Ritratto a Firenze!

I had taken these pictures in February near the entrance of our building. Really liked how the sunlight made everything look so dramatic. Color of the reflected light looks lovely in the pink one. It was a beautiful day. I had thought of taking portrait commissions while I am here in Florence. So I had to have a nice poster. And I wanted to have handmade type. So used paper quilling to create these typography, Ritratto for Italian, and other in Inglese! 

I'll edit them in photoshop and use them in the posters. Also working on a series of portraits, hope to complete them soon!

Portraits

Cast head:

Studying the planes and the muscles of the face:

Color studies

 First color study, still life:( 10 days, roughly 2.5~3 hours a day)

 Pictures are taken from my phone camera, will try and take better pictures with dslr soon!

Second still life- this one is going to be a grisaille study. We began it last week, one more week on this one. 

The weather is getting so much better here now, I plan to go outdoors for plein-air sketching and painting soon :)

Leonardo da Vinci

I have been watching some BBC documentaries these days and doing a bit of reading on the history of art movements. So for all my art-loving friends, here is something to watch:
Leonardo Da Vinci - The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything Part 1 

When I came here, I knew very little about the artists and the art history. I was only interested in knowing the techniques to draw and paint. And I am happy that this attitude has changed now. I am fascinated by the stories of old masters and have realized that knowing the history does reflect in the art one creates, even now when the tools and resources have changed. Our anatomy instructor said Leonardo was the greatest artist of all times. And I used to wonder why is it that he has very few paintings then? The documentary answers it all. He did play many other roles including that of an architect, mechanical engineer, inventor, poet, sculptor, and anatomical artist, scientist, studying the physics, geology, hydrodynamics, pyrotechnics, optics, name it and he has touched upon the subject in fifteenth century. I think it is very inspiring to know about his discoveries out of curiosity and free thinking, despite the limitations of his time.

He was the first one to show presence of 'air' with his Monalisa painting. He realized the atmosphere, air particles change the way we 'see' things that are at distance. And it is important to show atmospheric presence if one has to create the illusion that the person belongs in that environment and unites with the picture and is not just a cutout shape. Here in the class we do the same thing, push the area closer to the background to make it recede, by lowering the contrast, to create the depth and a sense of atmosphere. "Always Trust Leonardo" we are told. Also, before Monalisa, all the portraits were done in the profile view and were static. With this painting, he tried to capture the middle of the movement, disturbing the staticity. It was then followed by all the artists of his time and later. Even the photographers now do the same for portraits, disturb the staticity, reproducing one of his discoveries.
Here is a page on 'chiaro scuro' method for creating illusion of three dimensionality, from 'The Artist's Complete Guide to Drawing the Head'~ by William Maughan.

(screenshot from amazon)

There are many more documentaries if you like to watch(Below are some of the youtube links):
Rembrandt
Gustav Klimt
The Divine Michelangelo  | Michelangelo - Private life of a Masterpiece
Raphael
Vermeer - Private life of a Masterpiece | Girl With A Pearl Earring (trailer)
The Great Artists Post Impressionism
Vincent Van Gogh: The Power of Art
Breughel - Private life of a Christmas Masterpiece
Édouard Manet - Private life of a Masterpiece 
Caravaggio
Bernini
Degas

Academic studies

So my semester with Russian academy of art in Florence has began and our anatomy module has started with head anatomy and scheme.

 My class:

Skull schematic:


Some of my unfinished attempts in understanding the structure of skull. It is really interesting to draw things when you know the scheme!

After studying the skull, next is studying the planes and muscles of the face. Here is one unfinished drawing I did last week(the one with facial muscles):

The approach here is to draw everything in a constructive way. Like you imagine the forms by breaking them down into simplest forms and start by drawing everything as if it's all transparent. Then gradually make it complex, by adding the details that are on the surface. So go from simple to complex and then again simplify. Shape, volume, and structure(how it is constructed)- three things to focus on. Everytime you draw something, think about the weight, which gives the volume, shape.

I have started with this portrait of Claudio, Ashish's housemate. It's interesting how one can apply the scheme to what we see and draw it in a constructive way. It's like you are drawing this portrait, but actually you are trying to find the points that you studied in the scheme. 

Now when I see the face, I can  imagine the structure beneath the skin(little bit), which is good. I know which points are the amplitude points on the face, and which ones are indents, which ones to highlight and all that.. It's fun, and I hope to capture the likeness in this portrait while applying all the rules that I learnt.

Also, I had taken a five days workshop in December to study hands, knee and feet. Its difficult to draw them without having the understanding of the underlying structure. So we studied the schematics and also tried to paint hands from life(unfinished).

Caribbean island

Last week I finished working on this illustration for a magazine house.

The article was about cultural influences of european countries on Caribbean islands.
English influence in Jamaica,
The French influence in St. Lucia,
The Spanish influence on Puerto Rico.

I had to make paper models of fishes with flag colors of European countries.

 

Close-up:

Process images:

Here is the link to some old paper model works.

Paris visit

It's been long since I last updated the blog.. Too many things to share. I went to Paris over christmas last month and it was definitely one of the most memorable trips ever. It was a last minute thing, I booked the tickets at night and flew in the noon. Being my first flight experience alone (Florence- Pisa- Paris), I was really excited and nervous the day I left!

Pisa to Paris

And then I reached this magical city of love and lights! As it was christmas time, everything looked very beautiful as the decorative lights were up in and around the city, creating this lovely holiday-ish mood. And Paris does look very beautiful when it rains :)

Day 1 in Paris

On our way to musee jacque andre 

Sacre Coeur(Very beautiful!)

And the most enriching experience had been visiting the art galleries and museums. We went to Louvre, Orsay, Jacque Andre museum and Petit palais.. and I had had such a great time just seeing the works of old masters. I never really studied art before, and many of the artists whose name I had only heard or read in the books, I saw their works and was totally mesmerized by the beauty and the grandeur of the paintings. Orsay has the most extensive collection of impressionist paintings and it was something so wonderful to have had this experience to see them so close and appreciate the colors and the strokes and the details..

Here are some shaky pictures taken from my phone camera:
Alma Tadema:
The Roses of Heliogabalus(1888)

Portrait of Watelet by Jean Greuze(1763-65):


 Details of drapery:


Details of the hand:

Isn't it beautiful!!! This one was in Louvre. And it was just one of the thousands of paintings I saw. There were such amazing paintings and drawings and sculptures.. Too many to see in one day. I started noting down the names of artists I liked. Filled one page quickly, then another, and another and another and on and on... Then I stopped.

It was overwhelming. I don't want to be overly emotional but sometimes when you see so many amazing works, it is inspiring yet daunting at the same time. Makes me want to do it all and learn it all as quickly as possible.. They say it takes years of hardwork and patience. The training of an artist begins at the age of 8, when they give him a bone and ask to study it. By study, they say, he has to thoroughly understand bone's structure in all the angles, perspectives, so if he has to draw it from the memory, he should be able to draw it. He needs to study all the bones, muscles to understand how the figure is constructed, what is underneath the layer of skin. Then comes the drapery, by understanding the structure and construction of cloth and all that. Then there is composition to study, and the colors, their behaviour with each other, values and whatnot. So basically it all takes years of practice and dedication to be able to draw, paint well.. They say it is important not to get discouraged with the struggle during the initial stages of drawing, construction... So that is one thing to remind myself everyday when I lose patience. 

I will be updating the post soon with watercolors of the places I visited.