Power of the brushstroke

 By Petar Meseldžija

The painting brush is a simple,  yet powerful device. The trace that it leaves upon the canvas is a wonderful phenomenon - a marvelous present to us, and a precious legacy to the people of the future.

Just as the spoken word that carries a certain energy,  both physical and emotional , so does the brushstroke carry the energy and the meaning, too. By placing the brushstrokes next to each other,  the artist creates a “sentence”. And as any sentence,  whose purpose is to communicate a thought or an emotion, the brushstroke sentences communicate a certain feeling. Therefore they are a perfect vehicle for the artist’s emotions.

The brushstroke is a statement of the artist’s inborn sensibility. It is the reflection of his longings, a trace of his efforts, the emanation of his uniqueness. These are the hidden powers of the brushstroke. Whoever understands that,  and finds the proper way to express it, will not fail to amaze and inspire with his work.

There is a mystery hidden in a spontaneous, and at the same time well guided  brushstroke. The frozen emotion  that is embedded in such a stroke melts in the eye of the spectator, and releases its flavors and fragrances. Avoiding the control of ever alert reason, it penetrates the uncharted areas of our inner space. And as it reaches the level in us that, perhaps, makes us more human than any other aspect,  it touches the cords of emotion, intuition and that mysterious and eternal longing of our soul.

The signature of the artist will stay preserved in the brushstroke almost forever, as the echo of the gone by ages is preserved in a fossil, trapped in the stone.

Such is the power of the brushstroke.

Rembrandt

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent

Joaquin Sorolla

 

Joaquin Sorolla

Sir Alfred Munnings

Sir Alfred Munnings

Akseli Gallen-Kallela



Akseli Gallen-Kallela



Paja Jovanović

Ilya Repin

Ilya Repin, detail from the painting Portret of V.V. Stasov



Wojciech Kossak

Lucian Freud

James Wyeth

Phil Hale

And now a few humble samples of my own brushwork.

Mother and Child -

70x100 cm (27 1/2”x39 1/4”), oil on canvas, 2001

Saint Georg - 100 x 70 cm / 39 1/4 x 27 1/2 inch,

oil on masonite, 2000

The Balance -

90x120cm / 35 1/2 X 47 1/4 inch, oil on canvas, 2003



Detail from Giants - The Bull Fight, 2010

Detail from The Legend of Steel Bashaw 11, 2005 - 2007

 

Detail from The Queen of the Kanguellas, 80 X 50 cm / 31 1/2 X 19 3/4 inch,

oil on masonite, 2010



Detail from The Queen of the Kanguellas

Detail from Svjatogor, 2010 

Detail from a painting in progress

This blog post was made possible by the extremely generous and friendly invitation of Dan Dos Santos to join the Muddy Colors “band of blogging brothers”. Needless to say, I am greatly honored by this invitation and I will try not to disappoint, nether my host, nor the audience. Unfortunately, due to my very busy schedule and the necessity of maintaining my own blog, I am not able to be a fulltime blogger on Muddy Colors. Instead, and for the time being, I will be a guest blogger and write the occasional posts. The main purpose of my posting will not be to teach you the certain artistic skills (although I will try to do that as well), but rather to inspire you. For I believe I have no things to offer that can match the importance and the might of the goddess of Inspiration.

 Thank you Dan, and thank you guys!

Cheers!

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Welcome, Petar Meseldžija

I would assume that most here are already familiar with the paintings of Petar Meseldzija, as we have made reference to him and his work numerous times here on MuddyColors. Petar will be writing some guest posts for us in the near future, and I thought this a good time to formally introduce him.

Petar Meseldžija was born in Novi Sad, Serbia, in 1965. He began his career in 1981, publishing the comic strip 'Krampi' in the Stripoteka, one of the best known comic magazines in the country. This was followed by a series of short comics and his work on the licensed comic book 'Tarzan'. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in the Painting Department. During his studies he continued to work on comics, but more often worked on illustrations. In 1991 he illustrated his first book 'Peter Enkorak', published by Mladinska knjiga from Slovenia.



