Biography

Scott Burdick was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1967 where his mother and father early on encouraged his interest in Art. “I spent a lot of time in hospitals as a child and remember my mother showing me how to transform simple shapes like circles, triangles, and squares into objects like planes, helicopters, and fish. It seemed such a magical thing and made spending so much time in casts and on crutches much more bearable.”

In high school, Scott began taking life-drawing classes at the American Academy of Art under the legendary Bill Parks. “Though I’d always loved drawing, it was Mr. Parks who filled me with the enthusiasm and discipline necessary to improve my skills. His love of painting and creative expression infected us all.” After finishing the Academy, Scott continued his study at the Palette and Chisel Art club, where he met his wife, painter Susan Lyon. “It’s a wonderful thing being able to paint together all the time and grow as artists together,” Scott says.

His ideas for paintings come from everywhere. “What makes a subject attractive to me are the same things that attract us all. The beauty of a young girl, the character of a weathered face, the solitude of a farm at sunset, or even the story itself behind someone or something that makes it interesting.” Scott believes it is the job of the artist to recognize this when it happens, analyze why, and use his technical skills to convey the feeling to someone else. He notes that some paintings are as simple as stopping at the sight of something interesting, while others may take more time to research than to actually paint.

Today, Scott and Susan live in a rural area of North Carolina. Surrounded by forests and the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, their house is a perfect resting place after the many trips they take throughout the world in search of subject matter to paint.

Artist Statement

“I see painting as both a way of exploring the world and then as the vehicle of sharing those discoveries with others. I travel to find subjects to paint as much as paint so I can travel and expand my horizons. Through this unique language, one can say things that are impossible with words.”

Scott’s Website

Be sure to visit Scott’s Website to see more of his work and to learn more about him.

http://www.scottburdick.com

Secrets of Drawing

Be sure to also check out Scott’s drawing video, “Secrets of Drawing”, where Scott discusses the technical aspects of measuring, values, shapes, and all the considerations in drawing a portrait. You will see two portrait demonstrations, in addition to numerous side examples to illustrate the various points covered.

Follow This Link for a Preview  of this Video

Ordering Details

Portrait Painting Demonstration – “Brittany”

Once I’d figured out the correct size of my canvas (26″ by 50″), I started with a few basic charcoal marks to place the head and make sure I had it approximately life-size. For this painting I didn’t draw out any of the features since the subject is simple enough that I can just paint and work out the details as I go. The main advantage of this approach is that it keeps you from painting up to lines and ending up with stale brushwork. To paint this way requires a great deal of drawing practice since you are basically thinking about your drawing and proportions with every brushstroke, rather than concentrating on drawing first and then painting next.

Here you can see the underlying, large shapes that I started with. I’ve already started laying in the smaller shapes of the eyes over the top of the tone of the face, but you can still see the underlying shapes of the nose, mouth and chin before the details of those areas have been placed. Getting these large shapes correct before going into the details are the most essential part of your painting.

Now I continue working out the medium sized shapes of the nose and lip area. Notice how I’m not dividing the lips along anatomical divisions, but by the large light patterns, treating the upper and lower lips as the same shape both in the light and shadow. Always start with the largest, simplest shape you can and then go onto smaller shapes on top of this.

Each new element that I add is carefully compared to what’s already on the canvas. To determine the exact placement of the ear, for example, I first held up my brush horizontally across the photograph and checked where the top and bottom of the ear came in relation to the eyes and nose. Then, to find out how far to the left the ear should be, I measured the distance from the side of the model’s left eye to the outside edge of the ear (on the photograph) and compared that unit to portions of the face I’d already drawn. For instance, the distance from the outside edge of the model’s left eye to the outside edge of the ear is the same as the distance from the outside edge of the model’s left eye to the inside corner of her right eye. Since I already had the eyes worked out on the canvas, I simply used my brush to measure that distance and then made a mark where the outside edge of the ear will be. I do this constantly whenever I come to something new in a painting (especially if it is a large distance). Measuring and drawing will eventually become so natural that you do it almost without thinking and it takes but a couple of seconds.

