Alla Prima

[Holly Snyder]

Thanks Mary.

Hi Ilaria -

I'll tell my neighbor that she was compared with Nicole Kidman, I'm sure she'd love it. Her mouth stays open naturally, and it looks a little strange when she closes it. I had taken Chris Saper's suggestion that I had read on the forum ages ago, to ask the client/model what they like best and worst about their face. She liked her lips the best.

I do tend to see things a little on the warm side, I'll definitely keep that in mind for new paintings. Thanks.

Carlos,

Thanks. You're certainly right about the triangle, which I didn't notice. I really like working from my LCD monitor, I find the colors to be much truer and lifelike than on a print (plus it's cheaper). Of course you have to work within the confines of your monitor size, unfortunately. Supposedly there's some newer monitors that can be rotated vertically, it would be great if those become the standard and affordable. I really like the lighting in the documentary interviews on some of the shows on the History Channel. Quick sketches would indeed be good practice, particularly if you're watching the show anyway.

Hi Marcus,

I used a small round for parts of the eyes. The rest of the face was mostly #4, #6 and #2 filberts and flats. Are you saying that the facial features are too finely chiseled, that I should try larger brushes? And also what Scott Burdick says here

Try and plan out your brushstrokes like Scrooge himself; the fewer you can do it in, the more powerful your painting will look. If you're confused by this, think of painting a nose. You will want to paint the shadow underneath the nose in a large, simple brushstroke; then use a couple others to paint in the dark of the nostril. If, on the other hand, you paint the smaller shape of the nostril first, you'll have to use lots of little fussy brush strokes to fill in the shadow area around the dark. Once again, always do the larger shape first in as few strokes as possible, then the smaller ones!

I'll work on that, thanks for the reminder!

Cheers all,

Holly

[Linda Brandon]

Like the rest of your work, Holly, this piece has a lot of style, and I like it very much.

Looking at your painting I'm wondering about your ground. Is this Masonite prepared with an acrylic ground? Did you sand it?

I've tried alla prima painting painting on gessoed surfaces before and I find it really frustrating. I can't make the paint flow off my brush the same way that I can on linen; it always takes a couple of coats of paint to get a good surface going, which defeats the one-shot alla prima technique. Any time I go to an open studio setup I try to remember this and bring linen instead of a panel. I'm just wondering if you had a problem with this surface.

By the way if you like gessoed panels you must try one from www.realgesso.com. They will send you free samples to try out the surface, too. I'm painting on one right now and it's perfect for tight detail and multiple paint layers.

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Holly Snyder

...And also what Scott Burdick says here:
Try and plan out your brushstrokes like Scrooge himself; the fewer you can do it in, the more powerful your painting will look. If you're confused by this, think of painting a nose. You will want to paint the shadow underneath the nose in a large, simple brushstroke; then use a couple others to paint in the dark of the nostril. If, on the other hand, you paint the smaller shape of the nostril first, you'll have to use lots of little fussy brush strokes to fill in the shadow area around the dark. Once again, always do the larger shape first in as few strokes as possible, then the smaller ones!

Hi Holly,
I couldn't have said it better than Scott himself! In fact, what i'd like to add to this point, and re-iterate what i mentioned earlier, is that before we actually lay the details on the face, it's important to find what you want to focus and express on the face - the 'magic spot' i call it.

With that you can then allocate priorities throughout the face, with in your case, the feel of brushstrokes on the focus. The rest of the parts can then be brought over using a large brush - hake brush for the matter.

This whole philosophy, to end, is the essence of John H. Sanden's Premier Coup Technique. I hope what i shared with you helps in your future works.