March 11, 2019 Meeting

Monday March 11, 2019
GPA Monthly Meeting: Travis Michael Bailey Demo
We had a large crowd for this meeting, with 1 new member and 2 visitors to the meeting.

GPA Business:

April 1st:    Please make note of date and location change
Debora Stewart will be demoing her abstract pastel techniques at 6:00 pm at
OA Gallery
101A W. Argonne
Kirkwood, MO 63122
Directly across from the Train Station
OA Gallery is located on the lower level of the building.
                                        They have a chair lift for easy accessibility.
    To learn more visit her website at: https://deborastewart.com/

May 13th:    Juliette Travous is our demo artist.
                                    To read more about her
                                    visit; http://www.framations.com/travous.html

June 13th:    Please note this date may change
                                    (Thursday) 2019 IAPS Convention recap

July 8th:    Lisa Ober will be doing one of her fabulous demos.
https://www.lisaober.com/

March 11th DEMO:

Coming this Fall - Advanced Pastel Workshop

Tom Christopher is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America (PSA) and
Master Circle, International Association of Pastel Societies. (IAPS)
Coming to St. Louis for a 2-1/2 day workshop
Saturday October 19, Sunday October 20 & half day on Monday 21st.
Tom will also be doing the GPA Demo on Monday October 21st, which is open to the public
Workshop will be held at Garry McMichael’s Paint St. Louis Studio.

http://tomchristopherartist.com
More information regarding pricing and signup sheet will be announced via email from Michele Wells in the near future.

We are happy to welcome Travis Bailey who was our judge of 2019 Annual GPA Show, demoing his portrait drawings.

Travis is demoing with charcoal and colored paper
To see some information you can find his work and the O/A Gallery in Kirkwood and as well as this link https://www.thenewyorkoptimist.net/travis-michael-bailey.html

Travis introduced himself, providing GPA some background regarding his education and career. He currently works for company creating Harley Davison T-shirts, last year alone these t-shirts brought in over $1 Million dollars in sales.

Travis began his demonstration by explaining how he begins.
First; photographing his model with appropriate lighting. He then brings the digital file into Photoshop manipulating 2 different images.
One image is soft and ultimately how the end portrait will look.
The 2nd image he manipulates the photo by contracting and sharpening to give clarity, such as the hard edges and different plains. He also has a model skull that he likes to photograph at the same angle/position as his model. This helps provide a roadmap of the underlining structure. You may purchase a Medical Skull replica, good ones will run around $400.00

Travis began on Canson Mi Tens – smooth side. He uses the “Site” Size method to measure and make sure he is getting the underlining structure correctly. He uses a walking cane instead of a Maul in order to protect his had from dragging across the paper and smudging. Travis said he has on an average of 80 – 90 hours into his portraits. He usually sits while he works on them.

Check out Anthony Waichulis, an artist whom Travis study with to learn his technique and discipline. http://anthonywaichulis.com/department/portrait
While he works he is constantly comparing measurements side to side, top to bottom, distance between eyebrow to eyelids, etc. he also uses the "Constructive" Method. One of the areas he finds most people skim over is the ears, although they are one of the more complex parts of the face.

Travis began building and establishing foundation and shapes. He feels you work with materials you can afford. After all it is not about the materials but what you can do with these materials.

When working in color he uses “Stabilo CarbOthello” Pastel Pencils
When working in charcoal he uses “General's Charcoal Pencils” Note that the General white has a blue white casts, so he often times uses “Conte’ as it has a more true white.

When working in graphite pencil his uses “Stabilo All Graphite Pencil”. You have to be careful as graphite has a sheen to it, to avoid this you need to build in layers and stages. (see image to left) When you start laying in white highlights you work the process back and forth to get these beautiful halftones which is where he lives. Spending much time in these soft gradation areas.

When working with graphite pencil, he works on Mars Loom Graph 100 or Arches 140 Hot Press paper, working with 2B, 4B and only at the end does he use sparingly 6B for darkest darks

Travis checks his accuracy by holding the rendering at an extreme angle side to side or from top looking down. If face reads ok and still looking 3-D, he knows he has successfully positioned and created face properly. He found the best way to learn was to study/read on the subject of portraiture, then applying same technique to his toolbox.

A great free tool for drawing body parts and portraits is:
https://www.youtube.com/proko