April 2008
Speach at 10th conference of Portrait Society of America
by Ying-He Liu
When I first approached the topic “Developing Critical Eyes-Problem Solving”, I recalled what the renowned Chinese artist Chen Chi once told me: “Avoid eye-pollution,” by which he meant to study only the best art that human race has ever produced. It also occurred to me that if we develop critical eyes, to be able to tell good from bad, half of the problems are solved.
The late owner and President of Portraits, Inc. Marian Mackinney used to say that portraiture was about documentation. We document human features, human spirit and human conditions; we immortalize its beauty and memory; we commemorate its achievements. Portraits are windows into human souls. I’d venture to say that capturing likeness is still portrait artists’ #1 job. Spare no efforts to achieve it, to sculpt human forms with painters’ brushes.
In traditional portraiture, there are still certain conventions that we need to adhere to. Certain degree of realism is a must. Given that confines, how to reflect an elevated reality, how to inject a sense of wonder or drama is the real challenge. There seem to be two general approaches in portrait works between which I find myself wavering and trying to reconcile the two: one is to emphasize the more functional side of the portrait in which sheer force of the subjects’ personality coupled with great technique are sufficient to produce effective and appealing portraits: the other is more geared towards aesthetic portraits, in which the subjects are almost pretext for display of artists’ formal concerns. I often wonder if portrait painting could really be taught. How much of an artist’s good sense is in born and how much is cultivated. I do believe that some less abstract aspects of portraiture can be taught in an analytical way as we probably already learned about values, color relations, anatomy, perspectives, proportions, etc. There are other aspects of portraiture that are more difficult to be conveyed by words. Successful artists are often autodidacts. We all know that to a large degree , artists’ intuition play a big part in determining deployment of techniques and methods. Often we make decisions out of empirical need and sometimes it’s a matter of conscious choices. People often remark , “Ying-He, you are a magician.” Yes, we artists can create something extraordinary out of nothing. There are many pictorial devices that are at our disposal. Let’s use them to achieve desired visual effects. Since we have limited time, I condense all I want to say to a few key guidelines:
Lighting treatment: I used to work in theatre. In theatre, we say: ”Lighting is the soul of stage.” That’s how important lighting is. In painting, given the same subject, different way to light can create very different effects ranging from moody to splendid. Look at Rembrandt’s works, there is this stage-like effect with spot light shining onto focal areas of the paintings. Very dramatic. Look at Vermeer’s works, only directional window light, very serene and almost somber. Sargent is a great master at employing ambience light. There is no formula of lighting in his works and it’s ever fascinating to discern the beauty of light and color in his works. I don’t suppose the old masters use any photo lighting equipments as we modern artists often do. In that sense, I’d say to use those aids very sparingly and discriminatingly. Lighting can be vastly varied and there are infinite possibilities. Experiment, improvise and manipulate.
Pose: Pose selection has everything to do with what attitude and personality that we want to project in a portrait. Always try to find something unusual and interesting within conventions. Pose selection is more challenging in group portraits. Pay special attention to maintain coherence, rhythm and interplay among sitters.
Composition: Composing a painting is like composing a symphony. Always try to grasp the overall structure. Always think in terms of abstraction. No matter how detailed and complex the contents are, they can always be simplified to a few basic shapes. For example: pyramid shape suggests solidity and balance. S shape suggests grace and movement. Keep in mind golden ratio and apply it!
Color schemes: When I come up with color scheme for a painting, I always think in terms of harmony vs. contrast. I either push for harmony or contrast. Always maintain harmony within contrast and contrast within harmony. Push for color tendencies. Do you know that color schemes can be arbitrarily determined to certain degree?
Brushwork: Rhythmical play can be achieved through good brushwork. Freedom of execution comes from great facility, understanding and confidence. There are generally two schools: one favors bravura, the other seeks refinement. One is like drinking great wine and the other is like sipping tea. Both require great skills. Again, practice, loose but not sloppy, refined but not rigid. Use discretion as to where to tighten and where to loosen. Avoid “fleshy, keep the “bones”, if you can understand what that means….
Textural play: I always marvel at the beauty, substance, richness, expressiveness and versatility of oil medium, lost mostly in reproductions. Please do not reduce an oil to a watercolor. Use all techniques, materials, tools available to achieve desired effects: sanding, scumbling, glazing, thin wash, palette knife wax medium, impasto, alla prima, you name it. Coarse and fine canvas produce very different effects. Know where to emphasize and where to downplay. Generally, cake up where light hits and treat the shadowy area and distance background in a summary fashion.
In summary, my advice is to keep searching, study great masters’ works in person, treat each canvas with great care, always sing a song from the heart and above all, keep painting. Thank you!
(The speech is followed by a power point presentation of 11 pieces of the artist’s works that illustrate points in speech.)
