Suzanne Gysin - Paintings and Drawings: 2023

Thursday, December 21, 2023

Saturday, November 25, 2023

2.w Leather and Stiletto (it is not what you think)

Living in the basement was not ideal, that is for sure, but I did not have a choice. In Geneva it was extremely hard to find an apartment and the basement had been available on short notice. It was inexpensive too, considering the average rent in this city was proportional to an international banker’s salary, not mine. It smelled of mildew, and I felt more like a rodent than a human being.

To pass the time, to daydream a little, I looked out the windows high up in the room through which I could only see the shoes and socks of the people walking by. And just now a pair of stiletto heels and men’s leather shoes, expensive ones, were slowly walking bye. They stopped right in front of the window and faced each other. One of the leather shoes took a step towards the stilettos. The stilettos stepped back one step. Leather took another step and Stiletto disappeared out of view. Leather turned around and stepped back, and Stiletto returned into view. This time coming very close and tapping in a rhythm. And for a few seconds the two where toe to toe. Suddenly Stiletto fell over, the feet fell out of the shoes and hair and skin and clothes were visible. And Leather simply walked away. Behind the feet, hair, and skin of Stiletto where a few other shoes walking, hesitating, toes turned towards Stiletto, and finally picking up the pace and walking away. Sound of sirens in the distance.

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

1064 Portrait Study watercolor

A5
watercolor oon paper

1063 Portrait Study Markers

A5 Notebook
Markers on paper

1.w About Portrait Painting ... The Drawing

Rather than post the finished work, a painted portrait, I will use this space to muse about what it takes to paint one. If you believe that it takes talent, I hope to convince you otherwise. It takes practice, patience, failure, success, feedback, passion, and persistence. Nobody in history or now living was born able to paint. This is good news, because if we are not born with the ability, everyone learned it, and you too can learn it.

The Drawing
First and most important is the drawing. The drawing is where most mistakes are made, and drawing mistakes cannot be fixed with paint. The drawing mistake I make most often is an error in dimensions. For example, I put the eyes too close or too far apart. Or I make the chin too small, the nose too short. This type of mistake can be checked by careful measuring.

I am not of the school to roll with the first draft, I fix things. This lets me draw freely in the beginning.

Fixing the Verticals
After my initial sketch, I measure the vertical distances against the horizontal ones. For example, the head across the eyes vs. the distance from the chin to the bridge of the nose. Which is longer or are they the same? If there is a mistake, meaning the relation between width and lengths of the drawing is not the same as in the reference photo or model, I will lose the likelihood of the portrait. I have to find it before I can fix it. Believe me in every first sketch there are mistakes, I take my time in this phase, stepping back often and looking at the drawing from a distance.

First, I have to decide is it the width or the length that is wrong. Let's say I have found the length to be too long for the width. Since the length has many more details (brows, eyes, nose, mouth, and chin) it can happen that it becomes too long in relationship to the width which just contains two eyes, a nose, and cheeks. The larger the feature and the less details it has, the more is the tendency to make it too small. For example, the distance between the nose and the ear, the cheek is large and featureless and is often drawn too small. I also draw the area above the jaw bone too small because it is relatively featureless.

After I decided that the vertical dimension is too long, I check the smaller vertical distances. From the hairline to bridge of the nose. From the bridge of the nose to the bottom of the nose. From the bottom of the nose to the end of the chin. These are the big three verticals. I can usually find which is wrong, and I fix it. Then I check for some smaller verticals. From the brow to the top of the eye opening. From the middle of the eye to the corner of the mouth. From the bottom of the nose to the top of the lip, and from the edge of the lower lip to the end of chin. I check the ear placement, which is very important to indicate if the head is tilting down or up. I fix all errors found.

Fixing the Horizontals
After fixing the verticals, I look at the horizontals. The distance between the eyes. Are they level, is the iris and pupil in both eyes the same size. Where is the high light in each eye? Is the curve of the upper and lower lid correct in both eyes? Is the iris the right shape for where it is on the eye ball? I measure the width of the nose. I check if the corner of the mouth aligns with the middle of the eye. Usually that is so, but I check the model first. I check the width from the nose to the ear. This is a large distance and difficult to get right. I check the width of the chin and the neck. I check where the neck joins the head.

Fixing the Shadows
When all the horizontal and vertical distances are as good as I can get them. I go to the next step. That is to find and the shadow shapes and shade them lightly. I don't do this in a watercolor painting because the pencil cannot be erased easily. Erasing removes the finish on the water color paper and changes the way the paint is absorbed. I do this when I use markers, because they are oblique and the pencil disappears.

First, I find the shadow shapes, for this I really only think about shapes, not eyes, nose, mouth, but what are the shapes I see that are not light (dark and medium dark). I draw them and shade them in very lightly. This brings forward errors, they are all of a sudden easy to spot. Also, if I see three dark shapes across an area, but I only have space for two, I know there is a drawing error. I fix all errors I found from this process. In a water color portrait, I lightly outline the lightest spots, these I will leave unpainted. These will stay the white of the paper.

If the portrait is to have clothing, hair, or hands, I repeat this process for all areas. This takes time, but is well worth it. During the entire process, I am thinking and observing how to paint this portrait. When I am done with the drawing, I am very familiar with the model, enough so that the painting will be relatively fast. A good drawing is the best foundation.

Still believe it is talent?