maandag 31 december 2012

Finally here is the oil painting finished: My Home Is Gone.





This work has been quite a journey in drawing and new and old painting techniques. I have learnt a lot from it. I hope that it will bring some thinking about the preservation of our rainforest.

woensdag 21 november 2012

dinsdag 16 oktober 2012

Some Close Ups:

Red Eyes Frog



Toucan



Orchid


Heliconia







Here is the Color Layer 1.


It has been a long journey and now the painting is starting to come alive. Now I have to work on the people, some textures, the snake, the water and other special effects.
I am using W&N Artisan color tubes but I am starting to use the Cobra brand too. W&N colors are rich and intensive but the Cobra are more fatty and dry slower. I use red sables and mongoose ones. I hope the companies making these brushes are treating these animals well. Watermixable oils are really a challenge they dry really fast compare to real oils, but I was so happy not to use turpentine and harmul cleaning stuff anymore. I had to research a lot this type of oil in other to handle it well.

For the color layer I have to spend lot time studying modern and old masters technique. In this voyage I came to the discovery of the work of great painters that at my university studies were neglected and ignored. In the 80's if you were not doing abstract concept expressionist you were not a good painter. So ironic that now Realism and Craftsmanship is a hip in the Contemporary Movement were groups like Stuckism International which promote the figurative and representational style and against the destructive Dada anti-art movement that damaged a lot the craftsmanship and produced as a result meaningless monetary commodities like the ones showed by the Young British Artist Group. The cause of the Suckism is plausible but looking to their work I generally see no craft in their members so it falls sometimes into Naïve Art. My proposal is not new Dali started the hole thing back them, but somewhere he went totally nuts. That is where the illustration guys doing fantatisc art came to rescue, putting craftsmanship of the old masters back on the table put given the painting a concept, a meaning, and usually a message and some of them even they acomplish the difficult task of telling a story in on single frame. But a meaning with a strong statement and dramatism, as Michelangelo, Dore, Rembrant, Van Gogh, Goya, Caravaggio, Bierstadt, Frazetta, Tobey and others gave to their work.

So in this matter I had to study the work of the best of the best for me in (just a few, the list is big)

Landscape: (Courbet, Monet, Manet, Hudson River School, Calame, Mostead,de Haes,  Shishkin-Sarasov-Repin-Levitan, Schmid, Polenov,  Vreedenburgh, Van Gogh, etc

Wildlife: Bateman, Hunt, Marris, Jarvi, Frace, Kuhnert, Coheleach, McGuire, Lester, Baughan, Norton, Hillier, Combes, Lyman, Livingston, Poortvliet, etc.

Figure: Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Vazquez, Murillo, Rembrant, Vermeer, Snijders,  Zorn, Bouguereau,Sargent,Lecomte, Gérôme, Louis David, Delacroix, Manet, Bonnat, Cot, Gericault,Terpning, Crowley etc.

 Stilllife: van Huysum, Helmantel,Verkaaik, etc.

Storytelling and Illustration: Dore, Booth,  Dali, Goya, St. John, Pale, Poortvliet, Escher, Wyeth, Frazetta, Spitzweg, Berkey, Tobey, Vibert, Wrightson, Lee, Hogarth, Manchess, Foster, Gurney, Jones, Schultz, Moebius,  Rockwell, McCay, Burian, etc






Here is The Dead Layer.

For the Dead Layer I am using a technique I called Multicolor Dead Layer.
So I used 4 different types of grays:
One for the Sky and distance elements: Blue Gray
One for the near foliage: Normal Gray or Grisaille
One for the close up foliage and green red eyes toad: Red Gray
One for the orchid: Verdaccio

Lessons Learnt:
1.Though was interesting to do I believe now I can skip this layer for my next projects. I have to make sure to have light values of umber in those areas where I dont want to much umber to be underneath like the sky for example so when cover them with transparent glaces I get the right colors. Besides cutting this step will cut a lot of time on the final process. I now other painters like Sargent and Bouguereau didnt use it so it is possible.



This is the Umber Layer 2.

On this layer I started using a techinque I called Multicolor Umber Underpainting. Which means that instead of using one single mix of umber I used different hues of umbers according to the elements on the painting. So for the folliage I used a more greenish umber, for the background element a more light and gray umber, for the forground I used more intense and dark umbers, for the sky a more blueish umber. I you can see I went over and increase the contrast of all the elements and rubout some more.

In this layer I completed the textures of some elements like the boa constrictor and the jaguars for example.

So this is the final step on the Underpainting Stage. I will let the painting dry for one week before I start the Color layers. On this Umber layer I just applied darker values of the umber hues. Everyday I will take the painting outside for some time to be in direct contact with the sun, the way the old masters did in the Renaissance, besides drying faster there are some chemical reactions by doing this. The concept of this piece is not a mystery anymore, so I will give you the name too: "My Home is Gone!". Yes this is an Enviromental-Protest painting. I hope my worry , sadness and anger is well reflected in it. I recently read that the golden frog has vanished, I hope our jaguars and toucans find a Shangri-La inside those forests to hide forever. I grew up in a small town called La Cruz in Costa Rica. Back then you needed to walk 10 minutes to be in the jungle. By looking at satellite pictures now, you might need to invest one hour or more to see the deep rainforest. One day in our town's school, our elementary teacher took us to an empty plain near our village. The purpose of that trip was to plant some trees. She taught us a new word: "Reforestacion". To my surprise those trees are still there today, but surrounded by a lifeless desert. Walking back to the school, we passed by "el aserradero" ( Sawmill) where we saw the life of hundred of trees had been cut away. That day my life changed.