At the end of 1991 he moved to the Netherlands. Soon after, he stopped working on comics and dedicated himself to illustration and painting. Already well published in Europe, Americans first got a glimpse of Petar's work in 1997 when it was included in Spectrum: Volume 4. He later continued to garner multiple awards from Spectrum, including both Silver and Gold. Petar reinforced his place in the American illustration market by producing 10 amazing book covers for Scholastic Books.



Petar has numerous book credits to his name, but most notable is 'The Legend of Steel Bashaw', a profusely illustrated book which he also wrote, retelling the classic Serbian folk-tale. The project, consisting of 60 paintings and drawings, took him the better part 15 years, and has been received with great acclaim both here and abroad.









You can view a large selection of Petar's work on his WEBSITE, and also get a great behind-the-scenes look at his process on his personal BLOG.



Lastly, the good folks at DrawnToday have very recently conducted an interview with Petar. In this special interview episode, Aaron Miller and Mark Harchar sit down with our Serbian Super-hero and discuss holographic art museums, working for the Medicis, and his working methods.



The podcast can be heard here: http://drawntoday.blogspot.com/2011/04/podcast-episode-27-interview-with.html

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Inspiration: Yugoslavian Monuments

Kadinjača

These structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place (like Tjentište, Kozara and Kadinjača), or where concentration camps stood (like Jasenovac and Niš). They were designed by different sculptors (Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name a few) and architects (Bogdan Bogdanović, Gradimir Medaković...), conveying powerful visual impact to show the confidence and strength of the Socialist Republic. In the 1980s, these monuments attracted millions of visitors per year, especially young pioneers for their "patriotic education." After the Republic dissolved in early 1990s, they were completely abandoned.



For more images and information on these monuments, check out ArchDaily.

Podgarić

Kosmaj

Tjentište

Kruševo

Jasenovac

Sisak

Nikšić

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IlluXcon 4 Trailer

The people at IlluXcon just released a cool trailer for this year's show. The trailer highlights a lot of the demos that take place during the con, and gives a pretty good sense of what the whole thing is about. Whether you're a pro looking to exhibit, or a student wanting to learn, you owe it to yourself to go. 

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The Black Pharaohs, Part 3

Gregory Manchess



This is the 3rd and final painting of the series, a portrait of Piye, featured in the procession painting in Part 2. They wanted to showcase a close portrait of the man they had substantial sculptures and some paintings of.



Apparently, it was their intention to put this painting of Piye, known as Taharqa, on the cover. But I didn’t believe them. They’re primarily a photography magazine, and over recent years, they have practically stripped the magazine of any illustration, whether diagrams or narrative scenes (especially narrative). They were no longer interested in using artwork to illuminate a scene. If it couldn’t be photographed, why bother? That was “old Geographic.”



This line of thinking didn’t last too long. Not because they suddenly had an epiphany that painting was cool, but mostly they just ran into the problem naturally. The Black Pharaohs is a good example. How do you show the grandeur of such powerful points in history? Like this: you use your imagination as art and science come together. This, I believe, is what stimulates readers.



Again, I started with thumbnails. Jeff Osborn and I worked closely together to present Taharqa against a background of pyramids. But as I found out later, these were not your run-of-the-mill pyramids. They were designed by the black pharaohs. Their shapes were more severe, more angular, and quite a bit smaller. There is a site with a number of these as well.

I started my search to find the right model, but to get started, I worked from a silicon head that was used for a portrait I painted for the Real Pirates: the Untold Story of the Whydah, From Slave Ship to Pirate Ship exhibit.

Adjustments were made to Taharqa’s features that NGS requested I make by looking at several sculpted heads of him from the era. I had to add a slight almost-smile.

While working these up, I happened to run into my friend, Willy Gilmore, who works at my Oregon apartment complex. He was perfect. I asked him if he ever wanted to be a pharaoh. Of course he was curious. I set up a shoot to use him as reference for the final piece. I told him there was a slight chance that it would be a cover painting.

I got this far, and I still didn’t believe they would use it. I told them as much. It meant that if I got a painting on the cover of National Geographic Magazine, I would be one of only about five guys over the past thirty years that had the privilege. No way the Photo Dept. would go for it. (Secretly, I crossed my fingers.)

