SCOTTISH
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Ewan McNaughton
Special Issue Magazine
No 4
April
2012
Academy of Realist Art
A lifetime devotee of great masters
such as Caravaggio, De Lazlo and
Millais, Ewan McNaughton has long
campaigned to open a classical art
training facility close to his home in
Scotland. Ewan has studied art since
childhood. Over the years he learned
to become highly proficient in
drawing and painting, winning a
number of awards for his portraits
and other works. Throughout his
studies he learned that many fellow
art students and graduates were
anxious to learn realist art
techniques, but options were limited.
In his belief that any artist should
have the opportunity to learn the
technical skills that are the
foundations for realist art, Ewan is
now working with the Academy of
Realist Art in Toronto to bring its
teaching curriculum to Edinburgh.
With ARA UK, his ultimate goal is to
create a new opportunity for British
artists to be liberated and become the
artists that they long to be.
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ARA is one of a select few academies in the
world that utilizes the academic approach to
drawing and painting. They model their
curriculum and teaching methodologies on
those used by the 19th-century European
academies, with the aim of helping students
achieve the highest calibre of skills possible.
ARA’s highly successful, graduated academic
process teaches students of all levels to see
the objective truths found in nature and the
fundamental skills needed to represent them.
As he explains after a visit to the Academy of
Realist Art studios in North America, “It was a
learning environment I had never seen
before. In place of secrets and mystery of
technique were clear explanations and
supportive instructors and students. It proved
to be a place where previously unattainable
answers to my questions were to hand.
Students work in varying degrees of
completion collectively demonstrated that
master painting and drawing could be learned
as with any other vocation. As far as I could
see, ARA produced the best results of any
other atelier I had found. The quality of
instruction really spoke for itself in the
student work I saw. ARA truly is the starting
point for a whole new generation of old
masters.”
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Academy of Realist Art
The ARA four level program as practised in
Toronto and Boston is based on the 19th century
European academy tradition beginning with Level
1: Drawing from the Flat. Students produce an
exact copy of a Charles Bargue lithograph in
graphite, working at the same size as the
lithograph so as to gain a strong understanding of
structure, proportion, edges and tonal value
before considering further complications like
colour. Even though they work from a flat image,
the student gains knowledge of form and how
lighting describes form. Through copying exactly,
the student and instructor can closely scrutinize
angles and iconic shapes within the drawing and
strengthen their observation skills.
The drawing begins with a construct or schematic
drawing where the student maps out larger
proportions, and identifies abstract shapes found
within the image thereby training their eye to see
abstract shapes in nature and continue to think
abstractly when copying from life. In order to do
realist art, you have to learn to think abstractly!
The drawing then moves into the articulation stage
where the student considers form and the
detailing of the contours. The student divides the
light and dark families within the image and fills in
the cast shadows and form shadows with a flat
tone of the prominent dark value. This way, the
student deals with the forest before the
complication of each tree by breaking up the
values into more manageable families and making
it easier to understand their relationship to each
other rather than dealing with insurmountable
tonal information found across the whole drawing.
Level 1 requires students to complete three
Bargue drawings in this manner and then
complete a fourth and final drawing using
comparative measuring, in other words they are
asked to produce a copy at a larger size than the
image they are working from.
This foundation level normally takes full-time
students about 6 months to complete.
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Level 2 continues from the skills and
understanding of structure, lighting, form and
value attained in level 1 but now students work
‘in the round’, drawing from a simple threedimensional antique sculpture or cast and use
charcoal which allows for a greater range of
value than graphite and is a more malleable
medium. The first of these drawings is of a
simple cast, usually taken from Michelangelo’s
David’s ear, eye, nose or mouth. These
drawings are worked in a ‘sight-size’ method
whereby the student draws the cast at the
exact same size they are seeing it. The easel is
stationed close to the cast and the student
assesses proportions, values and edges from a
set viewing point about 5 to 10 feet away. After
each mark on the paper, the student returns to
this same viewing point and the process is
repeated. The student works without a
construct and is forced to apply the knowledge
gained in level 1 to create the illusion of depth
and form.
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The second charcoal drawing deals with a more
detailed cast, usually a full figure or bust. We
can see from this picture taken from a student’s
viewpoint, that the drawing is exactly the same
size as it is seen. This drawing was done by a 13
year old girl. She started the program aged 11
and worked her way through the drawings
coming in once a week. Even though this cast
seems to contain more complicated information,
the student breaks complex areas into larger
form modelling and abstract shapes in order to
simplify.
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In level 3, the knowledge and skills acquired
thus far are applied to another cast but with
the introduction of paint. The first cast
painting still only uses black and white so as
to continue a logical progression and
understanding of previous concepts whilst
adding new information about the painting
process, more specifically the different layers
of paint and how and why they contribute to
a smooth and even ‘academic finish’, without
the complication of colour. Colour is only a
tinted value and is prioritized below value
and form. Here we can see a completed cast
of Hermes done in black and white.
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The second painting in level 3 introduces a
limited palette. As well as black and white,
the student uses raw umber or burnt umber
and yellow ochre to introduce the concept
of colour temperature i.e. cool colours or
warm colours. With the introduction of
colour, the student learns how to properly
organise their palette to avoid creating
muddy or chalky colours. This is a student
painting of a Saint Jerome cast. Note the
variety of colours and values created with
so few paints on the palette.
