English – Antti Juustila Art

Hidas talvi – slow winter

Talvi on ollut maalauksen suhteen hidasta vaan ei hiljaista. Työt, remontit ja muut ovat vieneet ajan ja energian. Studiolla työskentely on ollut puuskittaista.

Tämä maalaus marmorireliefistä on kuitenkin lähes valmis. Olen tilannut puulevyn jolle liimaan kankaan. Sitten viimeistelyjä; laseeraten yhtenäinen tunnelma koko pinnalle, sen jälkeen hidas kuivuminen ja vernissaus joskus syksyllä.

Winter has been slow – but not totally silent – as what comes to painting. Work, house renovation and other things have taken the time and energy. Studio work has been on and off.

This painting of the marble relief is almost done though. I have ordered a wooden support on top of which the canvas will be glued on. Then some finishing touches; glazing a unified tone to the whole surface. After which slow drying and sometimes in the end of the Fall, varnishing.

Marble relief painting wip — Marble relief painting, work in progress (iPhone pic)

Lisää piirroksia | More drawings

Hiljaisen talven jälkeen jatkan sisäänajoa piirtämiseen ja maalaamiseen.

Luonnos Ninasta saa jäädä tuollaiseksi. Voisin ehkä kokeilla minulle tuntematonta verdacchio -maalaustekniikkaa ja luonnostella tuosta myös maalauksen.

Tämä luonnospaperille tehty piirros figuurista on nyt myös valmis. Malli on aika atleettinen. Elävän mallin piirustusta Angel Academyssä on kyllä ikävä.

I have continued sketching after a quiet winter, as I didn’t get much done. The sketch of Nina is not going to get further. I might try to paint it using a technique new to me; verdacchio. Another sketch of an athletic female is also finished, no reason to take that further. I miss the live model drawing sessions in Angel Academy.

Piirrustuksia | Drawings

Pari viimeaikaista ja yksi vanhempi piirros. Ninan muotokuva on vielä työn alla.

Two recent and one older drawing. Nina’s portrait is still work in progress.

Friday night sketching

Graphite on paper. Still work in progress.

Lyijykynä paperille. Yhä työn alla.

Sewing | Ompelutöitä.

Kiiminki river at Winter

Kiiminki river at Winter, at Koiteli rapids. Oil on canvas, 10×15 cm. Private collection.

Copy of Velázquez

My copy of Diego Velázquez painting Woman with a Fan. Oil on canvas. 30x40cm. The original painting from 1638-1639 is larger, 92.8×68.5 cm and is painted on wood.

Studying figure painting

My year 2015 at Angel Academy at Florence, Italy ended in my first serious oil painting in grisaille. I barely finished the partial face of David before I had to head back home to Finland.

After this, I continued to study painting in Finland, copying master paintings like the Velazquez’s The Lady with the Fan.

Since I’ve felt quite unsure of how to paint figures, I decided (while in Florence) that I must further educate myself in painting human figures. So here I am now, back in Florence, in a figure painting workshop. Luckily Jered is an outstanding teacher and painter, so I am really happy to be here to learn more and strengthen my skills in painting human form.

I bet after these two weeks I’ve learnt a lot!

Velazquez study done

I think I’m calling this little (30x40cm) Velazquez master copy done. Well, at least I am going to wait for the paint to dry and then see if I will make another pass on the background. Now it looks a bit uneven, but that is due to the paint still being wet. In the photograph below, the face looks more yellow-orange than in reality; the camera lies about the true colors you can see in front of the painting. This will take a long time to dry, so varnishing it must wait until next spring, I guess.

Ahead to new challenges! I have started to work on a new painting, larger than anything I’v done before. And soon I’ll be back in Florence to participate in a figure painting workshop!

Copy of Lady with a Fan by Velazquez — A small copy still a bit wet especially in the dark areas. Especially the background unevenness is due to wet paint.

Works in progress

The Woman with a fan by Velazquez is a challenging painting to copy in this small size. The original is much larger, and achieving to copy all the small details, nuances in this small scale just is not possible. I have to try to find out how to achieve similar look with different techniques.

I have already twice scraped off the face with a palette knife and paper towels. Maybe the third painting will be successful. The misty look of her face is due to scraping and wiping and not the intended look 😉

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On the right side a portrait I recently started. Today I fixed some problems in the profile in this grisaille phase. Tomorrow I will continue from here, working with details, fixing any errors I see. Then when the paint has dried, to first painting with colours.

Economical painting

The price for a tube of high quality paint may be up to 40 euros, even more. As a painter, you perhaps want to use good materials and that could then be quite costly.

Regardless of the price, you want to put enough paint on the pallette. It’s a nuisance to interrupt your painting to look for the right tube of paint that just ran out. It’s also a bore having to throw away expensive paints. Especially when I have only brief occasions when I’m able to paint among other responsibilities.

I learned from Davide, a friend of mine in Firenze, a nice way to store paint for the next painting session. I pick up the clean paint piles, and wrap them in a small piece of wax paper and place them in some air tight container. When I continue, I again place the paint on the pallette and continue painting. If I have mixed a larger batch of some specific colour, I can save also that for the next time. Handy and economical.