Let’s Get Inspired By Great Artists For Free

Welcome to another Art Post! My name is Veronica Huacuja. I'm a plastic artist, and an online art teacher. I have some good tips for your painting process.

As an artist or art practitioner, have you ever started your day not knowing what your next project might be? It occurs to most of us, and while this circumstance happens, we can turn to study the work of prominent artists, and practice with their work.

SOME PREVIOUS QUESTIONS.

Do you explore the work of other artists from different genres (photographers, sculptors, filmmakers, etc.)?
Do you find useful for your own work to do this research?
Do other artists’ artwork influence your own work?

I do these activities, and I recommend you to practice them. It enriches our work.

A PERSONAL ART EXPERIENCE. This time the oeuvre of the photographer John Coplans (1920-2003, United Kingdom) amazed me. I based the following artwork on his photograph, Self Portrait: Torso With Large Upper Arm II, 1985.

To exemplify the above, I add the following data from the piece I'm presenting:
Title: Body Study 62
Artist: Veronica Huacuja
Media: Oil on paper
Size: 28 x 21.3 x 0.1 cm
Year: 2019
Collection: Human Body

ACTIVITIES.
- Let’s explore and learn from the eminent artists of all times, and permit their influence on our work.
- Self-practice the art procedures I accomplished in "Body Study 62", which I describe in a video (1:42 min.) you can find at https://www.patreon.com/posts/practicing-our-30744058

MATERIAL.
-An oil paper will do the job just fine. I recommend the brand Fabriano, an Italian paper of at least 300 g/m2, which is a thick paper prepared for oil painting, or else a canvas. Always use material of excellent quality for your work. The size I recommend is the same as I used in this artwork: 28 x 21.3 x 0.1 cm.
-Thin, circular and rectangular brushes (half an inch wide, at the most). The size of the brushes depends on the size of your paper or canvas: bigger brushes for bigger areas and vice versa.
-Turpentine
-Oil paints

LET’S DEDUCE A SIGNIFICANT MEANING FROM THE ABOVE. Would searching and studying the prominent artists’ body of art be a worthwhile experience whenever the ephemeral “goddess of inspiration” is not around? Oh, yes, great masters can teach us so much!

Visit any time:

My ART SHOP: https://veronica-huacuja.pixels.com

My BODY OF ART: https://veronica.mx

I offer an ONLINE PAINTING PROGRAM in traditional or digital techniques: https://veronica.mx/online_painting_course

Other POSTS AND VIDEOS: https://patreon.com/veronicahuacuja

Hope you enjoyed the post. Thank you for dropping by.

How to Manage the Light in Our Artwork

Welcome to another Art Post. My name is Veronica Huacuja. I’m a plastic artist and an online art teacher at an Art Program I've designed. I have some good tips for your painting process. Hope you find them useful.

This is a very true principle. One of the major topics we artists deal with every time we begin a portrait is where should the source(s) of light might be. In other words, where the lights and shadows will take place in our work and the effects on our character (s), atmosphere, palette, etc.

To exemplify this, I add the following work:

Title: Study Head 29 

Artist: Veronica Huacuja

Media: Oil, acrylic on paper

Size: 24 x 32 x 0.1 cm

Year: 2018

Collection: Portraits

Previous thoughts. Let’s learn from the great masters how they deal with this topic. One of these painters is Rembrandt (1606-1669, Dutch Republic). He used a standard lighting technique for some of his portrait’s studios.

Getting to know... That Rembrandt’s lighting is “(…) characterized by an illuminated triangle (also called Rembrandt patch) under the eye of the subject on the less illuminated side of the face. We achieve this by "using one light and a reflector, or two lights. (This way to solve the illumination is) popular because (it can produce images) which appear both natural and interesting with a minimum of equipment." (1) Study the cited elements of this technique in Image 5 of 5.

Material I used to make up the wok.

A physical model (a relative, neighbour, etc.)
One or two sources of light
A reflector (A mid-size white cardboard will make the job just fine.)
Oil paints
Gesso
Medium format white paper: 37.4 W by 26.7 H by 0.1 in. I use and recommend the Italian Fabriano paper, which is very thick (300 g /m2) and has a wonderful performance for oils and acrylics.

My experience while making up this artwork. Some things that we have to decide in our work regarding the light(s) are: its color (white, yellow or other), number of lights (1 or 2), intensity, closeness to the model(s), etc.

In "Study Head 29 ", I used Rembrandt lightning technique, which illuminates one of the model’s cheeks immersed in shadows as we can appreciate in Image 2 of 5 and Image 4 of 5. This technique also projects a subtle light to the face contour (the one in the shadows) and helps differentiate its outline from the background color (Image 2 of 5).

