Cougar Skull - 2012 - Ulan Moore

Ulan began his piece by setting up and lighting his subject, then completing a block-in*. While it is usually sufficient to leave a drawing at the block-in stage for purposes of transferring to a canvas or panel, Ulan decided to take his drawing to a higher finish-- via doing so, this gave him extra practice with drawing and allowed him to become more familiar with his subject:

*For an in-depth explanation of the block-in process, visit Aristides Atelier alum Tenaya Sims' excellent tutorials: The Block-In Part 1 and The Block-In Part 2

Upon completion of the drawing, Ulan began working on his poster study.  Utilizing a limited palette of Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and Titanium White, he was able to determine the overall value and temperature relationships within the composition:

Once he had determined the overall value and tonal relationships of his piece, Ulan moved on to the wipe-out/brush-in phase of his piece: he carefully transferred his drawing to the canvas, then secured it using Higgins Waterproof brown ink and a small brush. After letting these lines dry overnight, he applied a coat of Raw Umber to the entire canvas. While this coat of paint was still fresh and malleable, Ulan was able to use a small piece of cloth to lift out the light areas and a brush to strengthen his dark shapes. Once he was satisfied, the piece was again allowed to dry overnight:

The next day, Ulan began by painting the background and floor planes of the piece. 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 his subject. Working from shadow to light, he paid special attention to keeping the darks transparent and the lights more opaque:

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 cougar skull, 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 here we have Ulan's finished Cougar Skull:

Veronica - 2012 - Ulan Moore

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

“Nihil Est Virtute Amabilius” (Nothing is sweeter than virtue)

Inscribed on the front of the Gage Academy Building

Article by Savvy Dani

The second year students (yours truly included) were fortunate enough to watch two demonstrations of poster studies by two talented artists at the Atelier. It was a unique experience observing the similarities and differences in their approaches.

This under-painting of Aurora is on oil primed linen, 14”x32”. I have found that working large forces me to do a more thorough job on each form before moving ahead.  This painting has a grey toned ground about value number 3. (I wanted the background to be a darker value without resorting to a thick layer of paint for my wipeout.)