Lesson Learnt:

Now that the painting is almost finished I realized the important of the umber underpainting it is really in deed the thing that holds the whole painting. Practically old the work is there all you need to do is match the right colors with the its right values following the value mapping already in place and if you continue with glacing and leaving some areas of this layer to be seen the piece come in rich chromatic illuminations.






This is the Umber Layer 1 or Rubout Technique:

After applying a coat of Bruno Imprimatura I applied a technique I borrowed from Frank Covino (The Rubout) so with a rag, fingers and kneaded eraser I sculpted with light the forms to bring out the 3d effect in them. In this step I am trying to model surfaces so not much worry about textures, the next layer will take care of that.

Lesson Learnt:
1. Next time use a lighter value for the Rubout coat mix.
2. Next time  remove more of the umber layer on areas where light colors and colors like blue, violet and pink are going to be.


Here I am giving a coat of bruno imprimatura to apply the next step: The Rubout Technique.

 
 
 

maandag 15 oktober 2012


This is the Imprimatura Layer. 
 
The figure was inspired by the character Jaguar Paw in the Mel Gibson film Apocalypto and the Mayan people from Central America. He is wearing a golden eagle accessory (someone close to my used too). On the top corner you can see a plant with a flower. It is the Costa Rican national flower called Guaria Morada. Another piece of my land in the work. What you see now is the process taken by the Florence painters called Bruno Imprimatura the Italian for first glaze of brown. In this case I am using Burnt Umber, Raw Umber + Lemon Yellow, a tip given by Frank Covino.
 
 
WIP Work In Progress : 

Hi all, some of you know that I have been working really hard in a new painting called "My Home Gone". I would like to share with you now its process. I spent a lot of time doing research before  the first pencil sketches. Most of the elements are from own imagination, obviously I went through a length of reference material (photos,drawings, videos, etc)  and anatomic and structural studies to draw the elements from of trees, animals,tractor, pyramid, to plants....yes that means not tracing photos. What I always try to do is memorize the element (its 3d form, textures and colors) and move it around in my head in the position I want it for the scene. In some cases I used a toy model (jaguar mother) but because the model was not in the position I wanted I had to reflect the model in my head, adjust the head and body and fix that image in my mind and then draw it from there. In the case of the Mayan aborigen I looked a lot of true mayan people from Central America, also see over and over the movie "Apocalipto" and finally took pictures of  myself for anatomic accuracy but obviously that final figure is not me (I dont have that conan look).

An extensive attention was put into perspective, proportions, and composition, specially the organic flow  (dynamics and rhythm) of center of attention. The big risk is accuracy, though hyperralistic painting are very accurate (and difficult to accomplish) the drawing, lighting and colour mapping is already there, when you draw and paint something that you are not seen then that's is a big challenge, specially the lighting. 

Beside been inspired by the obvious: the painting's theme, I wanted to study the techniques of the old masters from the Renaissance to modern day masters. So for this painting I am going using many layers.

After the drawing was transfer to the linen I carefully sculpt using a special mix (primer + marble dust) those elements were I wanted to increase the 3d feeling. After that I redraw the carbon lines with Pen&Ink drawing on the linen canvas. 

Lessons Learnt: 
1. Don't use black ink, instead use different grades of sepia. Reason: It is really hard to cover them if you want to use transparent layers especially in the light values.
2. Though sculpt those figures was fun and set the figures in true relief I am not going to use this technique anymore the Trompe-l'oeil has to come from the Chiaroscuro.



zaterdag 19 mei 2012

John Berkey


Another Great discovery: This John Berkey a world famous artist. Once again after buying one of the latest Illustrator magazines in the same comic book store where I discovered Alton Tobey, this time again I found out that Berkey died in 2008. He was the illustrator behind those famous posters of the movies King Kong in 1976 and Star Wars and much others, a true icon. One curious fact is that he works with casein and acrylics. I wonder if next time I leave that store I am going to find another master that is still breathing.

vrijdag 27 april 2012

Great News! I am now registered in the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce and Tax Office as an Artist. Also my website www.junierbolivar.com is registered. Via that website I have the right now to start selling not only original paintings but also prints of those paintings in this section of that website: http://www.junierbolivar.com/Prints.html

dinsdag 17 april 2012

I would like to share with you my new artist portfolio website (work in progress): www.junierbolivar.com

zaterdag 14 april 2012

Yes research, research.... In this piece: The Inca Trephination Mural;  AltonTobey completed hundreds of working drawings, took thousands of photographs and did extensive preliminary archeological research.
http://www.altontobey.com/treph.html

A new discovery: Alton Tobey. A Renaissance Man. An artist who really knew his craft. I feel bad when after discovering artists like that, I find out that they have just passed away, just like Jeffrey Catherine Jones last year, and Frazetta before. Luckily Moebius is still alive and kicking. I am posting here a painting he did of Antonio Stradivari. Reading the amazing amount of time he used in research to do that piece gives me the indication that I am on the right path. Here is Mr. Tobey's website: http://www.altontobey.com/index.html
Hi my name is Junier Bolivar. Born and raised in Costa Rica, I am now living in Amsterdam. From here I would like to bring my vision of the wonders of nature; from its beauty to its conservation, from its animals to that wonderful machine called human with its flaws and its greatness.