Let's reflect on the above. Taking the time to consider the various lighting options to illuminate our subject while planning a portrait can yield significant results in the end.

If you find this work interesting and helpful, please LIKE it, FOLLOW my Patreon feed, or BECOME MY PATRON. Thank you.

Visit any time:

My BODY OF WORK

My ART SHOP

I offer an ONLINE PAINTING PROGRAM in traditional or digital techniques.

Thank you for reading.

1 https://www.google.com/search?q=what+does+rigged+measn+in+blender&oq=what+does+rigged+measn+in+blender&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i13i30j0i390l5.8512j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Using Chiaoscuro In A Painting

Let’s learn new techniques from the masters of painting and include them in our art flow.

Welcome to another Art Blog. My name is Veronica Huacuja. I'm a plastic artist, and an online art teacher for individuals and groups. I have some good tips for your painting process. Hope you find them useful.

SOME CONCEPTS TO START. Chiaroscuro is an Italian word that refers to the lighting and shadows in painting. Who used this interesting technique were the great painters of all times, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Velázquez, among others.

This technique emphasizes light and dark, making out stand the most important figures in an artwork. “It was originally used while drawing on colored paper though it is now used in paintings and even cinema. It is very commonly seen in religious art, especially with the light emanating from the holy figure being painted. This process is used because it naturally draws the eye toward the focus point which the artist intends in a very natural way.” (1)

CHIAROSCURO AND TENEBRISM. I’d like to approach an interesting difference between these both techniques. Tenebrism comes from the Italian word “tenebroso”, which means dark. In this technique, shadow undergoes to black, there’s no intermediation between light and shadow. One of the great exponents of tenebrism is the Italian painter, Caravaggio (1571-1603, Milan, Duchy of Milan, Spanish Empire). On the contrary, chiaroscuro uses light and shadow to create depth behind the figures.

SOME COMMENTS REGARDING THE WORK I'M PRESENTING. As an artist, I’m concerned with abnormality and its effects on human life. To create this work, I read and watched testimonials of persons that have had the experience of an epiphany, which as we may know, is “an experience of a sudden and striking realization” (2), that can be mystical, religious, philosophical, etc.

In the work, I tried to embody this strange human experience using the chiaroscuro technique to add drama and three dimensionality to the piece. The data sheet of the work is:

In the work, I tried to embody the strange human experience which is an epiphany. The last by using the chiaroscuro technique, which adds drama and three dimensionality to the piece. — Epiphany 5

Title: Epiphany 5
Artist: Veronica Huacuja
Medium: Digital Art
Size: 9,448 x 8,740 px, 300 dpi
Year: 2020
Collection: Portraits

LET’S DEDUCE A SIGNIFICANT MEANING FROM THE ABOVE. We can study the body of art of the great masters of painting, learn their techniques and use them in our work, in whatever genre we manage. Also, we can keep in mind that our production, as artists, mostly come as if from dreams, where our experiences overlap in a delicate, ephemeral relationship.

1 https://artsandculture.google.com/usergallery/the-use-of-chiaroscuro/1AJCCI6Py2rgLA

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(feeling)

Clay Sculpting Our Painting Models

Welcome to another Art Post. My name is Veronica Huacuja. I’m a plastic artist and an online art teacher. I have some good tips for your painting process. Hope you find them helpful.

PREVIOUS COMMENTS. Have you ever had the experience of not having access to a physical model to practice your drawing skills with? Well, this is an easy need to be solved. I do the latter by sculpting clay models, pose them and draw them on paper. But to do so, I need at least two photos of a character to work with: a frontal and profile view. I usually find these two photos in official mug shots where law enforcement photographs the offenders. A good thing is that these images are in the public domain. This is one of these cases.

MY INITIAL SOURCES. Having the latter in mind, I searched on the Internet, and I found the two mug shots I required, and a very interesting story: the true chronicle of Bob Addison (1913-unknown, U.S.), inmate No. 35074, from the Virginia Penitentiary archives. So, I made up the clay bust and sketched the following artwork:

Title: Inmate #35074

Artist: Veronica Huacuja

Medium: Ink on paper

Size: 10.1 x 20.3 x 0.1 cm

Year: 2022

Collection: The Relentless

BOB ADDISON’S TURBULENT STORY. This man began his criminal career at a very young age: 19 years old. In 1932, he “was convicted in Tazewell County of assault with a knife and sentenced to four years in the Virginia Penitentiary. He served 2 1/2 years and was released.” (1)

After, he got into trouble again. This time in Russell County, where he, too, badly cut a man with a knife, and prior to his trial, he escaped, never to be found until thirty years after. In between, he used another identity, Elbert Roy Clark, got married, and had six children.

