Personal works

Here some recent personal works. I love to experiment with shape, edges and try different media. These are  Pencil, watercolor and iols.

Annie M.G. Schmidt

Commissioned caricature of dutch writer Annie M.G. Schmidt. Oil on canvas 30 x 40 cm

Alla Prima portrait

• Yesterday's alla prima.

Pleasing the client vs. artistic creativity

Last week I posted a link to a pdf-file, containing some painting advice from John Singer Sargent. LINK
One of the many interesting things I read was this:

"Sargent was well aware of the pitfalls that await the painter of the fash-
ionable world, and as sitter after sitter took his place on the dais in his
Tite Street studio he seemed to become more sensible of them. He tried 
again and again to escape, and he often, in his letters, expressed his fatigue.
He wearied of the limitations imposed by his commissioned art. Painting 
those who want to be painted, instead of those whom the artist wants to 
paint, leads inevitably to a bargain, to a compromise between the artist’s 
individuality and the claims of the model. Mannerism becomes a way out; 
that which pleases becomes an aim. Artistic problems give way before per-
sonal considerations."

Apparently every artist  (and illustrators) who works for hire have to find the balance between their own artistic freedom and the clients desires. Still, somehow it is comforting to know that even Sargent struggled with this issue.

It made me think of Edouard Manet. Although he was a painter himself, he didn't like the way Edgar Degas had painted the face of his wife, and decided to cut off a huge part of the painting so the face could no longer be seen.

Later, when Manet had passed, his wife did not comply to his last wish, which was to destroy all of his unfinished paintings and drawings.
Instead, she decided to sign them, she cut up group portraits, so she could sell them as separate portraits, and she even finished some of the unfinished works, so she could sell them at a higher price. How about pleasing the client?

I have not been able to find examples of the paintings altered by Mme. Manet. I suspect this painting to be one of them. The hat seems to be painted more crude than the rest of the painting.

Before Mme Manet had her way, all of Manet's paintings were photographed by Fernand Lochard. LINK

If anybody can find before/after images of Manet paintings altered by his wife, please send them, so I can add them to this post.

Reference for this story is this documentary by Matthijs Deen (dutch only): LINK 

Conan

Caricature - art

From a young age I have been fascinated by the art of caricature. In art school caricatures were looked at as low art, and I wasn’t allowed to create caricatures there.
After school I got paid to do caricatures for magazines and newspapers.
Although I have always disagreed with the teachers who told me caricatures were not ‘real’ art, it is amazing how much impact their response had to how I looked at caricatures. After a while I even stopped drawing caricatures at all, because I felt I wouldn’t be taken seriously as an artist.

When I realised I started to have the same viewpoint on caricatures as the people who forbid me to draw them in art school, I realised something had gone very wrong. I started looking at the work of the people whose work had inspired me for so long. Caricaturists, like C.F.Payne, Paul van der Steen , David Levine, Natalie Ascencios but also painters from long ago. Then I realised there is no such thing as high art and low art. A portrait artist looks at his subject and decides what he wants to express. he chooses what he wants to emphasise, wether it is shapes, colors, textures, attitude… A painter exaggerates. he makes you look at the subject like he does, by showing this to you with his painting. Over time painters have done many portraits in many different ways.
Some of the portraits that are considered ‘high art’ by some, are not much different than how I would have loved to paint a caricature in art school

Selfie

Benjamin Herman

Jazz sax playerBenjamin Herman. Acrylic on board

R-Jam portrait

For the R-Jam project some artists from Rotterdam were asked to create a portrait of a dutch jazz musician. I was one of the artisyts, and I was asked to do a portrait of David de Groot.  Yesterday the portraits were revealed. They are part of a permanent exhibition at the Oude Binnenweg in Rotterdam.

More info on the project can be found here: LINK

JB caricature sketch

I posted a demonstration vid of this sketch on my tutorial blog LINK

Sorolla

Sketch of painter Joaquin Sorolla.

Portrait sketch

Portrait study of Dutch writer Gerrit Komrij. Oils on paper.

Richard Schmid states in his book 'Alla Prima" (which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more on painting alla prima) that you should never leave anything in your painting that you are not satisfied with. I totally agree. If you compare painting to speaking, leaving such a thing on the canvas is like mumbling, instead of spealking clearly.
Still I limited myself to one session for this sketch, especially to see which elements I overlook, when I am not revising every 'mistake'.
Most apparent are two things to me.
1. Colors. The tonality of the portrait is quite okay, yet the portrait lacks interesting play of warm and cool accents. The light areas are way too cool.
2. Point of interest. The sharp edges in his hair and his coat, take the focus away from his face. Because of this, the painting does not state clearly where the point of interest lies. This sharpness had better be placed in the glasses and his eyes instead.
I learn from this sketch that it is very important to take the time and to think about concepts like these (point of interest, composition, color, tonalities) even more, before putting the paint on the canvas. Painting happens in the mind first.


Detail for those who want to have a closer look at the brushstrokes:

Advanced Photoshop

aA while ago, my Obama caricature was published in Advanced Photoshop magazine.

Portrait sketch

sketch

Portrait of Arjan

I have been rediscovering oils lately. It is a wonderful medium with endless possibilities. This is a portrait of my friend Arjan I did some time ago.

Nina and I

Portrait of Nina and myself. Acrylic on board. ( 40 x 60 cm )