Daniel Gamelas is a Portuguese sculptor based in Porto, Portugal whose work focuses on pre- Roman Iberian culture. Daniel has founded the first traditional art academy in Portugal, AARP.
As we have seen, Caravaggio developed a system of painting that allowed him to be extremely efficient in the period before his death.
The wash drawing is executed to a high degree of finish. The flesh is under painted with white and drapery is painted directly. Then, when dry, the overpainting of the flesh is started.
Caravaggio's basic palette included lead white, red
and yellow ocher, lead-tin yellow, vermilion (cinnbar),
malachite, carbon black and earth colors, plus madder
lake and copper resinate glazes.
I use a variation of a palette organized by John Angel and used at the Angel Academy. I have tried many different palettes and this one is perfect for copying Caravaggio.
From left to right: Lead white, Zecchi roman ochre, Zecchi vermillion, Old Holland persian red, Old Holland red umber, Michael Harding burnt umber, Michael Harding raw umber, Old Holland green umber and ivory black.
The painting is then finished piecemeal. The colours are painted thin but opaque and then blended to a finish.
Copy by workshop student Jacqui Butterworth.
Below is a video of the workshop demo on the application of the overpainting:
When studying late Caravaggio paintings, one gets an idea of his working method in this period.
He is working very efficiently, leaving the mid-tone ground to act as shadows and thinner application of umber to describe darker tones while the lights are painted with few colours.
In the Martrydom of St. Ursula, notice the flesh in the figure of St. Ursula, on the right. It is painted with an opaque white which is pulled thinner as the form moves away from the light. This gives us an idea of his underpainting process.
Continuing on from the last blog entry, once the wash drawing has dried, the lights are rendered using a white. Caravaggio would have used a lead white but titanium works as well. If using titanium, add in a little bit of calcium carbonate to give the paint some body, opacity and to help it dry a little faster. Where the flesh is lightest, the paint is applied thickly. As the flesh darkens the paint is pulled thinner, resulting in the illusion of the three dimensional form.
Here is an explanation of the process, filmed during the workshop at Angel Academy.
Once this has dried the flesh is painted using a limited palette. The next blog entry will describe this process.
Michelangelo Merisi of Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio, was thegreat painter of the counter reformation. A contemporary of Galileo and Shakespeare, he was the first artist in history whose paintings are directly concerned with his life.
In his later years Caravaggio developed a process which allowed him to work very efficiently - important as he was on the run for much of his last years.
I teach this method at the Angel Academy in Florence, Italy. For more info:
I will share what I have discovered about his process over the next few blog posts.
The begin, the canvas is to be toned with a warm brown, mid-tone in value.
The drawing is then rendered with umbers. The paint should be applied thinly, varying opacity where needed. The goal is to use 2 or 3 values to describe the image:
When studying "the Martyrdom of St. Ursula", one can get an idea of the next step:
This step, the underpainting with white, will be described in the next post.
There is a lovely little film about the Nerdrum School that recently debuted on youtube.
The film focuses on Nerdrum alumnus Luke Hillestad and his experience at the Nerdrum school in Stavern, Norway. Based on my time with the master, this film captures the experience well - Nerdrum in his studio, the student studio and shots of Memorosa (the Nerdrum family home and studio). The glimpse of Nerdrum with his students is particularly special. Here we see Nerdrum at ease in his studio and at his most charismatic - we understand why he has enchanted so many.
Enjoy the film here: The Nerdrum School
Having spent some time in Portugal has allowed me to make friends with a number of artists living and working there. One of these, the painter Antonio Macedo, invited me into his studio recently where we talked about his experience as an artist. Working professionally for 40 years, the conversation will be of interest to young artists just starting out as Antonio shares his ideas of what painting should be.
Also known
as the "Glorification of the Renaissance". Completed by the Hungarian
painter Mihaly Munkacsy in 1888, this ceiling painting from
the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna is a representation of the
atelier of the Renaissance Masters. In the bottom left we see Raphael and
Leonardo conversing with Veronese working on a large canvas just behind them. In the centre is Titian
instructing a young student working from the model. Just below and to the
right is Michelangelo with hammer, leaning on a balustrade. In the loggia above is in
Pope Julius II whose papacy was marked by ambitious building projects and
patronage for the arts. The goddess could be Ozwiena, the
Slavic goddess of Fame and Glory or the Allegory of Peace and Prosperity.
Just above the reclining female is the self-portrait of Munkacsy, considered one of the most important painters of 19th century Hungary.
I have just completed the my 2015 edition of portrait painting. This year we had 14 students and eight models.
Students worked from a combination of life and photographs to incorporate the best of both in one painting. Essentially students used the photo for the drawing stage and the model to check colours and values. The goal was to make an interesting painting and so students worked within a traditional system used by master artists. A variety of examples of systems were explained and shared and students choose one they liked.
As part of the instruction I painted a demo from life explaining my process along the way:
I have finally gotten around to uploading a series of videos taken of me by friend Luccio Parillo during my workshop, 'Methods of Contemporary Portrait Painters' at the Angel Academy in June of 2014. Each video is a short slice (around 1 - 2 minutes) of my 3 hour demo painting well known model Rony Cadavid.
The role of the artist is two-fold, both as an artisan and an intellectual. To this end, my research focuses on historical painting techniques (many of which were lost in the 20th century) and the historical, philosophical, and theological milieus in which they arose. I am continually evaluating these areas in relation to current trends and philosophies.
I consider myself to be an artist in the European painting tradition also known as Traditional Realism, which places the depiction of the human figure the highest possible artistic statement. My work is an interplay between dominant themes found in European cultural history which includes biblical personalities, allegorical stories, ancient myths and fairy tales and how these are appropriated, adapted and perceived by contemporary culture. Inspiration comes sources as diverse as Hellenistic Greek sculpture, Byzantine icons, Renaissance frescoes, the American comic book, and modern cinema. I strive to not simply copy the work of past masters but move forward making work that is both radically traditional and of our time.
