sábado 13 de marzo de 2010
lunes 21 de diciembre de 2009
jueves 8 de octubre de 2009
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More information is available at www.AlexFerrar.com
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for reservations 7832 3231 and 4352 2792
Fine Art & Fine Dining
Sobremesa is the art gallery restaurant in the northeastern corner of Parque Central in La Antigua Guatemala, the second door east of Citibank. It regularly features the work of Guatemala's finest contemporary artists, and of the owner and head chef as well. Many of the latter works are displayed below. The menu is influenced by French, Italian, and Spanish cuisines, with a bit of exotic thrown in. We experiment often, and we lost count of our Exotic Ice Creams after passing twenty, so there is always something new to delight your eyes or dazzle your palate.
The Miracles of Saint Francis Xavier
painted at Sobremesa by Alexander Ferrar
The Miracles of Saint Ignatius Loyola
painted at Sobremesa by Alexander Ferrar
NEWS!
La Asociación Nuestros Ahijados (ANA), also known in English as The God's Child Project, and Sobremesa Galeria de Arte & Restaurante are holding a special event for the children.
"Eve" by Alexander Ferrar
SOLD
"Helen Spotting Paris" by Alexander Ferrar
SOLD
Painting Tutorial by Alexander Ferrar
First, a brief word or two on flesh tones.
Many people rely on Flesh Tone when painting flesh tones. This is a big mistake. Hardly anyone is the color of Flesh Tone paint. There should be at least ten different colors set aside for flesh tones, including purple and lavender, several degrees of pink, several beiges, and Terra Cotta. A palette should never be without Terra Cotta. Unless you’re painting Smurfs, at which time, you’re in the wrong class.
At least one of the beiges and the Burnt Sienna should be a high viscosity paint, so that you can paint washes uniformly and bring a new shade to an area without the irregularity of watering down a pigment.
Step 1
Do whatever you can to get the preliminary sketches done. Practice. Pray. Print out somebody else’s drawing and trace it. Whatever. And blacken the parts that you’ll need to remember are black. That kind of thing gets lost when the drawing is intricate. Some artists start with the most difficult part of the painting, in this case a face and some very complicated clothing. The rationale here is, why go to all the trouble of painting everything else if you run the risk of messing up the subject? Why not go ahead and get the most difficult part out of the way and do the rest in your leisure? So that’s what we’re doing.
Step 2
You’ll want to put in the dark brown shades where there will be shadows on the skin. If someone tells you it’s too dark, as they often will, scoff and tell them you know what you’re doing. There are a number of different scoffs, and a good artist should be proficient in many, if not all of them. And if taking photos of your work in its various stages, make sure there is a shadow across the image. Shadows are key.Step 3
And if the subject has black hair, such as this one, the blackness will have different sub-colors. Many people in the Middle East and
For skin tones, add a watered-down Burnt Sienna and some Terra Cotta to brighten the shadows and put life into the skin. Again, well-meaning nosy people will insist that the shadows are too dark. Use another scoff or a combination of your two best.
Again, if taking a photo, try to get a shadow or the tip of your finger in the shot. It will add personality and authenticity.
Step 4
Go over all of the skin with a wash (watered-down lighter color) of one of the beiges, and that will tone down and unify the shadows. Once it's dry, touch it up in the appropriate places with pinks and beiges that lean toward pink. These are areas where the skin is thinner and allows more of the blood underneath to show through.
Color in the parts that have complementary colors to the ones you first laid down. For example, if blue was the first series of colors painted in the design, fill in the orange. Then the green, then the red. This helps your eye, and by extension, you, to not get bored by the process and throw in the towel early on.
Step 5
Usually, an artist has the entire composition planned before putting the preliminary sketches on the canvas. Some of us, on the other hand, rely on our right brains or are too lazy. We instead allow ourselves to be open to the painting’s specific needs and let it guide us. In this case, it is the subconscious mind that comes into play, dredging up out of its depths the long-buried correct answer that we misinterpret as intuition. Those who rely on their left brains usually think too much and cloud the composition with reasoning and intentions instead of what the picture actually needs, which should come after deep reflection and/or sleep deprivation.
When it does come, draw the background’s outline and paint a wash over it in the general tones, trying not to get any on the already-painted foreground. This is the biggest disadvantage of doing the foreground first, and one must be careful not to water the paint down too much or leave it unattended before it is dry. If the phone rings, lay the canvas down flat instead of propped on the easel, or gravity (what a cruel mistress is gravity) will thwart you. If you catch the drips in time, a wet brush can loosen and raise them, and they can be dabbed gently away with tissue.
In the case of the bench, to create texture, plastic paste was diluted and brushed on, and sand dribbled on top. When it was firmly stuck, another coat was painted on top of it to secure it to the canvas and prevent it from being dislodged by subsequent brushstrokes.
Step 6
Darken as much as can be darkened without losing sight of the sketches. Notice where the shadows of the bench are painted with a hint of blue? This is what is called reflected color. Take a long look at a white wall or a yellow chair, and you will notice that the wall is hardly a uniform white and the chair certainly isn’t the solid yellow that is its characteristic local color, or how it appears in typical daylight. They both take on the colors of objects near them. Time out.
reflected color - The color perceived from an object, determined by the wavelengthlight leaving its surface after selective absorption of other wavelengths of the incident light — the light hitting the surface. Reflected light behaves in certain ways that differentiate it from colors produced by sources of the light. The concept of reflected color is related to that of subtractive color — color produced by mixing cyan, yellow and magenta pigments, each of which absorbs certain wavelengths. A balanced mixture of these colorant or subtractive primaries theoretically yields black since it absorbs all wavelengths of visible light.
Okay, time in. So, because the subject’s güipil and skirt are predominantly blue, the shadows underneath her will have a bluish cast.
Step 7
In many cases where objects are meant to be seen clearly, a foundation color should be laid and modified from there. In this case, the background is in shadow and so the base color is black, with the object’s color on top and showing feebly, except where stripes of light allow more visibility. In the case of those stripes, a hint of yellow will make the reflected light appear more authentic.
Step 8
For moss, it is good to start with a black foundation and build upon it with subtly lightening shades of brownish and yellowish greens, dabbed lightly with the tips of a fan brush. Ferns are easily painted with a detail brush dabbed with the tip facing away from the stem, forming the outer edges of the frond’s leaves. First one dab in the direction the frond is pointing, creating a teardrop shape, and one on either side, diagonal to it and a bit behind. Two more in the same fashion, and then the rest line the stem all the way down perpendicular to the first leaf. When you’re all done, hold the painting up in front of a mirror and look at its reflection. Any errors will be suddenly apparent. If you feel the composition is unbalanced, stick a lizard in there to even it out.
"Golgotha" by Alexander Ferrar
Acrylic 18" x 24"
"La Pieta" by Alexander Ferrar
Acrylic 18" x 24"
"Pygmalion" by Alexander Ferrar
A modern interpretation of the Greek myth, that serves as flagship for the Oblique Movement, the manifesto of which follows.
"La Vedova Nuova" by Alexander Ferrar
The second Oblique piece.
The Oblique Manifesto
"La Fuente" by Alexander Ferrar
SOLD
"In The Wings" by Alexander Ferrar
Acrylic 30" x 40"
"Our Daily Bread" by Alexander Ferrar
Acrylic 30" x 40"
"The Night of the Following Day" by Alexander Ferrar
Mixed Media--watercolor and acrylic
"La Facade Tombe"
Pen & Ink of a tough woman exposing her vulnerability.
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