This time, when caught–now being an elderly man–, he did not serve his time because “after an outpouring of letters recommending clemency, including one from the Governor of West Virginia, Virginia Governor, Mills E. Godwin, Jr. pardoned Addison on 27 January 1967.” (1)

MAKING THE ARTWORK. There are several advantages by making up our models with clay:

- We exert our artistic skills by perceiving and representing the volume of the figure (wide, tall, and depth). This doesn’t happen when we practice with a 2D model, such as using a photograph or a screen shot from a video. Our brain, sight and hands work altogether when we use a real-life model.

- We can pose the model in different positions: foreshortening, profile, frontal view, bird's-eye view, low angle view, etc., and add diverse sources of light to it. Doing the latter we can practice the chiaroscuro, high contrast, among other light treatments.

- We can make up a silicone mold out of the plasticine bust and begin our sculptor's trade!

TECHNICAL PROCEDURES. I used the frontal view and a profile image to make up the plasticine cast. It’d have been great if I could have found both sides of the character’s head (left and right). (2) This is because our facial features aren’t symmetrical, as we may know. Anyway, I managed to make up the clay model avoiding symmetries. Then, I developed several sketches in ink. In this article, I included the one that I think reflects the once fierce personality of Bob Addison.

LET’S MAKE A MEANINGFUL REFLECTION FROM THE ABOVE. As artists, we can use of our creativity to solve whatever needs we might have to accomplish our work.

1 https://uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com/blog/2011/10/24/mug-shot-monday-bob-addison-no-35074/

2 Alfonse Bertillon (1853-1914, France) was a police officer and biometrics researcher who created and applied an anthropological technique to law enforcement. He invented an ID system based on physical measurements and the use of mug shots to classify the offenders. Some of these mug shots had 3 views: frontal, and both sides of the head.

Can Art and True Crime Blend Together?

Welcome to another Art Post. My name is Veronica Huacuja. I’m a plastic artist and an online art teacher. I have some good tips for your painting process. Hope you find them helpful.

PREVIOUS COMMENT. Let's talk about the initial resources we use or we can use to make up a painting. I believe, as artists or art practitioners, we must use all the resources we have at our disposal.

BUT BEFORE, LET'S IDENTIFY OUR ART INTERESTS... AND THE LOYALTY WE OWE TO THEM. As artists, we must know the topics that interest us. That is to have them clear. One good question we can do to ourselves to know them is: "What I'm looking for through my artwork?". And I add something very important after identifying our interests: let’s keep loyal to them, no matter what.

SHARING MY EXPERIENCE. My art interests are diverse, such as sickness, pathological behaviour, forensics, among others. Because of the different subjects I'm interested in, I've classified my work into collections. This helps me understand it in a better way. It also helps the re-creator to understand it, to invite or produce in him a state of mind that assists him in penetrating the work's creation circle.

So, attending to pathological behaviour, this time I based this artwork on mug shots from a true crime public documentary, which is the frontal and profile view of an anonymous offender.

SOME THOUGHTS AND THE ART PROCESS. What provoked in me to make up this work was the forceful presence of the character, his strange demeanor, deformity, and details of his scabrous life. So, I created his bust–made of clay, cement and plaster–posed it, and sketched it in a physical environment. Last, in a physical environment, I finished the work. To see some photos of this procedure, head over to https://www.patreon.com/posts/70118019

OTHER INITIAL SOURCES OF THE WORK. In our art process, sometimes reality overlaps, just like in dreams. I read “Whoever Fights Monsters” from Robert K. Ressler (1937-2012, U.S.), an ex Special FBI agent and author, where he describes the mighty personalities of some of the violent offenders that he interviewed during his long term-service. He coined, among with others, the term “serial killer”, as we may know.

I add one more thing: my work isn’t an apology for crime, it’s my interpretation of a social phenomenon.

This is the data sheet of the work I'm presenting:

Title: Study of an Unknown Inmate 8

Artist: Veronica Huacuja

Medium: Oil, crayon on paper

Size: 48.3 x 61 x 0.1 cm

Year: 2021

Collection: The Relentless

Visit any time:

My ART SHOP

My BODY OF WORK

I offer an ONLINE PAINTING PROGRAM in traditional or digital techniques.

Thank you for visiting.

MAKING UP A PORTRAIT OF AN UNCOMMON, STRONG CHARACTER

Making up a portrait

(PP.35 The Intervention 8)

Hi! I am Veronica, a painter and an art coach at patreon.com/veronicahuacuja. I have some good tips for your painting process.

Previous thoughts. As an artist, I’m interested in the media programs that refer to true forensic arts and fiction series as initial resources for my work. So, “Murder She Solved”, “Real Stories” are, among many, true online crime documentaries that might provide us with elements to make up a portrait of uncommon characters. This with all respect for the implicated persons in such matters. I include other sources, such as “Seven”, for example, as one of the favourite crime fictional films of many. Am I right?

