Veronica - 2012 - Ulan Moore

Ulan began his piece by constructing a drawing over 4 3-hour sessions with the life model.

Using graphite on Strathmore 400 series drawing paper, he set the height of the drawing, then measured the model to determine her height to width ratio, and completed his measurements by locating the ¼ and ½ points on both his subject and the page. Starting with light, loose lines, he found the gesture of the pose and proceeded to work from general to specific as he dropped and ran lines through the figure to create a slightly more "finished" drawing:

Once he was satisfied with his drawing, Ulan created a 4x6" poster study in order to determine the overall value relationships within his composition:

The bridge between Ulan's drawing and the beginning phase of his painting began with a transfer drawing. He placed a sheet of tracing paper over his drawing and mapped out a simplified version that would allow him to work with a minimal-- yet important-- information. He laid a piece of transfer paper over the canvas, followed by the drawing on tracing paper. Evenly applying pressure with a red ball point pen,  he went over his tracing paper drawing to transfer the entire piece to his canvas. To lock the drawing in place, he then went over his lines on the canvas using Higgins waterproof brown ink and a small brush. In order to ensure that these lines would be locked onto the canvas, he allowed the ink to dry overnight:

When he returned to working from the life model, Ulan began his wipe-out underpainting. He applied a small amount of medium (1 part linseed oil to 1 part Gamsol odorless mineral spirits) to the surface in order to create a light sheen, then rubbed in enough pure Raw Umber oil paint to tone the surface but still allow him to see the lines of his drawing underneath. Using a soft piece of t-shirt material, he spent 3 hours lifting out lights in order to create a tonal/value map for his finished painting:

Once the wipe-out underpainting had dried overnight, Ulan began by painting the background and floor planes in grisaille. He did not just paint up to the lines of his subject, but slightly over them-- and he paid particular attention to keeping the paint thin and softening the edges in order to keep from having a ridge of paint build up around the figure. Once the background and floor planes were completed, he began his first pass of paint on the figure using the "tiling" method: he laid down small strokes of opaque paint that led from the core shadow to the lightest point on the subject. One can also think of this as working in small value step-scales that work their way over the form of the subject:

Once Ulan had finished covering his entire canvas in paint, he moved on to the second pass. Looking to be more specific in his observation of the model, he looked for smaller shapes and their transitions. At this point, he also paid specific attention to the edges of the subject (ie: where she meets the background). He pushed back or softened some edges (lost edges) and sharpened others (found edges). To complete his piece, he finalized his overall value relationships by including his lightest light and darkest dark accents:

And there we have Ulan's finished Veronica: