March 2 demonstration by Joseph Stoddard
by Angela Alvarenga
Joseph Stoddard creates beautiful paintings, rich with color and detailed with texture and line work. He has a very precise and organized work space. He generally paints on 140 lb Fabriano bright white cold press. He starts by blocking out the drawing with a pencil then refines the drawing with a waterproof Uniball Mirco Pen over the pencil. He continues to work on the drawing with a water soluble Pentel Sign Pen for darker spots. Stoddard’s style is a loose sketch with graphite smudges and a carefree sense of grittiness. He makes a border on the paper to give the finished piece a vignette look. His paintings maintain all the steps because he likes the idea of showing the “process” in his paintings.
When Stoddard is not painting, he is an Environmental Graphic designer which explains his organized his work space and methodical process. He enjoyed drawing and sketching the town and that evolved into becoming a painter. He encourages his students to enjoy the drawing process, too. The most exciting part of his presentation was watching each step applied loosely and carefree but in actuality it is well planned. His palette is flawlessly clean and the consistency of his paints are juicy and fresh out of the tube. He keeps his paint fresh every time to avoid any muddiness. He only uses round brushes. Stoddard practiced the painting the night before so that he wouldn’t have to make any decisions during the final piece.
To start, he clamps his paper to the board and draws vertical and horizontal lines. He lets the lines cross to build the composition. Stoddard is likes to mess up the paper to help get over the fear of a blank white piece of paper. He takes risks with a scuffed, messy look and splattering paint intentionally and accidently for a gritty careless look. Good composition has balance then finish with the details.
When Stoddard is not painting, he is an Environmental Graphic designer which explains his organized his work space and methodical process. He enjoyed drawing and sketching the town and that evolved into becoming a painter. He encourages his students to enjoy the drawing process, too. The most exciting part of his presentation was watching each step applied loosely and carefree but in actuality it is well planned. His palette is flawlessly clean and the consistency of his paints are juicy and fresh out of the tube. He keeps his paint fresh every time to avoid any muddiness. He only uses round brushes. Stoddard practiced the painting the night before so that he wouldn’t have to make any decisions during the final piece.
To start, he clamps his paper to the board and draws vertical and horizontal lines. He lets the lines cross to build the composition. Stoddard is likes to mess up the paper to help get over the fear of a blank white piece of paper. He takes risks with a scuffed, messy look and splattering paint intentionally and accidently for a gritty careless look. Good composition has balance then finish with the details.
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Part of the beauty of Stoddard’s work is his rich, vibrant colors. However, he is more concerned with value than the actual color. He uses a variety of blues in the sky but allows the blue to bleed onto a structure for shadows. Then that structure interacts with the sky. He mixes colors right on the paper. He works with light against darks, lets the highlights come from the paper and lets the Pentel ink smudge on the paper. He uses the chiseled handle of his brush to scratch out the branches but just like his entire process the scratches must happen at an exact time so the line doesn’t become dark instead. Where the white scratches stop, he’ll uses a rigger brush to draw out dark lines to enhance light against dark. He keeps control of where the darks are, and maintains a distinctive separation between lights and darks to ensure a strong value statement. He adds burnt umber to warm up his shadows. Through his many years of painting, he learned that windows that are higher up will reflect the sky and windows that are lower to ground will reflect the surrounding structures or environment. He smears the windows so they don’t look too rigid. After the painting dries he comes back to punch up the colors. He takes risks like adding red under trees or smudging a trunk to make it look loose.
Stoddard’s demonstration was captivating and informative. One great tip is to not have an area larger than a 1” square without value or texture. He feels his paintings should have the same level of looseness or tightness to be consistent. Lastly, he does not create his paintings to have a center of interest because he feels all of the painting is important. The richness in color and interesting compositions helps the viewer keep the eye moving. |
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