The Boating Party by Mary Cassatt

“I have touched with a sense of art some people – they felt the love and the life. Can you offer me anything to compare to that joy for an artist?” Mary Cassatt

One of only 3 or 4 female impressionists, Mary Cassatt was also an American in Paris. She seems to have been independent of mind and, as with all female painters until quite recently, she took a path not easily trodden. Her longtime friendship and collaboration with the sometimes difficult Edgar Degas makes me think that she held her own without compromise.

Cassatt painted The Boating Party when she was 49 years old and by then quite successful. The Boating Party depicts an unknown woman, baby, and man in a sailboat. The colours are saturated and dramatic. Not exactly pastel, however a little other-worldly. I love the yellow-green on the boat. The boat itself is quite strange with a canoe stern, a sail that appears to be fighting with the oarsman – the wind looks to be blowing opposite to the direction of travel – and if there’s a sail, where are the boom and the mast? Perhaps because of all these technical quibbles, the painting works superbly. Mary Cassatt has crafted a composition that has enough reality that you know what´s going on and equally, designed a picture space to resonate in our brains.

It is an unusual painting in Cassatt’s œuvre. Whilst it does show her familiar theme of a mother and child, most of her other paintings are set in interiors or gardens. It’s one  of her most ambitious and largest paintings.

Developing Features with Value and Line

Throughout the course to date, I’ve focused on shapes, value and colours – blocking large spaces and moving toward the specific – if you like, “creeping up on a likeness”. I often say that my portraits are paintings first and that they then become portraits.

Developing features and achieving a likeness can be frustratingly elusive. Like many artists, I was often struggling with getting a look – even though I could draw quite accurately. Then I picked up the idea of two ways to approach the challenge – There are often “2 ways to play” and results are the better for it: Start with line and balance with value; Initiate colour and overlay line; Merge shapes with value. There are always possibilities to create, balance and re-balance! I always keep this in mind when I am developing features, perhaps favouring value as in the following video:

 

 

Tips for eyes and cheeks

I could have said eyes, sockets, brows, cheeks, bridge of the nose and forehead. They all work together to give someone their “look”. As we have seen, I start by getting the large shapes and values right and then work the detail into this base. It’s difficult to be prescriptive at this stage because with some portraits, I like to leave the eyes mysteriously unfinished. With my painting “The Woodsman” one eye had a big abstract drip, essentially demolishing it. No one has had a problem with this!

Method

When finishing the eye and cheek area, the points I keep in mind are:

1. Look carefully at the shape of the eyes. Few people have “Almond eyes” with identical upper and lower lids – it’s the subtle differences in shape that count. With many people, the lower lid is flatter than the top, often more curve toward the inner area, particularly on the top lid. I always look for lights above the eyelid and also the degree of hooding.
2. I treat upper and lower eyelids differently. The problem is that when you circle something with a continuous line, it tends to separate that element from the surrounding area. That’s not always a good thing. I paint the upper lid with darks – there is often a shadow area in the eye with the upper lid effectively acting like a little shadow-umbrella. Conversely, the lower the lid is often light – perhaps catching a highlight or reflection.
3. I often connect the iris to the upper lid with the same dark value (sometimes leaving it like that – as above in The Woodsman). This approach gives a nice connected shape to continue to paint into.
4. I will often glaze transparent paint onto a dark base to give eye colour in the iris and pupil area, taking time, until I happen upon an effect I like. I typically have the work placed horizontally. In this process, I take as much paint off as I put on – it’s all part of the painting process!
5. Look to capture the shape and light of the cheekbone – it is an under-appreciated opportunity to create likeness and drama!
6. Unless they are a prominent feature (as with the example below) I just suggest the eyebrows, focusing more on the shape of the eye socket than the line of the eyebrows.
7. As always, value contrasts are your friend!

