Featured Artist Giddy Richt

Enjoy this stunning collection of portraits by artist Giddy Richt, who captures her subjects with authenticity and spirit. See more by visiting her website.

 

 

Studying portraiture is a neverending love/hate experience. I will never get to the end, and that’s OK with me. It’s hard! No wonder I avoided it for so long. What keeps my interest are the questions I keep asking myself. Did I capture the moment, the expression, the subtle grin, the eyes talking to me? I cannot say that I’ve carried out all these things, but I will keep trying.

 

 

There are a couple of muses I tend to use a lot for my drawings. They give me endless expressive information. I also have become interested in recreating photos of Native Americans who lived over a hundred years ago, taken by Edward Curtis. Finding my doppelgänger in his photos led me down a path of discovery and learning that was quite unexpected. Working from a black and white or sepia toned photo is challenging. It has really helped me understand values, edges and basic drawing skills better.

 

 

I use professional grade color pencils, Caran d’ache Luminance, Derwent Lightfast and Derwent Drawing, and love how the transparent colors allow the layers to glow. The surface I use is El Greco canvas, which has an absorbent ground.

 

 

I begin by toning my canvas, then pencil all over the canvas and rub out with a paper towel moistened with odorless mineral spirits. Then I sketch my composition out directly on the canvas with a medium grey color pencil. I also use an eraser to pull out the highlights, creating sort of a grisaille. Once I’m reasonably sure I have everything where it should be, I begin adding all the other colors in a light manner. I draw everything all over at once, then paint it out. I call that one pass.

 

 

Painting out is the fun part. In the first pass I use a folded piece of paper towel or paint brush to blend out, using the odorless mineral spirits to melt the colors. By using more or less, you can get different effects. Yes, this first paint out is an ugly stage which I think of as the underpainting.

 

 

I concentrate on my shapes and values. Details are reserved for the end. I prefer to keep my work fluid so I can keep making changes and adjustments and refining the details as I go through different passes. (Gamblin’s Gamsol is my solvent.)

 

 

I stretch my canvas on stretcher bars just like an acrylic or oil painting. Then I varnish with a UVLS spray (I use Goldens) to spray several coats of the high gloss varnish, drying between layers and a final coat of satin varnish to knock that high shine down. Finally, popping it into a floating type of frame.

 

 

I’m not done experimenting with these pencils, and am having way too much fun seeing what I can do with them. I do declare that color pencils are indeed a fine art medium!

 

Giddy Richt invites you to follow on Instagram.

 

 

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