Exercise 6 Creating mood and atmosphere

Initially I thought about trying to use non realistic colours and painting style similar to German Expressionists such as Paula Modersohn-Becker's 'Lee Hoetger and her sister', but somehow I couldn't settle on this. My subconscious wanted a little more realism.  I tried a couple of colour studies of my model thinking that the mood I would like to create was one of calm relaxation. I began with various mixes of blues, greens and purples on a white ground. Somehow my study came out rather more realistic than I first intended and seemed to be constantly fighting against too much simplification.  The method of using blocky paint application didn't seem to tie in with an air of calmness. Should I change the intended outcome to a different or the brushwork or the colours? Should I go more in the direction of Picasso's blue paintings or even Rembrandt? By this stage the sitter had only a certain amount of time so I decided to stick to blues and purples while trying to create an air of quiet introspection. I tried another colour study on a dark ground first. Both versions had their advantages; the white ground it would be easier to retain the lightest lights where the ground is left unpainted creating a vibrant glow. The dark ground it would be easier to retain the darks  ie. the nostril and pupils of the eyes, although I had to re-assert these when they became partly obliterated by lighter paint, due to the awkwardness of the small scale. I think the dark ground would fit the relaxed mood better if I blend the brushmarks more in my next attempt.
At one point during the process of the final painting I became conscoious that I might be finally discovering how to better control the brush. I was now using a wider flat (size 6) in quite small areas, like the eye sockets, with confidence. Also holding it further away from the tip - similar to a knife when spreading butter both hard and soft, I seemed to have improved flexibility in my wrist. It didn't solve the need to use a tiny brush for the finer details of the eyes - but you can't have everything. I scraped back some areas with a plastic card to obtain variation in surface texture and scratched out certain other areas, but these aren't so visible, except to expose some of the raw canvas..
The highlights gradually became so light that I was eventually using the odd touch of pure white in the end.

colour study 1

Finally, the face looks a bit overworked in relation to the top, which I think looks more painterly. On seeing John Minton's  self portrait (Research Point 1) it makes me feel a little better in this regard.

colour study 2

The eyelids appear to be covered in a veil of mist, due to my laboured attempts to add convincing highlights, but they repeatedly slipped into undesired areas, so I reinstated the eyelid creases. This was a very delicate operation which I struggled with repeatedly. I wanted to try a variety of techniques in one painting: 1. all prima - didn't really work as I had to leave the part completed painting and return three or four times over the course of a few days, because my energy levels were very low, due to a heavy cold. As a consequence some paint was  tacky when I painted over it - not ideal. 2. scraping back some still wet areas with a knife or plastic card. I was fairly pleased with the effect as it revealed parts of the mid tone ground  - a thick and thin effect, although the result is only subtle. All the while I subconsciously wanted to achieve a likeness of the sitter, so I found it necessary to fiddle around with the shadow and tonal variations, to try and balance them. It seemed to take forever...

early stages of painting -
the basic tones mapped in

completed painting - this is not a good re-production

Thoughts on the completed painting: The paint in parts does appear to have some expressiveness. It is definitely evocative of a particular mood. Some of the brushmarks on the shirt,  a certain liveliness. On the forehead the wrinkles, along with the faraway look in the eyes, contribute to a tinge of  anxiety   in the sitter's expression, adding a certain edginess to the otherwise calm atmosphere. Aswell as this, the eyes looking away gives the sitter a look of moody  introspection and and mysterious air to the whole. The glow emitted from the light source, onto the face tends to give him an angelic look in a strange way.  The mood is also one of calmness, created mostly I think, by the blues and mauves and the blended brushwork. Both the sitter and  I think it is a good  likeness, fairly realistic, yet a little unusual because of the unrealistic flesh tones. 

Completed painting after alterations

On the initial version there are small rivers of canvas showing through in places. This is because I  had scraped back some of the paint to give a look of unevenness. I don't think, looking at it again, that this effect does anything positive for the painting; the paint looks too sparse and I'm not keen on the appearance of canvas showing through so much now; my tutor didn't criticize this apart from the lower right of the face. Upon revisiting, following certain suggestions she made I worked over this area gently but found it looked thicker and more intense alongside the other areas; they looked faded and hazy in comparison. Despite my attempts to blend and soften it, the lower right side of the face still has a rivulet like appearance,  but this was what I saw.  I started to find fault with many other areas of the face and hair which led me on to continue adding alterations. I also tried to quieten down the background by blending the paint more. Doing this and adding another layer using slightly darker tones than the previous layer, I think it has also had the effect of bringing the face into dramatic focus, reminiscent of chiaroscuro.

this study was considered as possible
 alternative option.

I didn't try to disguise the beard and facial hair, but rather tried to soften its appearance. I think it does mostly softer in spite of a dark shadow  on the right, contrasting quite strongly with the light grey beard. This shadow is what I could see so I didn't try to tone it down. In the end it is pretty evident that virtually the whole painting has undergone an alteration/addition of some sort, even so I am quite confident that this has been to its advantage.

