Steven Assael's composition + technique
 

Hi all,
I was recently exposed to a demonstration given by Steven two years ago, in San Francisco. I'm in awe with the demo given here. But a couple of things i don't understand here :o :

1) Why does he have all those grid lines on his portraits? How does he use them?

2) Why does he have all those blots of colors all over his canvas?

I'd love to hear your views, and i think we can all learn something here. If anyone has been to his workshops before, we'll really appreciate your contributions to this thread here!

It looks to me that he's using his blank canvas space as a palette, but that's just an uneducated guess. I've never seen it done.

I think the grid is so that he can place his figures in such a way that where there is a cross-section of lines is where important points go. May have to do with the golden mean.

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Marcus, Those lines look very similar to the compositional structures that are part of Dynamic Symmetry. It could be something totally different, of course, but you might want to look at the book, available from Amazon.

Welcome Richard!
 

It's good to have you joining us on this Forum too. I'll be looking forward to your inspired posts and intellect.

Marcus, it sure looks like he is using the canvas as a palette; which is darned clever and efficient if you think about it: the nuts of paint are right where he needs them, in sight and in the same light for mixing purposes; also there's no bulky palette to get heavy and stand between him and his freedom of movement! What a good idea. Thanks for sharing this glimpse into Mr. Assael's technique. Have you seen this painting finished, in the demo? I too am curious about how it was resolved.

Garth

The only way to ask the question is to ask the artist.

I have searched for a way to ask Steven directly but l only have a phone number, which I will call when I get a moment. When there is a living artist the only way to inquire is to inquire.

Yes Chris, i agree it wouldn't get any better than straight from the horse's...er, genius' mouth. :) I wrote to him directly to his email, but hasn't got back to me since. I even tried to fish his contact via his gallery, and all i got the impression from them that "You'll have to get past us first..." So i hope Chris can be that "Bringer of Light" to shed on our curiousity...the cats here are hungry! MEOW!

Hi Garth, i never got to see the finished work, and neither did he publish it in his website either. Now that you mention about using the canvas as his palette, i suddenly got that "brain-freeze" feeling!
What a genius he is!

Richard, Mark, Julie and Jeff: I think you guys have hit on something here. It does remind me somewhat of the Golden Mean, but then again i notice the central diamond that seems to lock the two figures in place. What i'll do is to look into that book "Dynamic Symmetry" and see if i can find some answers!

Do we still get to guess?

I think he is using Andrew Loomis' concept of "Informal Subdivision" which is... (I think)... in his book "Creative Illustration" which I unfortunately do not own. However, there is a website where you can download Loomis books: it's www.saveloomis.org .

One of my tutor once asked me for my palette knife and to my horror spread big globs of paint on a side of my canvas to check my mixtures! It works, is like trying a dress on before buying it.
In that case the mixing didn't happen on the canvas but on the palette, what went on the canvas was just the colour I intended to use.
Ilaria