Example in Acrylic

In order to see the progression that the eye area might take, let’s take a look at an example from a demo study – one that I then subsequently finished in studio:

Initial blocking:

Here are the results from the first session showing a general blocking of the eye area. Note that I’ve blocked in dark for the eye sockets, one mark defining the bridge of the nose from the lighter side. My brush is showing the edge of the cheek bone, limiting the socket. With the hooding of the eyelid, I put some focus on a prominent characteristic. The bushy eyebrows are quite blue. I think I just had blue on my brush and I wanted to make sure not to miss the drama.

Adding colour:

At this second stage, I’ve adjusted the darks whilst leaving the eyes essentially unchanged. Some expressive colour has been added for skin tones, with brush marks following the lead of the previous stage. Those eyebrows have been “de-blued”…the previous blue having done it’s job as a place marker.

Detailing the eyes:

For the final painting, I decided to leave the study somewhat sketchy – it was a demo after all – however I proceeded to paint out the eyes. My plan was that viewers would be intrigued by the rough study and then tarry looking into those eyes, without necessarily realizing that additional realism had been added.

The size of the eyes has grown (it rarely works to have features too small) and the iris and pupil are more defined, however note that they still blend into the gloom of the upper lid. The white of the eyes is in variegated grays – the “whites” of the eyes are never white! The reflected highlight is the only white, added at the last minute. Although I can’t be certain, I may have tried a couple of times to create the highlight and partially blotted the paint off, as I normally do – heavy-handed reflections can look false. In this case, I added some colour too: I like that block of red to draw you in…..and the blue of the eyebrows is back – but cooler!

Exercise

1. Pick two or three of your previous studies and assess eye shape, specifics of each shadow area and the cheek bones for application to future portraits. Perhaps experiment on the side with some charcoal.
2. Working with a new foundation painting of your own choosing (perhaps using the Reference Gallery), experiment with creating depth and shadow in the eye and cheek area with a minimum of detail.
3. Using one of your existing portrait studies or this new work, develop the eye area in consequence of the above experience.

Example in Oil

In order to see the progression that the eye area might take, let’s take a look at an example:

Initial blocking:

Here are the results from the first session, showing a general blocking of the eye area. Note that I’ve blocked in dark for the eye sockets, defining the bridge of the nose from the lighter side. My brush is showing the edge of the cheek bone, limiting the socket. With the dramatic contouring below the eye socket, I put some focus on a prominent characteristic. The eyebrows are also an opportunity to show the character around the eyes.

Adding colour:

At this second stage, I’ve added some impasto colour whilst leaving the eyes essentially unchanged. When adding for skin tones, my brush marks follow the lead of the previous stage. I often add the colour quite thickly and then wipe and blend, should the effects look strident. In this case, I liked the effect and it gave the focus that I had been looking for in this portrait. I did wipe out some areas of the forehead (refer to the image of the completed portrait). Diffusing the forehead increased the focus on the eyes.

Detailing the eyes:

For the final painting, I proceeded to detail the eyes further.

As for acrylic painting, the iris and pupil are more defined whilst still blending into the gloom of the upper lid. The white of the eyes are again in grays rather than white and reflected highlights are the brightest, added at the last minute.  In this case, I added some colour too: Red – to draw you in.

Example 2 – adding some detail in the eye area

In the following video, I take a study and add some detail in the eye area. Notice that there’s some back and forth, in order to achieve the effect that I’m looking for – including wiping out and modifying effects on the canvas.

 

Examples in Watercolour

I start by getting the large shapes and values right and then work the detail into this base. It’s difficult to be prescriptive at this stage because with some portraits, I like to leave the eyes mysteriously unfinished. With the following study, dark washes into the eyebrow, eye socket, eyelid, iris and pupil:

In this second study, on Yupo synthetic paper, puddles of abstract shape predominate

Exercise

1. Pick two or three of your previous studies and assess eye shape, specifics of each shadow area and the cheek bones for application to future portraits. Perhaps experiment on the side with some charcoal.
2. Working with a new foundation painting of your own choosing (perhaps using the Reference Gallery), experiment with creating depth and shadow in the eye and cheek area with a minimum of detail.
3. Using one of your existing portrait studies or this new work, develop the eye area in consequence of the above experience.

Next week we’ll be focusing on noses and mouths!