Research point 2 Looking at faces 2 Paintings conveying a distinctive mood or atmosphere

Picasso's blue paintings: Pablo Picasso's blue period lasted about four years - from 1901- 04. But what triggered it? Partly, it is believed, that the suicide of his closest friend Carles Casagemas was a major factor.

Jaime Sabartes, a close friend at the time, wrote:“Picasso believed Art to the son of Sadness and Suffering… that sadness lent itself to meditation and that suffering was fundamental to life… If we demand sincerity of an artist, we must remember that sincerity is not to be found outside the realm of grief.”

In these moving paintings, he portrayed sad, destitute people. The colour blue is all pervading. It is a very subdued and cold blue. He used it very effectively to exude a mood of despair and hopelessness. These people were regarded as outcasts of society - beggars, itinerants, prostitutes, circus people, disabled people and out of work actors. The figures wear dark sombre clothing contrasting with the icy paleness of their skin tones. Their mood reflects Picasso's own poor and lonely circumstances at the time - it is ironic that these are some of his most popular works now.
Drunk Woman is Tired:
http://uploads1.wikiart.org/images/pablo-picasso/drunk-woman-is-tired-1902.jpg!Large.jpg
Seller of Gulls:
http://uploads4.wikiart.org/images/pablo-picasso/seller-of-gul.jpg!HD.jpg

The potato eaters 1885
oil on canvas,
82cm x 114 cm,
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Van Gogh - The Potato Eaters 1885 and  Peasant woman cooking by a fire 1885:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/436531
. He has depicted these people as simple and unpretentious. Heavy contours emphasize the boney hands and faces to show they work on the land and indicate that they are the very hand that helped to put the food on their plates. It is almost as though he could feel the contours as he was painting them or was carving them out from wood. This reinforces the weariness of each person. The steam rising from the platter and the lamplight help to soften the rough hewn features of the painting.

It really encapsulates the hard labour involved to earn their food.
The rather sombre feeling is captured wonderfully also by the contrasting light
and deep shadows in earth tones.


Rembrandt - Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer c1653
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_013.jpg
This contains much more background detail than many of his usual head and shoulder portraits. It is said to shows the philosopher looking weary and deferring to the bust of the humble Homer.
It is possible to zoom in very closely and check the fine detail, the quality of this image on wikipedia is so good. The layers of glazing are quite visible - I can see the undulating depths of the dark blues and umbers in the background and there is a beautiful misty quality about the whole image, characteristic of Rembrandt's paintings. The two faces are the main focal points as they are the most brightly illuminated. The illusion is one of a spotlight on the faces. This is chiaroscuro, an effect typically characteristic of Rembrandt's work.The surrounding background areas particularly, are very dark.  as the overall light effect is quite soft when compared to, for example the dramatic contrasts of Carravaggio. Rembrandt's painting here, to me exudes an air of understanding, gentleness and quiet contemplation.

Van Gogh, the Fauvists and Expressionists: 

Both the Fauvist and German Expressionist painters were heavily influenced by Van Gogh in the use of bright contrasting colours and thick impasto brushwork and he is noted for introducing this method.
He tried to explain to his brother, Theo: "Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily, in order to express myself forcibly. ...
Many in the art world of the time were very critical of  the work of Van Gogh, the Fauvists and Expressionists and even regarded some of it as grotesque. How times have changed....
Amongst members of the Fauvist movement were of course Matisse and Derain, also Charles Chamoin, Louis de Vlaminck, Georges Roualt and Raoul Dufy.
The work of Georges Roualt, who was also an Expressionist,  usually consisted of glowing colour and heavy black contours, probably influenced by his earlier apprenticeship as a glass painter and restorer. Most of his subjects have a haunted look.
The work of both Fauvists and German Expressionists were influenced by primitive art and would typically be dominated by flat unbroken areas of saturated colour and simplified forms. They used colour in portraits in an experimental way, creating their own equivalent of traditional skin tones in bright saturated mostly complementary colours. The German Expresssionists also used colour to evoke emotions with their dramatic, powerful colours, dynamic compositions. They were divided into two groups: Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) in Munich. Wassily Kandinsky was a member. and De Brucke (The Bridge) based in Dresden and Berlin.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner often depicted uncomfortable looking figures in movement. His outlook that powerful destructive forces were behind western civilisation affected his techniques.
http://www.wikiart.org/en/ernst-ludwig-kirchner/street

In this landscape it is possible to get a real close up view of the brushwork, while not impasto, it has been applied very freely.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/impressionist-modernt-art-evening-sale-l12002/lot.37.html
In another one he appears to have used sgraffito, impasto and scraped back some of the paint to expose the texture of the canvas here and there.
http://lifeodyssey.net/art-kirchner-expressionism/

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff  used intense thick  impasto brushwork and strong colour in his early paintings. In this self portrait, the colours are unmixed, yet work effectively as skin tones. Although the colours used here are muted, in spite of that they are strong and mostly unrealistic. The detail shows just how thickly he applied the paint:

Detail of brushwork

http://www.germanculture.com.ua/december/dec1.htm
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schmidt-rottluff-woman-with-a-bag-n05953