As I slowly define the boundaries of the face, I’m constantly holding my brush up horizontally and vertically to see where landmarks line up with things I’ve already painted. Notice also how nice a variety of edges you can achieve when working into paint already there.

I just slowly and methodically keep working from one thing to the next. With a palette knife, I block in some red strokes for the shirt.

Now I paint in the details of the lips and continue refining the features. You can leave things loose the way they were at the earlier stages or just start refining them until you have a very polished and detailed rendering. It’s really just a matter of what you’re going for in that particular painting.

Here’s a close-up of the lips and nose so you can see the brushwork. Be especially conscious when doing the darks in areas like this that are surrounded by light lest you make the accents too dark. Squint and compare them to large areas of darks. Photographs will often push many of the darks into pure black, regardless of their actual relationship in real life. Think of these small dark accents the way you would if painting a tree branch against a light sky. The thinner the branch gets, the lighter it appears because it is more and more influenced by the value of the sky around it. This is what is happening with small darks like nostrils and the accents at the corners of the lips. The same is true, by the way for lights surrounded by darks. Think, in this case, of sky holes in trees. The smaller the openings, you must actually mix up a darker color.

Here is the face for the most part finished, though I do end up doing little adjustments throughout the rest of the painting as I see them.

Here I start blocking in the hand and arm, starting with the large shapes first and measuring, measuring, measuring!

Getting into details in the hand and deciding to go with a lighter color for the shirt.

To make sure I get the left arm right, I take a few measurements and sketch in with my brush a few main shapes.

Once again, just slowly going from one shape to the next, fitting in each puzzle piece of the subject. I’m not thinking any differently when paining a tree, arm, or eye — they’re all just abstract shapes, of a certain value and color, in a precise place.

Using some mineral spirits, I think down the paint and wash in some colors to go behind the bamboo on the left. This is mainly just to kill down the white so I won’t be struggling to paint in between all the vertical shapes of the bamboo later on.

Changed my mind; I think the girl’s shirt was better the darker red, after all!

Here’s the final painting.

Below is an excellent step by step oil painting video lesson by the very talented Debra Bryant.  I found the following oil painting demonstration on the video sharing site Ustream.tv.  This is a very long demo with over 3 hours of footage. So grab your favorite beverage or snack, sit back relax and be prepared to learn something new.

In this oil painting lesson, Debra shares her oil painting techniques for creating a beautiful landscape painting from a photo.  She begins her painting by first toning her canvas with purple so that this color will show through the final painting in spots.

She demonstrates her techniques for creating a convincing sky and clouds. One key technique that she points out in the video for doing this is to make the sky more green near the horizon. To make realistic looking clouds, she mixes reds and yellows into white.  Also, when clouds near the horizon, they become narrower and  more gray.  These are just some of the awesome techniques you will learn in this video.  Enjoy!

Follow this link to visit Debra’s Ustream Profile for more awesome Painting Demonstrations.

Follow this link to visit Debra’s Blog.

Florida Landscape Part 1

Florida Landscape Part 2

Florida Landscape Part 3

In this step by step portrait painting demonstration, David R. Darrow, aka “Dave The Painting Guy” talks about how he paints a portrait with oil paint.  He talks about how he sets up his canvas, the paints on his palette, special medium that he uses, how he sketches out the portrait and more. I learned a great deal about portrait painting by watching this video.  One of the key points that I learned from this video is to keep the cheek and nose area redder than the rest of the face, while keeping the forehead and chin a bit more yellow. Check out the video below to learn more…

David is a really talented artist. I visited his website to check out some of his painting and was quite impressed with his work and I know you will be too.  You can visit his site by following this link.

David also hosts live painting session on a site called Ustream.   If you have time, you should definitely set aside some time  to attend one of his live workshops.  Don’t worry if you miss one though.  You can watch some of the recorded workshops there as well.  Follow this link to visit David’s Ustream Page.

