Bougureau and hope

For those of you that have been following my blog I started this blog 5 years ago after watching a movie about a call center employee who went to school to become a writer and ends up working at a call center because she never found the right time to work on her book. So In this film she gets the idea of going through an entire cookbook and writing about each recipe on her blog. As a way for her to complete something as she had this tendency to never finish anything. Also as a way for her to write on a daily basis.

Then I got the idea for doing that but with my work as an artist, when i originally had this idea to become an academic and official portrait painter for high class society i was in drawing 2 class in my community college. My drawing professor wanted me to continue the standard schooling tradition and get a bachelors degree in fine arts and teach at a community college or college. That way I could have a steady job and do my art on the side. I thought about doing that for a couple of months then i thought "No, I only live once If I do this I am going to do it my way." well My way was much harder then the traditional schooling system process.

My way started 6 years ago with 1 year of drawing classes at a community college, 1 semester of a painting class at a community college, 4 1 week workshops, plus one 2 week workshop on color theory with graydon parrish which i highly recommend!  an apprenticeship (i dont know what else to call it) with a professional working artist, and 1 year of drawing at the Loft Atelier and a short study with Ted seth jacobs and now a 6 week study with Studio Escalier (currently in progress) plus further training when I return to the states and in europe next year...and here I am!

Throughout this entire 6 years I find myself to be reminded of the constant nagging fact that no matter where I go and whom i study with at the end of the day what I do is all up to me.  I could have been studying at Angel Academy for 4 years! and that would be no guarantee of success for me!

I write this specific post because I find myself thinking about my favorite artist, not just because of the work that he produced but his work ethic. Now I know this sounds rather shallow to like a specific artist for there work and there work ethic but the books that I have on bougureau only contain technical historical information on his paintings, his process but i have no information on his ideals. Other then when he was young and at picots studio he did write in his journal that a man that is always talking has nothing to say, so i tried that for a couple of years but have since switched that up to, a man that is not listening has nothing to say.

I have much respect for bougureau and his work ethic, he had small beginnings in a fish town of La Rochelle, France and he worked his way up (with the help of his uncle and his mother, which is a reminder to me as well that no man is an island) through the art world with his strong temperament, determination and passion to succeed. When I first read about him 6 years ago I was working retail at a blockbuster and I was making 7.75 an hour. I knew that part of my sucess was going to be dependent on studying with the right people, the right people being studio escalier, ted seth jacobs, angel academy.. etc.  but at 7.75 an hour I was NEVER going to be able to that. (one thing that people seem to find taboo is the fact that studying costs money as well as time)

So i set myself about to gain knowledge beyond the arts, knowledge that would help me get a better paying job, which in turn would help me pay for the right teachers, which in turn would help me be the kind of painter that i NEED to be.  the process took 2-3 years.  I did study in between and I tried to find painters to take my under but noone was interested. I did finally get the right job with the skills that I had learned and then it was another 3 years before I left for France.  Finally...

Someone had this joke once "If i had a dime for every time alex talked about france, Id have a lot of dimes"...

There were tough times in between and countless nights where I wanted to give up and do something normal, and have a normal life. Yet If i even missed a day or two of painting I would get highly agitated and think Bougureau never took a day off in his life so why should I. My friends supported me as well, my best friend supported me the most. My little brothers and sister did also supported me, which was good because there was a point  in the past 6 years where I didnt draw for 6 months and looking back I feel like absolute shit thinking on it. But I was at a standstill with my bargue plates and I knew that I could only learn so much on my own. But I kept on hoping, thinking of bougureau..

As childish and romantic as it may sound, in reality I feel like I owe a lot of what I have been able to accomplish because of him. We have similiar backgrounds, but we both refuse to give up. Even now during painting class I stop, get frustrated then think "keep pushing, think clearly, focus on hue, value, chroma, etc"" and I keep moving forward.

Because I have hope, hope that one day all this work will pay off and I can make not only a living at painting but live happily as a painter. I want a normal life just like everyone else, but i refuse to be poor or suffer because of it. Its hope that drives me. hope is my fuel, bougureau is a reminder to me that it is possible, and the rest is up to me.

Studio Escalier

For the next 6 weeks my studio will be closed. I will be in Argentin-Chatue France studying at Studio Escalier. All commissions have stopped at this time, I am accepting commission requests but will not proceed with any new commissions until my return to the states.

3 New Paintings

I have recently completed 3 new paintings that are for sale on my etsy account
https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/ArtBySandoval/tools/listings

Link posted above.


All proceeds are towards my next France Expedition.

Progress report part 2

continued from progress report part 1...

