face.

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The ‘push and pull’ of these complimentary colors gives me warm and cool tones to sculpt the planes of the face.

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By using only these two colors, and white, I avoid creating muddy colors in my painting. Instead, the result will be a very delicate rendering of the skin’s surface that has a glow from the vibration of the complimentary colors.

Applying the Paint Mixing Colors I use only two colors, plus titanium white, to make the base coat for the flesh tones of the face. I use cobalt violet and Naples yellow to paint a high-value base coat. The “push and pull” of these complimentary colors gives me warm and cool tones to sculpt the planes of the face. I use Winsor & Newton Liquin as a medium so the paint dries quickly.

To mix the lightest skin tone value, which is also the warmest, I add a small amount of Naples yellow and an even smaller amount of the cobalt violet to titanium white.

When mixing colors, it’s always easiest to start with the white and tint it gradually to achieve the color you need.

For the lighter mid-tone value, I keep it warmer with more Naples yellow than cobalt violet added to the titanium white.

The darker mid-tone color has more cobalt violet added to make the color a little deeper and cooler.

To make the darkest tone, I mix only the Naples yellow and a greater amount of the cobalt violet, leaving out the titanium white. As cobalt violet is a semi-transparent color, it takes a lot of this paint to get the deep, cool hue I need.

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72 Professional Artist DEC 2013+JAN 2014

Here’s my procedure when I actually begin applying the paint: I first paint the lightest areas, such as the nose and sunlit side of the cheek and chin. Then, I find the darkest parts of the face, such as the edges of the cheeks, the eye sockets and the shadowed sides of the nose and chin, and I lay down the deepest shade of paint.

Next, I paint the two mid-tones (which are in between the darkest and lightest tones) and then blend all the colors together with a soft brush.

For the lips, I added a bit of cadmium red medium to the flesh tones.

I block in the hair using titanium white, Naples yellow, burnt sienna and dioxazine purple. I paint the hair in sections and will later use glazes to pull out details. I also paint the flowers using vivid colors, exaggerating the intense hues found in nature’s orchids and lilies, as homage to the Pre-Raphaelites. Once the base coat is completely dry, I am ready to glaze, which will further mold the face and bring out the details.

Glazing To enhance the glow of the skin color, I use delicate layers of glaze. I employ glazes of transparent paint mixed with Winsor & Newton Liquin, strengthening the shadows on the face and bringing out the details of the nose, lips and eyes.

When glazing, I work on a different palette from the base coat and use transparent and semi-transparent colors: alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue and gamboge yellow. Another benefit in using just these three primary colors is that they will not get muddy. They also produce both warm and cool

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7 STEP 4 I use only two colors plus titanium tones of the face.

STEP 5 Using only these two colors and

white, the painting cannot get muddy.

STEP 6

the nose and sunlit side of the cheek and chin.

STEP 7 I block in the hair using titanium white, Naples yellow, burnt sienna and dioxazine purple.

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glazes to accentuate various shapes in the face. I work with many layers of glaze to build up the colors and shadows.

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STEP 8 For the glazing, I use the transparent and semi-transparent colors alizarin crimson, ultra marine blue and gamboge yellow.

STEP 9 Lastly, I give it a title: Julia by

Ora Sorensen. Oil on canvas.

74 Professional Artist DEC 2013+JAN 2014

To “push” an area back in the composition, such as the shadow under the lower lip, I use a cooler glaze blend, with more ultramarine blue. To show the shadow of the hair on the right side of the face, I use a warmer combination with more yellow and crimson in the mixture. Almost pure crimson is used as a glaze for the blush on the cheeks and lips. I make delicate green and violet glazes to mold the eyes.

One word of advice: You can’t rush the glazing process. Each layer must dry completely before adding another. Plus, glazes look much richer when many thin layers are used. Lastly, I work on the same palette when adding glazes to shadows and details to the hair, flowers and foliage in the background. PA Ora Sorensen (www.orasorensenart.com) was born in New York but grew up overseas in such countries as Libya, Turkey, Iran, Holland and Thailand. Her paintings are collected worldwide and have been show in numerous exhibitions.