The following artwork refers to the physical changes that the human body suffers after losing life. This is the reason that I made up an anonymous and uncommon character.

Title: The Intervention 8

Artist: Veronica Huacuja

Media: Digital Painting

Year: 2020

Learning about...

Finding inspirational sources in the famous genre of true forensic documentaries to make up anonymous, uncommon, powerful characters.
Getting to know that using the chiaroscuro's* technique helps us to achieve an emotional impact in the observer, that is, it adds drama to our work as well as three-dimensionality.

To know some technical procedures I used in this artwork, I invite you to visit my patron’s feed at https://www.patreon.com/posts/36702809

For prints of this work please visit: https://www.artpal.com/VeronicaFineArt/

Visit anytime https://veronica.mx

Art Newsletter. I email a free Art Newsletter every month. If you’re interested in receiving it, please let me know at art@veronica.mx

Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful for your art workflow.

Thank you for visiting this Portrait Artwork post.

#chiaroscuro,#artwebsite, #principlesofart,#charactercreation, #intervention, #forensicart, #patreon, #paint, #digitalpainting, #art, #artist, #portrat, , #truecrime, #forensicinvestigation

TITLE A PORTRAIT ARTWORK WITH SUCCESS

Portrait Artwork

(PP.28. Crime Scene 7. Another Angel in the Crowd)

Hi there! This is a public post that refers to Tier 1. Art Supporter and Tier 2. Art Producer. Subscribe to the first tier to have a more extensive description of the artwork, else to Tier 2 to know and self practice the technical procedures I used in it. Subscribe to Tier 3. Art Coach and we, together, can apply these techniques to your own art project. It’d be great and fun.

Artwork Portrait — Portrait Artwork. "Crime Scene 7. Another Angel in the Crowd"

This is the portrait artwork’s data sheet:

Title: Crime Scene 7. Another Angel in the Crowd

Artist: Veronica Huacuja

Technique: Digital Painting

Year: 2020

Some previous thoughts. It’s very important to title our artwork with success. Why? The artwork’s title is a highly important resource that introduces the observer into its “creative circle”. Sometimes, it's the pass-through to our work.

Educational objectives. As nowadays creators, our resources are multiple when it comes to display our work in the media, and we must use them on our behalf. One of these resources is the title of our work.

Material. Digital tablet (I use and recommend one with hand pressure sensitivity), Photoshop and a still from a true crime video (the adolescent's image).

My experience making up the title of this artwork. I think the first part of the title doesn't need any further explanation, the topic of the artwork is clear. But when it comes to the subtitle–“Another Angel in the Crowd”–I need to say that I took the idea from one verse of a song of the English rock group, Dire Straits, “Wild West End”. Reality works like in slumbers, it overlaps. Doesn't it?

To know details of the technical painting procedures please visit https://www.patreon.com/posts/33814055.

Art Newsletter. If you’re interested in receiving the free monthly newsletter I send to my subscribers, please let me know at art@veronica.mx. I’ll be glad to include you in my list.

For prints of this artwork visit: https://www.artpal.com/VeronicaFineArt/

Thank you for dropping by.

#paint, #painting, #portrait, #art, #printmaking, #prints, #greenandredmake; #chiaroscuro; #artwebsites; #artwebsite; #charactercreation, #patreon

GET INSPIRED BY THE GREAT ARTISTS FOR FREE

Human Body Artwork

(PP.9. Body Study 62)

Hi! I am Veronica, a painter and an art coach at patreon.com/veronicahuacuja. I have some good tips for your painting process.

This is a very true principle for artists.

Explore in the internet for free the work of artists from different genres besides painting and get inspired by them.

To exemplify this, I added the following artwork:

Title: Body Study 62

Artist: Veronica Huacuja

Medium: Oil on paper

Size: 11 (W) x 8.4 (H) x 0.1 in

Year: 2019

This time the work of the American photographer, John Coplans (1920-2003) amazed me. My artwork is base on his photo “Self Portrait: Torso With Large Upper Arm II", 1985.

Educational objectives. Exploring and learning the great artists of all times and permitting us to be influenced by their work.

I invite you to visit my patron’s feed to know more of the artwork’s procedures at https://www.patreon.com/posts/30744058

For prints or the original artwork visit: https://www.artpal.com/VeronicaFineArt https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/veronica-huacuja-19273

I hope you enjoy this post and find it useful.

#artwork, #figurativeart, #patreon, #art, #prints, #oilpaint, #printmaking, #portrait, #artist, #painting, #oilpaint, #free, #artpal