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On Hamilton's Prairie by Rose Frantzen,
32 x 40, oil painting. |
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Rose Frantzen's work has been on my radar for a while and
even more so after I saw her
oil painting portrait show at the Smithsonian
Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, which featured 180 paintings of the
residents and neighbors from the artist's hometown of Maquoketa, Iowa.
As a figure painter, Frantzen is second to none and she's
developed a few really successful strategies for moving a painting forward and
making crucial corrections when that is called for. I wanted to share a few of
her oil painting techniques and tips with you.
40 times is the
charm. Believe it or not, Frantzen draws the model for any one of her
figure oil paintings about 40 times--not total, but per session. She does it
directly on the canvas in a thin wash, in the air above her canvas, or as she
is painting.
Go with what appeals
to you. Frantzen is a strong and ardent proponent of starting with areas
that appear easiest to see or make sense of. "If you can see and respond to a shape immediately,
put it down," she says. "Anchor yourself with the areas you feel strongest
about." So it isn't necessarily about a right or wrong way of doing things, but
finding your way!
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Looking Back by Rose Frantzen,
40 x 52, oil painting. |
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Judging your progress.
Stopping to assess and reassess while in the throes of painting is invaluable. Frantzen will often setup a mirror behind her and view her painting
through it several times during the painting process to see the work from a
different perspective. She'll also pull books and photographs of Old Masters'
works off the shelves and compare them side by side to her own work, asking
herself if she's achieving the effects she wants.
Clean up on aisle
four. During a figure painting session, Frantzen will clean her palette
every time her model takes a break, wiping down the center of the palette and
the outer areas where her paint piles lay. She does this so that she can start
fresh and isn't confined by her previous mixtures. But she doesn't waste that
"old" paint. Instead, she separates it into red, blue, and yellow piles to make
gray mixes at a later time.
There is so much for a novice like me to learn from
practicing artists like Frantzen, and others. One of our newest resources in the Artist Daily store is practicing artist and author Sam
Adoquei's book, How Successful Artists
Study. As I read through it, I found a handbook for artists looking to
pursue a serious course or career in the fine arts, as
well as the technical and practical guidance I want for making art. I hope it
is the same for you!