Toning Your Canvas For Oil Painting

Learn the proper way to tone your canvas in preparation for oil paints with this free video demonstration.  Toning your canvas before beginning a painting is a very popular oil painting technique, but there is definitely a right and a wrong way to do it.  In the following video, artist Don Stewart demonstrates his method for toning his canvas before he completes a painting.  Don combines a mixture of medium and solvent to his oil paint to get it nice and thin before applying it to his canvas.  After allowing that to dry for several minutes, he then wipes away the excess with a clean rag.  The result is a nicely toned canvas with a luminous quality to it. Enjoy this oil painting demonstration!

This is Part 2 of Sierra Splendor, a Landscape Painting Demonstration by Mike Callahan.

Please click here to view Part 1 of this Demonstration.

Sierra Splendor Landscape Painting Demonstration Continued

31.) With my thin underpainting in place, I can now begin to paint the trees that cover it

32.) And so it looked when I was about half-way done with the trees…

33.) The trees too, I paint alternatively employing knife and brush…this a great technique for anything that has a lot of texture…

34.) Here it is, about 6 a.m. as I leave my studio once again to get ready for the day job…

35.) Coffee is a great ally for these early morning painting sessions…those of you on my email newsletter probably remember this shot that I sent out when the painting was still in progress. I’m roughly a little past half done at this stage…

36.) A shot showing the tree covered area mostly done…

37.) I now begin to concentrate on the manzanita-covered, sun-bathed area to the right of the painting. The values on this side of the “bowl” are much brighter because one, it’s in the full sun, and two, manzanita is much lighter in color than the pine trees that are to the left…it is also a much lower-growing plant and will receive more top-lighting from the Sun as well adding to it’s lighter appearance in the painting…

38.) I now begin to work on the shoreline of Lower Sardine Lake…

39.) As I begin to paint the reflections in the water, I must keep mindful of several things. First, the viewer’s eye is pretty high in this composition and as such will see a steep reflection in the water meaning that from this perspective one wouldn’t see the entire mountain reflected, only a very small portion of the nearest ridge as the mountian recedes fairly rapidly even though it’s so incredibly steep…Secondly, I have to be careful with my values, lights will be darker than the areas they reflect, and darks will be lighter than the areas they reflect in general. the closer an object to its reflection, the more closely in value that reflection will be to the object’s values…I know, that’s a lot to wrap your mind around…let’s move on…

40.) Here’s the the progress with the lake mostly done…

41.) I’m now going to move on to the “foreground” section of the painting…I paint in the tree tops that are peeking up behind the near ridge using a two value block-in process as well…I paint in the “darks” first…

42.) …and then come back and paint in the “lights”…

43.) I continue with that process untill I have not only the tree tips peeking up from behind the ridge, but also the larger trees that are growing near the top of the ridge…I now begin to concentrate on the manzanita covered ridge itself…

44.) The large, foreground rock has a lot of texture, so once again, I’ll alternate between brush and knife…

45.) As I begin to paint the rest of the ridge, I start by scumbling in a thin but darker burnt orange to bring that part of my underpainting a little more contrast giving the illusion of closer proximity to the viewer…

46.) I follow with my two-value approach, laying in the darker green value…

47.) …then the lighter green values and a few grey bushes and rocks…

48.) …following that with some warm and cool tones in the outcropping of rocks that border the trail…

49.) Once I finish with my initial two-values, I can then go back and put in highlights and accents to finish things up…

50.) I then lay in a couple of values for the path using mostly my knife…

51.) And here’s the painting as it nears completion…I’m probably about a week away from being totally done now…

52.) I’m sure you are probably tired of the phrase “two-value” by now, but that’s exactly the approach I use to paint in the remaining trees, dark under paint first,…

53.) …and then lighter values on top…

54.) I paint a darker value for my underpainting in the foreground bushes to allow for more contrast once I apply the lights…things in the foreground most always have more contrast than things in the background…

55.) And here I begin with a middle value…I’ll come back with highlights later…

56.) I’ve one last rock to paint, the one in the bottom corner, so I block it in and then texture it with knife, etc. as you’ve already seen…

57.) I then paint in the foreground foliage and am just about done…

Click the Image Below For a Larger Version of the Final Painting!

Sierra Splendor
40″ x 60″ Oil on Canvas
SOLD!

This tutorial is by Artist Mike Callahan.

Please click here to visit Mike’s website to learn more about him and to view more of his work.