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The student may bring in some form of
red drapery or background material to be
included in the background. This creates a
natural progression into the arena of still
life painting explored in level 4. This
painting still only encompasses black,
white, and 2 or 3 other colours.
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Level 4 introduces still-life painting. The
student is required to choose objects to
compose their own still life so long as they
comply with set criteria. This must include a
white porcelain object, red drapery, and a
green object to compliment the red. The
painting process, as with cast painting, is
completed in a very specific way. First the
imprimatura or ‘dry brush drawing’ is done
in paint diluted with mineral spirits and
scrubbed on to the canvas to map out the
basic values and drawing stage of the
painting as seen in this picture.
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When this is dry, the student completes a
dead colour layer or ‘local colour lay in’.
This is the base colours of the actual
objects diluted with turpentine which kills
the paint colour. After a second dead colour
layer has been done to make any drawing
or value adjustments, the first painting
stage can begin. Here, paint is applied in
the same consistency as it comes from the
tube. The paint is placed on the canvas
without much blending creating a colour
mosaic. This is the meat in the sandwich of
thinner consistency layers. In the ‘second
painting’ stage, the whole thing is done
again with paint mixed with linseed oil and
is worked in a series of glazes creating
smoother blending, enforcing the ‘fat over
lean’ rule of academic painting. The whole
thing is built up in this way with all objects
brought to the same finish.
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Students are then encouraged to employ
the knowledge they have to create the
illusion of different textures. Not all still-life
objects need to be brought to the same
smooth finish as white porcelain or drapery
and variety can be found in selecting
different textures found in the arrangement
and bringing them to whatever finish is
most effective, for example, we can see
here that the pot in the background is only
brought as far as the first painting stage
because the glazed finish required for
porcelain or drapery is not necessary to
convey reflective metal. This is the stage
where a student begins to apply their
knowledge more freely. Once they know
how to bring something to a high finish,
they can decide where not to bring
something to a high finish!
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Students then create ‘Tenebristic’ still-life
paintings, using lighting to create
’chiaroscuro’ or the effect of lit objects
emerging from the darkness. This is a
very theatrical dramatic effect most
notably used by Caravaggio. The objects
are placed in a shadow box where the
light source is controlled from a canopy so
as to illuminate or shadow certain selected
areas of the still-life to create the most
pleasing composition.
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Throughout the program, students do
figure drawing from the live model at
the same time as working through the 4
level fundamentals. At the drawing
stage of the program, they work on
figure drawing and when they reach the
painting stage, they do figure painting.
Here we can see a gestural construct or
schematic drawing done with a similar
approach to creating a construct for a
Bargue drawing, only with figure
drawing the student works with
comparative measuring using a knitting
needle. A single unit of measurement is
selected on the model and all other
subsequent measurements are taken in
relation to this. The first gestural
construct identifies the larger
proportions and the expression of the
pose and should consist of no more than
10 to 14 lines.
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The detailed construct is then developed to
map out the smaller proportions inside the
larger construct such as hands, feet spaces
between arms and torso etc. All lines are
kept light and shapes are kept rectilinear.
This drawing was done in carbon pencil.
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As with Bargue drawing and cast
drawing, the light and dark families are
separated by massing in one large tonal
value which is then refined. Shapes are
still left angular at this stage.
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The shapes are rounded out in the
articulation stage and values and
gradations are further refined. This can be
done using a brush or paper stump
although this must always be finished by
going back and filling in with the carbon
pencil. This drawing is demonstrated from
start to finish in ARA’s ‘Drawing the Figure’
DVD which is available on request from the
website, and took about 30 hours to
complete.
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Here is an example of an Academy of Realist
Art student’s figure painting. This was
painted by Evelyn Choi who came to Toronto
from China aged 19. She completed all 4
levels in just 2 years making her one of the
fastest students to complete the program.
She recently undertook a private commission
for $20,000.
© scottish-art-scene.com 2012 All rights reserved
Another ARA graduate, Will Nathans’ portrait
of Cardinal Foley now hangs in the Vatican.
Will was awarded in the top 15 of the
American Portrait Painters Society
competition. He teaches at the Silvermine
School of Art in Connecticut and will
hopefully be working more closely with ARA
at the Boston school in the future.
© scottish-art-scene.com 2012 All rights reserved
Academy of Realist Art
Following a successful classical drawing
workshop in London last month, the next
Academy of Realist Art UK event will be a
7 day Old Masters painting workshop. The
workshop is planned for July 9th to 15th,
2012 at the Art’s Complex in Edinburgh.
This highly popular workshop will be led
by ARA Director and Senior Instructor
Fernando Freitas, who will take students
through the stages of academic oil
painting as they work from a copy of an
Old Master painting. Through this
exercise, they will gain a clear
understanding of the principles of oil
painting, the best techniques, and which
materials to use when.
Special Thanks
We must thank Ewan McNaughton of the
Academy of Realist Art for his great
assistance in putting this exciting issue
together.
Please pass it on
It is Frigyes Karinthy’s theory that we are
all only six steps away from being
introduced to any other person in the
world. So please promote Scottish Art
and the Academy of Realist Art by
“introducing” this magazine to your
friends and colleagues.
To visit ARA’s website:
www.academyofrealistart.co.uk
To visit our website:
www.scottish-art-scene.com
© Copyright 2012 This magazine is the copyright of xartx.com, please do not alter it or extract images or words. ©
Copyright of the images remains the property of the Academy of Realist Art and are subject to their terms and conditions.
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