Quent Cordair Fine Art

In order to work as efficiently as possible, taking into consideration that all of the flesh tones would have to be painted in two passes with the first pass completely dry before beginning the second, and that it is almost always simpler to paint those areas that are furthest back in the picture plane first, I elected to paint the under-painting for the right arm next, and then paint the shirt while I waited for that to dry.

The under-painting for the arm was a simple enough project, but its size combined with my relative inexperience with the technique meant that it took most of a full work day to finish. The good news is I learned a lot about controlling the transparency of the paint, and keeping the surface smooth in the process, and later areas of under-painting went much faster.

Over the next few days, I worked on the shirt. Moving in a general right to left direction (I’m left handed… this way I’m less likely to set my hand down into freshly applied paint) I painted sections of the shirt, trying to finish each day along a large wrinkle or break-line so that the next day’s work would join up seamlessly.

Here is a better shot of the finished shirt:

Sometimes a minor mistake or setback can lead to a major breakthrough.

From the beginning, this painting was going to be all about the figure. The background would be almost inconsequential, aside from adding special context and justifying the lighting, so I planned to put an unprecedented amount of work into the subtleties of the facial features and flesh tones. I wanted to work on refining the two-stage glazing method I have been experimenting with, where a complete monochromatic under-painting is then gradually worked over with the other flesh tones. Usually, I would have tried to complete the area in one sitting, blending the flesh-tones into the still wet under-painting. This time though, as I was working on the burnt umber and ivory black under-painting, I discovered some problems with my drawing, and ended up spending the entire day carefully refining the likeness of the face. By the time I was happy with it, the paint was already tacking up. This first image is of the under-painting as I left it.

At this point the painting was set aside while I worked on Monna Vanna and prepared for the QCFA Arts Cruise. While on the cruise, I received the final go-ahead on a commission for BB&T which I began work on as soon as I returned home. So this canvas sat around in my studio in this state for more than 2 months before I got back to it. Needless to say, by that time the under-painting was quite dry.

I wasn’t quite sure how I would proceed. I considered an opaque over-painting which would have completely covered the likeness I had worked so carefully on, and I even though about removing the under-painting and starting over. At the last minute, I decided to try a variation of a technique I used to get some of the atmospheric effects in First Heat. I painted a very thin glaze layer of burnt umber in oil over the entire under-painting, and painted the flesh tones into that. I couldn’t believe how well it worked. The paint was not only easier to control, but the polished under-painting allowed me to focus more on the flesh-tones. Even more to my delight, the transparency of the over-painting gave the skin a wonderful luminosity I hadn’t been able to achieve before.

I experimented with a similar technique while painting the hair, but with rather poor results. This second image shows the finished face, and hair that has been newly re-painted.

Welcome back to the Artist’s Studio. This time around, I will be taking you step through the creation of ‘Deliberation’. I am particularly excited about this painting, not only because I am so happy with the way it turned out, but because it represents what I consider to be a major step forward in my flesh painting technique.

This is a relatively simple painting both in theme and in composition, but my hope is that the subtlety of the pose and the facial expression will add something a little more interesting. This painting began with a piece of scrap I shot almost as an afterthought during the photo shoot for ‘The Letter’. All told, I must have shot 25 different poses while I had the model available, and this one turned out to be my favorite. Not only was there a lovely structural composition in the angle formed by the arms and legs in relation to the torso, but the overall attitude of the figure, particularly the glance to the right opposing the direction of the body seemed to add a sense of inner action to an otherwise very quiet pose.

As is my usual practice, I began with a linen canvas, in this case 36 X 30 inches, sized with rabbit skin glue and primed with a mixture of lead white, ivory black, and burnt umber. Next, I worked from my photographic references to create as accurate as possible a drawing of the figure, paying special attention to the angular relationships in the pose that I thought were the most beautiful. Once I was happy with the drawing, I used a grid technique to transfer the drawing onto the canvas.

I have become increasingly wary of under-drawings eventually showing through the paint layers on top, and so I sketched the canvas in a very light venetian red, using a watercolor pencil. The drawing barely shows up in the first image below (taken straight from my camera), but with a little digital persuasion courtesy of Painter X, I was able to make it show up rather well in the second image.