Now I needed to find some cheetah hide. The best place to find that was… the Halloween Store. Yes, that little bit of animal fur indication on the final painting is the panties portion of a ‘Sexy Kitten’ outfit.

A color comp that I brushed up, then had to adjust the pyramid shapes. Shown here in b/w.

There were minimal changes to the final piece, and once completed, the entire series had taken only three months. Very fast work for a process that usually takes a year and a half. Hats off to NGS for hustling at every turn to get me the information needed.

Two months later, while walking through LaGuardia airport on my way back to Oregon, I spotted the Feb. 2008 issue on a rack. I fumbled getting my cell phone camera out quick to shoot it. I was afraid it would disappear.

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New-fangled Water-Mixable Oils vs. Old, Reliable Traditional Oils

Last Time I listed the 4 qualities I was searching for in an "ideal" oil paint.

1. Paintability

That the paint itself will allow for the smooth, buttery application consistent with that of traditional oil paints.

2. Archivability

That the final product will be archivally sound. (It will allow for thick over thin, it won't lead to long-term cracking, the colors won't yellow unreasonably fast. etc.)

3. Dry-ability

That if needed, a layer could be touch-dry, ready-to-paint-over in 24 hours. (While staying workable on palette and canvas for at least 8 hours.)

4. Non-Toxic

That you can work solvent-free and in a non-toxic studio environment. (Here I am concerned mostly with the fumes. I don't plan to eat any of the materials.)

It turns out to be almost impossible to get all 4 qualities in a single oil paint. Water-mixables offer some promise and I have been very interested in seeing if they might be the solution to the question.

In the last post I mentioned many of the problems I had run into while using the water-mixables and why I was considering giving up on them.

But before I did, I felt like I needed to do one last experiment to make sure of my suspicions.

The Experiment:

I Painted 2 figures, both on the same panel of gesso-primed MDB. I painted the first in Water-Mixable Oils with just water and then painted the second in traditional oils with a Galkyd, OMS, Walnut oil blend as a medium. I timed myself; 90 minutes each, so it would be giving each method a fair shake. (Otherwise I would totally cheat and spend way longer on the water-mixables, because I am biased.)

As I mentioned previsouly, The water-mixable paints are not fast-dry on their own. They dry faster than traditional oils, but still take longer than 24 hours to dry, especially if whites were used. So to solve this drying time issue for the water-mixables, I made my own quick-dry white by mixing 1 part Artisan Fast Dry Medium to 3 parts Holbein Duo Ceramic White (Which is a really nice white that is somewhere between a zinc and a titanium). This mixture gives great workability for about 6 or 7 hours and is usually touch dry in about 24.

(I decided on this fast-dry white mixture after watching Greg Manchess's demo from Massive Black where he mentions that since white gets mixed into most of his colors, he will use an alkyd white for his whites, and this keeps his paints workable but drying fast. If you haven't seen this video, go find it. It is extremely informative.)

Test Results:

#4. Toxicity

Water Mixable: Non-Toxic. no side-effects noted. PASS

Traditional Oil Mix: Toxic. Slight headache. Then grew fangs, claws and unsightly hair. Roamed countryside howling at moon. FAIL

#3. Drying Times

Both dry in 24 hours. BOTH PASS

#2. Archivability.

Both survived to day 2. So, ok, well so it's hard to tell how they will look 100 years from now just yet. But, they both allow for working thick over thin so that's a start. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt and let them both pass for now.

#1. Paintability

The Water-Mixables had to be wrangled with a lot to get them to work in a predictable manner. I found myself constantly stumbling over the paint as it seized up unpredictably, and then at other times became suddenly too fluid. It seemed like just an unnecessary amount of fighting to get the paint down. The final result feels bland and heavy-handed.

When switching over from them to the traditional paints it felt as though suddenly the paints themselves were making good decisions for me. There was no fighting. Everything was fluid and just worked.

To the best of my (admittedly limited) abilities, the water-mixable oils just lack the subtlety and workability that can be achieved with traditional paints and solvents.

