Note Worthy

All comments and photos are my own unless otherwise noted.


Oil Painting Demo by Ricky Mujica

October 18, 2014
Well my mind is still reeling from the oil painting demo of Ricky Mujica last night at the Art League of Nassau County.  www.artleagueofnc.org

Check out Ricky's work here:  http://www.rickymujica.com/

THANK YOU RICKY!!

What an exhilarating experience it was. Ricky explained his process and taught us how to observe the form with such a sensitivity that was "mind-blowing" for me.  I totally connected with how he "felt" the form and on a certain level I felt a kindred spirit.  So many observations gave me "A-HA" moments... He worked from a live model lit with dramatic light on her face.  He talked about the skin tones just really being shades of grey all in relation to the most well lit spot. Not sure but I may have heard it before but last night... i GOT it. 

He was also talking about getting flesh tones from complements  (which do create grey)- yellows/purples, orange/blues, reds/greens. Another "A-HA" moment. I have been struggling the last year and a half since I started portraits with finding the "right mix" for flesh tones in watercolor. There are a million "perfect" mixes... but I never got GREAT results with those "perfect" mixes and it is only the last month or two that I found my own color mixing successes and guess what??? often what I go to intuitively lately are those very complements Ricky talked about.. YES - validation. I happened to have painted a sketch this Wednesday of a women half in shadow... I started with the dark side background with Diox. Violet and my brush went to Aureolin (although I've used yellow ochre as a substitute previously). Well it was such a beautiful color that I brought the beautiful purple/yellow mixture  into the face and created the initial shadow shapes of the face with that same color. The rest of her face was painted using just a little more water and a little more of the yellow and a little burnt sienna for warmth. Final touches had a cad red light glaze for the pink in her cheeks and forehead. What a beautiful and radiant flesh color I got. I was not even conscious that I'd used complements. I just reach for colors instinctively most of the time.The light bulb went off when Ricky said that about complements. He uses them and constantly moderates the "grey' adding a little cad red here for warmth and alizarin for cool  and so on always moderating between the warmth and the cool - pushing the color 'til it is right.   What rich colors  he achieved with his palette of greys created by complements.

He explained and showed us how to view the forehead forms making us "SEE" that it is composed of a ball and two ridges at the bottom for the brow... I never really noticed that before but it is so true! Everyone has that but some people are more pronounced then others in that area. 

What was truly amazing was to watch his brush ever so gently dance across the painting surface barely touching yet leaving the perfect mark at the right time.  His brushstrokes were not haphazard but carefully following the form as it curved around the planes of the face.  Often painters talk about blocking in the shapes of the face in various angular brush strokes to get the shadow shapes. Ricky created these shapes differently by following the curve of the cheekbone let's say how it curved around the face and went toward the temple. The brush work was going around but not vertical/angular strokes per say.  He followed the muscles and bones underneath... if they went vertical so did his brush, if they curved so did his brush...  i cannot say if it is unique but last night I NOTICED it, I UNDERSTOOD it.   I could go on and on with all of the "A-HA" moments but I will be pondering this demo for a LONG time.

I do know that I have a long long way to go to perfect my art making and rendering the human form with paint and dry media, but I am not daunted by the challenge... I am excited and raring to go with my artistic enthusiasm recharged by Ricky Mujica! 


I was most struck by his sensitivity - sensitivity in his manner of speech, sensitivity in observation and in his sensitive skill with the brush.  I think that is the quality that made me feel in the presence of a kindred spirit - his sensitivity.