Allied Artists of America 96th Annual Exhibition

The watercolor painting of my daughter, “Daughter of Hope” received the “Mary Bryan Memorial Award” with an honorarium of $3,000 in the Allied Artists of America 96th Annual Exhibition. The exhibition is now on view at the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South, NYC. Please join me on November 29th at 1:00 for the artist reception and awards presentation.

5-Day Watercolor Portrait Workshop in New Zealand

If you ever wanted to visit New Zealand and attend one of my watercolor workshops, this is certainly a prime opportunity. As you know a 5-day workshop in the States can cost $750 and up. New Zealand Art Schools is offering this 5-day watercolor portrait workshop for half the cost at $525 NZ dollars the equivalent of $375 USD.

Unlike my regular portrait workshops that are done from life, this 5-day workshop will focus on portraiture using photographic reference. The New Zealand Art Schools are not well equipped for a live model set up, so we decided to offer this unique opportunity. In addition to my regular course of instruction, lectures will include how to take good photographic reference, printing your own photos and how to deal with distortion.

For the exacting realism found in my work, most of day one will focus primarily on the drawing aspect of the portrait. With instruction on the proper use of angles, plumb lines and relative measurement, students will learn how to acquire correct proportions in order to achieve a likeness of the model. As the course continues, this intensive workshop will then focus on painting. Lectures will include basic color theory, how to see and execute correct value relations, proper treatment of edges, and so much more. Demonstrations in watercolor techniques will include wet into wet, glazing, and my signature dry brush technique.

5-Day Portrait in Watercolor Workshop
October 7-11, 2009
New Zealand Art Schools
61 Seaview Road
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Phone: (04) 568 4126
Fax: (04) 568 3027
Website: http://www.artschools.co.nz/
Email: malcolm@artschools.co.nz

Alfred Collins

Continued from "Sunday at the Met"...Unable to locate a color pic of Alfred Collins' portrait, I did my best to shoot this photo through the glass. I took out most of the reflections but left the O as reminder that you are looking through glass and many reflections are still visible. In fact you can see my reflection at the very bottom.

Sunday at the Met

Karen and I paid a visit to the Metropolitan on Sunday. I missed the Francis Bacon show. Not that I’m a fan of his work, but it’s always good to see a large body of work in a retrospective fashion from any artist. I was very surprised to find that the American Wing Painting Galleries are closed until 2011. This would be very unfortunate for the first time visitor. However, many paintings have been moved with majority of the well known works being moved to the Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art or as they now call it…visible storage. This is a large room with aisles of large glass showcases that house an amazing array of American art examples from the decorative to the fine. I must admit that it was nice to see Madame X’s head at eye level for the very first time. If you don’t mind viewing work behind glass it is a great opportunity to see many works up close at a foot away.

I was glad to see that my all time favorite portrait still remains in the HL Center; Alfred Collins portrait of his wife “Mrs. Alfred Q. Collins”. I don’t think I have ever visited the Met without stopping by to see this painting. If anyone knows where I can find a good color image of this painting I would be very grateful.


One my favorite landscapes “Banks of the Loing” by William Picknell has been moved to the Robert Lehman Wing for an exhibition of American Landscapes. Here you can see some of the greats from the Hudson River School including Frederick Church and Thomas Cole.


Although I was disappointed at first with the temporary closing of the American Wing Painting Galleries, I still left fully enriched by seeing some old favorites in a new light...literally.

Powdered Graphite & Denatured Alcohol

With the upcoming portrait drawing workshop on August 14th, I am posting part my recent correspondence with Gary Brookins, the cartoonist from the syndicated comic strip “Shoe”. Here you will find a brief description on how I use powdered graphite and denatured alcohol in my drawings.

Gary Brookins to Paul
Hi Paul-

I came across your work on your Web site several months ago, and really liked what you're doing . . . very nice work. I am especially intrigued by your pencil portraits, and was wondering if you can give me a brief description of your process? How you mix the washes? What brushes do you use to apply them? Are they put on before or after your "drawing" stage with pencils? Which leads do you use (2H, HB, 2B, 4B, etc.) Anyhow, I'm planning on taking your one day workshop in Raleigh in November. But I would like to try some of your techniques before them, if you don't mind passing them along. (Many years ago, I did a lot of graphite drawing, often spending a hundred hours or more on a drawing.)

You can look at some of my work at:
http://brookinsart.blogspot.com/
http://garybrookinstoons.blogspot.com/macnelly.com

Thanks, Paul.
Gary Brookins

Paul W. McCormack to Gary
Gary,

The process is difficult to describe without writing a short book. I love "Shoe", so let's give it a shot.

Washes are mixed with denatured alcohol and powdered graphite. Cretacolor powdered graphite works the best as it's more forgiving...DO NOT buy Generals. Using a watercolor palette and some old watercolor brushes the graphite is diluted with the alcohol and applied in the same way as a watercolor glaze. Be sure to test the value first on a piece of scrap. You can tell the wash is dry when the yellow tinge of the alcohol is gone. Using a large flat wash brush you then brush off the excess graphite, this will even out the tone.

The above is done after a fairly tight line drawing has been executed. Paper of choice is Strathmore 3 ply Bristol plate 400 or 500 series. The heavy ply will keep your surface from buckling.

Using the powdered graphite my washes are built up to a light, halftone and dark. This begins with the simplification of light and shadow splitting the form at the bedbug line. My darkest darks are then established with a Nero pencil. This pencil has a bit a charcoal added to the graphite achieving a much darker dark than a 6B graphite.

Now that I have my darkest dark and lightest light (the white of the paper) established I proceed to render with graphite pencils. I use a range from 4H to 4B being careful not to press too hard. Too much pressure or too many layers will give the surface a shine and uneven finish.

Hope to see you at one of my workshops.

Best,
Paul

Gary Brookins to Paul
Paul,

Thank you for your response. And in much less than a short book, you described the process perfectly, where even a cartoonist could understand it! I'll let you know how it works for me.

I would love to take the three day workshop in August, but I don't think I can fit anything else into my schedule . . . we have several big things going on up through September, and it's doubtful I can squeeze anything else in. However, if things change in the next couple of weeks, and it looks like I can do it, I'll get in touch. Otherwise, I will be taking the one in Raleigh in November.

Thanks, Paul. I appreciate your help.

Gary

July Watercolor Workshop

Here are some photos from the July watercolor portrait workshop. Click on the image below and it will bring you to the Picassa website where you can view the images full screen. It’s great to see that everyone from the group is staying in touch and conversing about what they have learned. All the notes of thanks have been greatly appreciated and I am looking forward to working with everyone again in the near future.



Be sure to read about Marty Kelley’s workshop experience on his “Action Blog” at http://www.martykelley.com/. Marty is a fine artist who writes and illustrates children’s books. Marty has a great sense of humor and I’m certain that you’ll enjoy reading his daily posts about the workshop.

Drawing Workshop - April 17, 18 & 19

Hello Everyone,

I would like remind everyone that the portrait drawing workshop is April 17, 18 & 19. There are still several spots left. My beautiful wife and muse, Karen (model for "Hope") will be posing for the workshop. Details can be found on the workshop page of the website. http://www.mccormackstudios.com/
I am looking forward to working with everyone.

Paul