Water-Mixables: FAIL

Tradtional Oils: PASS

Final Results:

Both land 3 out of 4.

Conclusions:

I wanted to believe in water-mixable oils. And I still do. I come from a watercolor background, and love the idea of using only water as my thinner.

I think that water-mixables are a step in the right direction, but after my experiences with them, i don't think they are there quite yet.

Clearly the manufacturers have been listening to the community and are working to deliver a solution. That is really exciting and I hope to see them make more improvements as they are able to do more testing and get more feedback.

As with the last post, if you know of a mixture that you believe meets the 4 qualities on the list above, please post it in the comments.

The response in the comments last post was really great and thank you to everyone who contributed. There are a few products I am looking to try out from that list.

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Eowyn and the Nazgul... Critiques: Round 2

Thanks for all the kind responses to Friday's crits! Several people mentioned that it is difficult for readers to make comments regarding a particular image because there are no names attached. I did this because even though someone has entered the Art Order competition, it does not necessarily imply that they volunteered to have their work publicly criticized. Thus, I felt it best to keep the crits anonymous. If you would like to make a comment about a particular piece, simply post a link to said image in your reply. There are so many awesome submissions pouring into Art Order every hour. I really wish we had the time to mention them all. Rest assured, whether or not we got to discuss your piece, we are looking at everyone's. Now onto Round 2! **************************************************************************************************************************

AF: Very nice stylization, reminiscent in a way of Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Eowyn's pose seems too forced and stiff when compared with the fluidity of the Witch King (and that's some long arm!). Try repositioning her legs and other arm to give her figure more natural balance.



DDS: Like Arnie, I really enjoy the stylization of this piece. But the character's poses could be better, The Nazgul is really just standing there with the mace hanging at his side. You need to twist their torso more and add a sense of weight to their poses. I also think the horse in the bottom left seems like an afterthought. Either show more of it, or get rid of it completely. **************************************************************************************************************************

AF: A strong, well designed interpretive illo. I could easily see the finish as a book cover or movie poster. My only suggestion would to raise the Fell Beast a bit so that the Witch King's crown is not competing with its mouth for clarity.



DDS: This is a really beautiful image. But be careful of symmetry. Even though you may have the same thing going on on both sides of an image, the sides should not looked cloned. For the most part you've handled it perfectly, but the mirroring of the smoke looks lazy and takes away from it's 'organic' quality. **************************************************************************************************************************

AF: Yes, proportionally this is all wrong...but it works as a symbolic interpretation of the scene. Eowyn is tiny, forlorn, and hopeless as the Nazgûl approaches. You feel for her, you're drawn into the scene. The color seems to be coming along nicely, too, so...good job.



DDS: Gorgeous! My only suggestion would be to tilt the Nazgul's crown forward a little. The ellipse it creates will make it look like he is looking at her. I would also move Eowyn's sword into the foreground and showcase it a bit more. It's not doing much for you at the moment, and you can make better use of it's angle. **************************************************************************************************************************

AF: Powerful piece. The beast's head is getting a little lost with its position in relationship to the neck; I'd suggest lowering the head a bit to give it better definition. Also, the sword (or scabbard) in Eowyn's left hand looks a little awkward. I'd suggest lowering the arm and perhaps giving her a shield.



DDS: Close the Fell Beast's mouth a bit. What you gain in drama from the open mouth, you lose in composition. The silhouette of his head is much more important. I think you can also make Eowyn bigger.

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AF: This is a lovely piece, but the looming Nazgûl seems too dark and lacks definition while the detailed foreground seems too light and draws the viewer's eye away from the action. (The horse's teeth and mane are what you look at first.) I'd suggest reversing the values, making the foreground darker (probably not this much!—I was in a hurry!) while lightening the top a bit, more or less putting Eowyn into the center spotlight. The only other nit is that her shattered shield is a little visually confusing. I'd suggest refining or eliminating it entirely. (Paint-over below)