Once teds workshop ended I stayed in Paris near the Charles de Guille Airport for several days. I  went to the eiffel tower to meet up with friends I walked the canal near the eiffel tower, I also had lunch with a close friend of mine and explored the city. Most Importantly I went to the Louvre! what massive paintings they were! It is important to remember though that back in those times going to salon shows was a family event so these paintings were a form of entertainment. Much like the entertainment that we have now is Television and football games..

I flew home back to Arizona For 2 days and left again for San Francisco, California. I took a 2 week workshop Bay Area Classical Artists Atelier please check out the website and find further information regarding upcoming workshops, many of which I plan to attend in the coming year.
 http://www.bacaa.org

The stay at the school (http://www.bacaa.org) was wonderful the environment in itself is very relaxing and there is always breakfast and coffee for the students.

I then studied with Graydon Parrish of Grand Central Academy.  For those that do not know Graydon Parrish check out his website http://www.graydonparrish.com/Graydon_Parrish/Home.html he Is an amazing painter and is considered by many to be a leader of the realist movement. Graydon was taught by Michael Aviano and was trained on mixing color using the munsell method. He was very kind to share his information regarding color theory and color application as his method of mixing color really takes out a lot of the guesswork which is fantastic because it is incredibly frustrating to mix a color and to find yourself with the dreadful "gray"

He has a very simple non mathematical formula for mixing color. It is Hue=Value/Chroma.

In this case the Hue would be the color, the value would be the specific level of lightness that the color is in and the chroma would be the level of intensity or saturation that the color is in. Its actually very simple once its been explained in person and if anyone has any questions on the process of mixing colors according to the Munsell Method I would be more then happy to share the information.

After the workshop I took the train to los angelas for business matters and flew back to arizona yesterday afternoon. During this trip I was also able to complete volume 1 of my workbook which contains 4 years of notes on workshops I have attended and on my theories of painting as well as my work schedule. I was ALSO able to complete my anatomy plates book by elliot goldfinger, this was another 4 year project which I would practice copying anatomical plates to memorize the special shapes of the human figure. The Anatomy book though I will have to complete again 4 more times, with my work book I have initiated volume 2 of my workbook which does contain notes on graydon parishes workshop..

I will also be opening up another go fund me account to raise funds for my next trip to Argentin-Chatue in France I will be studying at Studio Escalier for 6 weeks. Following this event I might also be studying at the Art Students League for a week.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!

Progress Report Part 1

Recap of the events that have occurred so far starting from 5/31/2015.

Just wanted to do a quick recap of everything that has happened so far starting from 5/31/2015. First I  want to extend my thanks and appreciation towards Linda Dulay at http://www.bacaa.org who is the founder and owner of Bay Area Classical Artists Atelier. Without her kindness and extensive experience in hosting workshops with some of the most talented artists in the industry Ted Seth Jacobs Workshop would not have been possible.

My journey began with me leaving for France and studying with Ted Seth Jacobs with students from all over the world for 5 weeks. It was quite an enlightening experience as Ted has been my idol in the art field from the get go. Although Ted has matured in age his energy and passion for drawing and painting the human figure has not died down.

I stayed In a small farm town called Les Cerquex Sous Passavat, It is 3 hours from Paris, France. The town itself was a little isolated so for the class to get any food for the week was always an endeavor. We typically carpooled with our monitor Sara and the drive itself was only 15 minutes to the nearest city. We learned to be more cautious with the food that we purchased and to conserve our food when we were running out. Typically towards the end of the week before we would go grocery shopping again we would have dinners together to scrap the food that we had left and make it last. I stayed at a small cow farm with a lovely family the farm itself was called Les Moulin (according to my friend this meant the windmill)

The Head of the household was christophe corrioult him and I had several discussions between my 5 week stay at the farm. He has an interesting story, he always wanted to be an electrician but his dad wanted him to be a farmer, so he was given an ultimatum. Be a farmer or he can leave the house, in the end he chose to be a farmer. His Wife Kristen and him have a son named Sebastian who is VERY polite and very quiet and very tall. I stayed in a very old building which I believe was at LEAST 100 years old. There was so much charm in staying in an old home like that so much history.

Teds class in itself is packed with valuable information regarding light, and color and learning to see accurately not only the figure but learning to see everything! His biggest impact i believe was his method of measuring which was to not use ANYTHING as a form of measurement other then your eyes. This was no sight size, using a stick or a pencil this was only using your eyes and finding the measurements based on that. I asked ted one day what was the one thing that i should take away from his class that would be the most valuable, he told me it was the block in. That is the single most important aspect of drawing. Without the block in being 100% accurate then the entire drawing itself will fall apart. Modeling can come afterwards.

