Quent Cordair Fine Art

If you examine this image carefully, you may notice a small change since the last step: the concrete. All right, maybe that’s a big change. This is a fairly decent size canvas at 36 X 36, and nearly half the surface area is taken up with these concrete stairs. So why pack them in to one studio step? There are several reasons. First, they really didn’t take as long as they would have a year ago. I have been painting a lot of concrete, and I am getting pretty comfortable with the process. Second, I have described painting concrete enough times in the studio that I think one step’s worth of refresher will be enough. Third, I did say that I was going to focus on the figures.

One reason the stairs went so quickly is that I have very good reference material to work from. The scrap was taken, yet again, at the Salt Lake City Library in a large amphitheater area. There is such a variety of lovely concrete environments there in which to set figure paintings. The process I use when painting concrete changed a bit with the last piece (By the Fountain). While I used to paint two distinct layers to achieve the texture and variation in color that is so characteristic of concrete, I found I am able to do the same thing, almost more effectively, in one layer. It helps that I tend to prime my canvases with a warm grey color. Coverage is not a problem, and if a little primer coat peeks through here and there it actually adds to the effect (keep in mind, the primer coat consists of two fairly substantial layers of oil color, so anything that does remain exposed is still oil painting and not some cheesy acrylic gesso). I mix each color with three very slightly different variations. As I work, I switch between the variations to provide the mottled look of concrete. Any large shapes or variations in color (such as the patterns made by the forms when the concrete is poured) are painted from the beginning rather than blended into a layer of color. All of this together gives very good results with almost no reworking other than the blending in of a few highlights at the end.

In this image I have very quickly blocked in the sky and the silhouettes of the buildings. The cityscape serves both to add some context to the painting and to visually balance the composition. The light colors will require two layers to achieve their full brightness and opacity and will take a while to dry. While I wait to paint the final coat I will move on to the stairs in the foreground.

Welcome back once again to the Artist’s Studio. This time around I will be working on another figure painting, this time featuring two sisters. I have included several images with this post in an attempt to show the canvas fully sketched and ready to paint. The first image is of the entire 36-inch square canvas. The lines of the drawing are fine enough that they really don’t show up well on camera, but if you look carefully you should be able to make out the basic composition. Two female figures sitting on some nicely curved concrete steps with a little cityscape in the background. The younger sister is resting her head on the shoulder of the older sister. The other two images give progressively closer details of the sketch. In the closest image, you can see the amount of detail that has gone into the sketch. This represents a lot of work, but time after time I find that in the long run it saves much more time than it takes, and results in a better painting.

 
As with the last few paintings in this series, this is not a complex composition and the theme is very simple as well. My main focus will be on the figures with particular emphasis on expression and body language, and the painting of the background will move very quickly.