Paint-over by Arnie Fenner

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JE: This one just is fantastic! I really am impressed with the drawing skills and compositional skills it shows. But it could almost be any old fantasy painting. Without the dead horse and Theoden dead trapped underneath it is a bit too generic. I would add the king and some more twisted bodies and horse legs sticking up of the mud instead of the swords. Two small things: the grip on the sword looks weak. The cross guard could be turned so it follows the underarm. It gives more powerful grip: grab a sword and hold tight and feel how awquard the weight is if you hold it wrong. The other thing is the Fell Beast's legs, they are a tad too similar. I would stretch his left one a bit and raise the other one up for for-shorting. Just to ad a little more interest or spring to the pose. AF: Beautifully done. My only suggestion would be to increase Eowyn's size to help make the viewer an active participant in the action, not a passive observer from a distance. (Paint-over below)

Paint-over by Arnie Fenner

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EF: Ummm...this is great. The only thing I might suggest is a little more interaction between the figures. I'm a bit torn, they could be looking at each other but then you sacrifice the nice face of the female. I'd have to consider this for a while...Suggestions?

JG: This is a great piece and I really look forward to seeing it finished. First off, I am fairly sure the artist intends to add eyes, but in the off chance that they don't, I will mention that it really needs it. We can get a sense that the Nazgul is looking at Eowyn by the orientation of the crown, but I think that because of the hands position, which gestures down to the left, it really needs the glowing eyes to show that he is definitely looking down on her. I really like the choice to sort of leave a hint of a shadow where the head should be. The shadowy silhouette is a great approach for the Nazgul, and David has handled the edges here really well. I wouldn't mind seeing just a hint of glittering metal in places to kind of give the form just a little more definition. Also it wouldn't hurt to add just a little more atmospheric distance between the foremost hand and the hand holding the mace. Overall though, I really like this treatment with the ghostly edges. As for Eowyn, I like her pose, but would like to see her legs just a little longer. I realize she may be hunched over a bit, but because of the lighting it kind of reads as though she has small legs. Part of it may be that her right foot is under the wing of the felbeast and her left foot is in taller grass. I think this could be played with a little and it would feel a little more natural and fit a little better with the really excellent treatment of her upper body and the sword and shield. In the comments the artist mentioned that something needed to go in the bottom left and I agree. As to what, I tend to say something that isn't distracting but that adds to the narrative. I would lean towards something that shows the aftermath and carnage of the battle. A dead horse's body, a fallen soldier or arrows and broken banners. Whatever it is though I would want to make sure it stayed dark and vague and didn't pull us out of the great lighting focal point that is on Eowyn. Overall though, killer work and I really look forward to seeing the final. **************************************************************************************************************************

EF: This sketch has potential. It looks as if Eowyn is staring at the ball at the end of the mace. Because her face and the ball are so close together this interaction between the two keeps our attention cycling in that small area. Maybe having Eowyn looking at where the Nazgul's face would be will expand the viewers attention between the figures a little more. Also, stand on a chair and have a friend swing a bat one handed to note how the body may twist and shift weight etc. This nazgul is feeling pretty stiff.



DDS: Increase the size of the Nazgul's body, and arch his back more. His pose needs a LOT action to it. Remember, swinging a mace (or a bat, or even a punch) starts in your FEET. It moves up to your hips, through your back, then shoulder, then elbow. The motion uses your WHOLE BODY. Show us that. Make the impact of the impending blow a real threat. Aside from that, I think you need to better 'connect' the Nazgul's crown to the body in some way. Be it proximity, or a black haze, or maybe a cast shadow. There is a lot of empty space there at the moment, and it's killing the composition for me. **************************************************************************************************************************

JG: I like Eowyn's pose here, it is much more dynamic and interesting than the initial pose. Her right leg seems a bit strained because of the turn of the foot, but still the overall pose is stronger.

However, it still looks as though she doesn't have a chance. Donato pointed out that not all monsters need to be super-sized, larger-than-life to be effective, and while I will always enjoy the man vs. enormous monster dynamic, I think that in this case he is right. There is just no chance for her. By the laws of physics her swing cannot possibly have any effect before she gets bitten in half. This is bad because the suspension of disbelief is strained too far and the audience begins to check out.

To fix this, we dial it back a little by shrinking the head and neck of the monster. This will not only make it seem more plausible that she manages to dodge the strike and land her blow, but it also gives us a chance to work more monster elements like wings and claws in. This adds further narrative depth and interest to the characters and the scene.