Speach at 10th conference of Portrait Society of America
by Ying-He Liu
When I first approached the topic “Developing Critical Eyes-Problem Solving”, I recalled what the renowned Chinese artist Chen Chi once told me: “Avoid eye-pollution,” by which he meant to study only the best art that human race has ever produced. It also occurred to me that if we develop critical eyes, to be able to tell good from bad, half of the problems are solved.
The late owner and President of Portraits, Inc. Marian Mackinney used to say that portraiture was about documentation. We document human features, human spirit and human conditions; we immortalize its beauty and memory; we commemorate its achievements. Portraits are windows into human souls. I’d venture to say that capturing likeness is still portrait artists’ #1 job. Spare no efforts to achieve it, to sculpt human forms with painters’ brushes.
In traditional portraiture, there are still certain conventions that we need to adhere to. Certain degree of realism is a must. Given that confines, how to reflect an elevated reality, how to inject a sense of wonder or drama is the real challenge. There seem to be two general approaches in portrait works between which I find myself wavering and trying to reconcile the two: one is to emphasize the more functional side of the portrait in which sheer force of the subjects’ personality coupled with great technique are sufficient to produce effective and appealing portraits: the other is more geared towards aesthetic portraits, in which the subjects are almost pretext for display of artists’ formal concerns. I often wonder if portrait painting could really be taught. How much of an artist’s good sense is in born and how much is cultivated. I do believe that some less abstract aspects of portraiture can be taught in an analytical way as we probably already learned about values, color relations, anatomy, perspectives, proportions, etc. There are other aspects of portraiture that are more difficult to be conveyed by words. Successful artists are often autodidacts. We all know that to a large degree , artists’ intuition play a big part in determining deployment of techniques and methods. Often we make decisions out of empirical need and sometimes it’s a matter of conscious choices. People often remark , “Ying-He, you are a magician.” Yes, we artists can create something extraordinary out of nothing. There are many pictorial devices that are at our disposal. Let’s use them to achieve desired visual effects. Since we have limited time, I condense all I want to say to a few key guidelines:
Lighting treatment: I used to work in theatre. In theatre, we say: ”Lighting is the soul of stage.” That’s how important lighting is. In painting, given the same subject, different way to light can create very different effects ranging from moody to splendid. Look at Rembrandt’s works, there is this stage-like effect with spot light shining onto focal areas of the paintings. Very dramatic. Look at Vermeer’s works, only directional window light, very serene and almost somber. Sargent is a great master at employing ambience light. There is no formula of lighting in his works and it’s ever fascinating to discern the beauty of light and color in his works. I don’t suppose the old masters use any photo lighting equipments as we modern artists often do. In that sense, I’d say to use those aids very sparingly and discriminatingly. Lighting can be vastly varied and there are infinite possibilities. Experiment, improvise and manipulate.
Pose: Pose selection has everything to do with what attitude and personality that we want to project in a portrait. Always try to find something unusual and interesting within conventions. Pose selection is more challenging in group portraits. Pay special attention to maintain coherence, rhythm and interplay among sitters.
Composition: Composing a painting is like composing a symphony. Always try to grasp the overall structure. Always think in terms of abstraction. No matter how detailed and complex the contents are, they can always be simplified to a few basic shapes. For example: pyramid shape suggests solidity and balance. S shape suggests grace and movement. Keep in mind golden ratio and apply it!
Color schemes: When I come up with color scheme for a painting, I always think in terms of harmony vs. contrast. I either push for harmony or contrast. Always maintain harmony within contrast and contrast within harmony. Push for color tendencies. Do you know that color schemes can be arbitrarily determined to certain degree?
Brushwork: Rhythmical play can be achieved through good brushwork. Freedom of execution comes from great facility, understanding and confidence. There are generally two schools: one favors bravura, the other seeks refinement. One is like drinking great wine and the other is like sipping tea. Both require great skills. Again, practice, loose but not sloppy, refined but not rigid. Use discretion as to where to tighten and where to loosen. Avoid “fleshy, keep the “bones”, if you can understand what that means….
Textural play: I always marvel at the beauty, substance, richness, expressiveness and versatility of oil medium, lost mostly in reproductions. Please do not reduce an oil to a watercolor. Use all techniques, materials, tools available to achieve desired effects: sanding, scumbling, glazing, thin wash, palette knife wax medium, impasto, alla prima, you name it. Coarse and fine canvas produce very different effects. Know where to emphasize and where to downplay. Generally, cake up where light hits and treat the shadowy area and distance background in a summary fashion.
In summary, my advice is to keep searching, study great masters’ works in person, treat each canvas with great care, always sing a song from the heart and above all, keep painting. Thank you!
(The speech is followed by a power point presentation of 11 pieces of the artist’s works that illustrate points in speech.)
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