Method: Since this is a copy of a reproduction, not a copy of the original painting, it's important to obtain a good quality reference photo. Also the palette he used here is fairly simple (8 colors), and I like the lighting scheme-a primary warm light to the left and a softer cool light to the right of the figure. I choose his painting "Mona" because I like Zorn's loose efficient brushwork and edge control.
As an added bonus, you get to pick your "teacher". It's an effective method of learning because it reinforces other art lessons, as you closely observe how the master applies the "rules" of art making. It focuses on master studies, a practice that belongs in every art student's curriculum. One of the 5 classes I'm taking this term is Painting Studies from the Masters taught by Lucas Graciano. Comparisons like these encourage and remind me, and hopefully other students, that skillful drawing is a thing of value, partly because it takes so much time, effort, and persistence to acquire.Īll drawings took approximately 2 hours, from life, using a Conte Pierre Noir 1710B charcoal pencil on 24 x 18 smooth newsprint. That first life drawing was really exciting, but the result was flat and lifeless. Going back further.take a look at my first head drawing from the model, shown below, drawn in January 2008.
I see improvement here, compared to my head drawings from early 2009. This is my 4th head drawing class, which means I've drawn around 35 heads. Meadow's changes always make the images sing a little more (sometimes a lot more). Let me preface by saying these are my drawings, combined with critical improvements by the instructor, Meadow Gist.
Here is a sample of head drawings from the fall term at Watts, which ended today. If you're a Zorn fan, I recommend this book for it's beautiful, large reproductions and extensive catalog of paintings, etchings, and watercolors. My reference source for these studies was a book on Zorn, printed in China without English subtitles, purchased from Nucleus in LA. Hard for a novice to reproduce, but very good practice. The look is loose and spontaneous, but I'm sure each stroke was carefully planned and placed.
Zorn also favored long, flowing brushstrokes, especially in his later work, which gave his images a sense of volume, form, and energy that I really like. The lesson I learned here is to keep edges soft, adding the hards sparingly, and only as needed for the composition. By contrast, most beginners favor hard edges, which tend to flatten the form. Wherever you look in these paintings you see Zorn's preference for the soft edge, achieved by working wet-into-wet. This image also illustrates the type of complex lighting arrangement he often employed.Īs a starting point, I focused on edge control and brushstroke quality during these studies. (He was self-taught in oil, by the way.) The second image, painted 15 years later in 1902, displays his mature style. Zorn painted the portrait of his wife Emma (top) in 1887, at the start of his transition from watercolor to oil.
Painted with cad red light, cad yellow deep, ivory black and titanium white, plus a bit of alizarin crimson on the shadow side of the red fabric in the second image. Both paintings are 10 x 8 on stretched canvas. Two more Zorn master studies today, started during a class at Watts.