Another issue is that the values have begun to blend together too much. We begin to lose the sense of foreground/background. I am always in favor of playing up the atmospheric perspective in massive scenes like this.

In the work-over below, I have played up the distances between the objects by deepening the value changes between those objects. The monsters head now seem more separate from the wings, which now seem more separate from the battle which now seem more separate from the city and so on. As objects recede away from us their contrast is decreased.

Overall, I like the energy and dynamism of this scene. It's got a lot of great potential and I look forward to seeing the final. (Paint-over below)

Paint-over by Justin Gerard

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JE: I really love the angle of this picture. The focus on Eowyn is great. The color rough just doesn´t help the reading of the picture. What works so great in the grey tone version is the flatness of the surface she is standing on. Keeping it light is going to be the key to success. Keep all black out of the middle and background and max out on the contrast in the Witch-kings hand to pull it forward. One thing I would do to pump up the drama is to make a drop shadow on Eowyn. One that covers half bottom of the shield. That way we know the Nazgul and Witch-king is closer and the connection between them is heightened. The mace is a bit boring. Look up some historical ceremonial weapons for inspiration. That mace is surposed to be the baddest mace in all of Middle-earth. **************************************************************************************************************************

JE: I love the way the composition all circles in toward the action of the sword thrust. The posing are really dynamic and the color theme is great. But I thing the whole image is somewhat to squashed. It would benefit from opening up and adding a bit of space. Maybe loose the wing? The only thing I really thing is wrong is Eowyns sword arm. She is behind the Which-king yet the hand and arm is not thrusting forward. The grip feels wrong and not forceful enough. I would stand in front of a mirror point a sword or a broomstick to study the foreshortening and angle of the hand in a forward thrust.



DDS: There is some amazing stuff going on here. But as is, the focal point is the Nazgul's back. This is due to the hard edges and high contrast. You need to add that same level of focus/contrast to the area BETWEEN the two figures. Move Eowyn's cape and hair as necessary so that you can add that bright sky between them and emphasize their silhouettes. (Paint-over below)

Paint-over by Dan dos Santos

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JE: The acting of her face is genius. The facial expression is to me the most difficult thing to capture, but this one is just right. Lets just say that the stray from the story is not important. She takes of the helm, revealing she is a woman and then fights the witch king, not the other way around. But the drama of this illustration is just great. The wing tip that bends in toward the focus is good. If you should continue on this sketch I would think a lot about the posing of the Witch king. Right now I cannot tell if he is lying half on his back or his knees?



DDS: Eowyn is fantastic but the Nazgul needs a lot more work. I'm sure you're still working on it, but try not to make him -all- black. Add some fill-light to his back so we have some details to look at. It will also break up that large mass of black so that the blacks in Eowyn take on a bit more importance. **************************************************************************************************************************

JE: I like the desperate gesture to Eowyn the way the which king towers above her and frames her with the arm is good. Eowyns head is a little too big for her body and there is some perspective mistakes in the mace but as a composition ad the telling of drama this one is great. The cropping should be zoomed out to not cut the crown.



DDS: The poor cropping of this image is defeating an otherwise -stellar- drawing. I don't know if you plan to draw or paint this, but you really should add more bleed to the top. **************************************************************************************************************************

JE: This sketch is the closest to the one I would have drawn myself. The dynamic of the beast and the simpleness of the compositional elements is just up my alley. The way the beasts lower body and tail bleeds into grey is a nice trick, that I might have used before. Only thing that stand out o me is the pose of Eowyn. I know how badly you wanted to show her from the front, and I do know how difficult it is to stage the figures right so that we do not look in the back of the head of either the monster or the hero. But since you do have her frontal, how about crouching her as if she was grieving over her father and only right his second turns her head towards the attacker. Right now she is waiting almost like if she was bored or doesn’t bother about turning around. It would be more dramatic if she was in the middle of the turning.



DDS: I would bring Eowyn and the Fell Beast closer together. I would also bend her left knee a LOT more... like she was really about to take a giant swing.

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