There are certain aspects that I did disagree with on ted seth jacobs method of seeing, which was structure. Now ted talks a lot about the special shapes of everyone and that we must not only copy the portraitistic shapes of each individual but also the portraits of there special shapes. He did mention to the class that studying anatomy was irrelevant and we should only focus on drawing the figure that we see before us however i did hear him mention anatomical names several times. The same concept was also applied to painting, he did mention to the class that we should only paint what we see and not use color charts. Again I know for a fact that in his training as a youth at the Art Students League that he did have training with color charts.

I have also learned that we must take what we can from each artist we study with but also apply our own concepts so we have our own "voice" as artists.

I remember reading in Bougeroue's 1984 montral exhibition catalogue that the reason bougeroue's painting instructor was so popular was that he did not apply his style to the students yet he let them find there own voice and gave only vague ideas for which the students to take and utilize in there own fashion.

Continued on section 2

Ted Seth Jacobs Workshop In France Update

For the past two weeks I have been staying a beautiful farmhouse called Les Moulin in Les Cerquex Sous Passavat, France. Here sun rises at 6am and doesn't set until 10-11pm, so that makes for very long days. I have one hour walks to and from class that I enjoy very much. It lets me take in the air and the beautiful countryside. I like taking photos of the scenery and cows I see along the way. The town I am staying in is beautiful and has a characteristic feel that you just cant find in the states. The only downside to that is that roads are a bit on the small side so you have to be careful when walking around. None the less my time here has been great.

 For those new to my blog, I am currently doing a 5 week workshop with Ted Seth Jacobs  that focuses on drawing and painting. The workshop is being hosted through http://www.bacaa.org/ ,an amazing school located in the Bay Area near San Francisco, California,who's teaching principles are founded on the same principles that Ted Seth Jacobs uses. This year's workshop is running from 6/1 thru 7/3 in Les Cerquex Sous Passavat, France. 

The next workshop hosted

by http://www.bacaa.org/ been already been scheduled for next summer running from 5/30/2016 to 7/3/2016. If you are interested in attending the next workshop, I highly recommend signing up immediately since available is limited.

Click here for details:
 http://www.bacaa.org/workshops-descriptions/ted-seth-jacobs-summer-program-study-the-figure-with-a-maste.html 

  For the next 4 weeks I will be discussing Mr. Jacobs's workshop and sharing information from his lectures. I will also share photos and talking about the quaint town in which I am staying in. For the next couple of days instead of doing my typical daily blog posts I will be separating the of blog posts into small sections. Each section of my blog post will focus on a specific principle that ted discusses during the workshop I will also be providing visual examples to help further explain any of these principles.

For me, taking this workshop has truly been a once in a lifetime experience. Mr Jacobs has been a great inspiration having trained a generation of painters including Jacob Collins, Patricia Watwood and Anthony Ryder. I would like to thank http://www.bacaa.org/ for their acceptance into this great workshop and giving me the chance to further my artistic education.

third day of ted seth jacobs workshop in France

Today ted was a little harsher on the class, he noted that most of the students in class today (5 total students) had incorrect measurements regarding the models head. He said hes never been fully able to understand why but he believes it to be a pshycologocal thing. All the measurements were incorrect regarding the models forehead. It was to compact and needed to be elongated. He also noted that understanding anatomy is not very helpful and can in fact be harmful as people who know anatomy make everything emphasized. On this point I disagree but I knew coming In I was not going to mimic all of teds theorys. This is good as I believe we need to combine our education, and with the knowledge we have gained, skills we obtained and information we know in combination is what makes us unique artists.

I have read that Anthony Ryder when studying with Ted did only the block in for 1 year. since I only have 5 weeks with Ted and I do not know If he will do another workshop next year I will practice doing the block in with my anatomy studies. I am also considering doing some time with Anthony Ryder at his school. I REALLY need to nail down that block in method before I refine drawing further. I have taken extensive notes and I think I will tweak my current book with the new information I have learned from Ted.

 I have also some plein aire paintings that are in the works. I need to practice everyday while I am here.

All plein aire paintings I complete will be going on my etsy account and any funds will help pay for my France Fund. 

I am looking into taking a workshop with Michael Grimaldi and another with Dan Thompson following this workshop at  http://www.bacaa.org/ I want to do this so I can really refine my understanding of the block in method and use of anatomy in the figure.

I still have my stay at Studio Escalier this August and I will post more regarding there workshops.

bonjour!