
Picasso, Pablo: Boy with a Pipe, 1905. Oil on canvas (100*81cm)
I love Picasso’s boy with a pipe. It comes across as warm and melancholic at the same time. And the play of masculine and feminine symbols is just perfectly balanced… a blue working uniform, a pipe and sitting wide-legged and then a wreath in his hair, bouquets in the background.
Picasso simplified the subject a lot… just look at the eyes, ears and the shadows of his face. His brushstroke is thick but follows the “growth/shape” of the face, with a few deep shadows added for contrast. I find the unevenness of the eyes adds to the expression of silent melancholic yet curious observation. I am looking at him – he is looking at me – both attentively.

Picasso, Pablo: Boy with a Pipe, 1905. (detail)
There are so many approaches to oil painting – alla prima or with an underpainting in tones etc, that so far I was left reasonably confused as to where to start. And to start always takes me longest, so I am in dire need of a starting point, a little pointer. I am fine once I get going.

Picasso: The Artist and his Model, 1914. Oil & pencil on canvas (58*55.9cm)
So I decided to start with the direct method, which Picasso seems to have used, judging by his unfinished painting of 1914 that I found. You can see a pretty accurate and detailed line sketch in pencil on the canvas. There are no fills, but the panes are indicated with lines, as you can see for example on the bridge of the nose. Everything is outlined – from pupils, eyebrows, nostrils to the turned feet of the table on the left – and well prepared for him to fill in with paint, which is very subtly shaded.
And on the detail views it looks like he might have sized the picture up with some help lines… but it’s hard to tell if you don’t see the picture in person.
Anyway, for me this is interesting because
a) I often just paint without any under-drawing and then it turns out that the composition wasn’t any good to start with.
b) if I do an under-drawing at all, my lines are more of a searching type and I never quite commit to one, until I really have to, which is when I apply paint, really. For this picture by Picasso preparation of the exact composition was everything, it seems.
c) I am overworking the contrasts on the skin. On the model’s skin above you can see how very subtly Picasso differentiated between light and shade on the body. No changes from pink to purple to yellow ochre like I tried the other day.
For me that means more preparation but less attempting to execute some vague idea in paint with endless repainting. And I should try not to have these monstrous colour changes from the light to the darker areas of the surfaces. Sounds worth doing.

Picasso: The Artist and his Model, 1914. (detail of the 2 heads, one of them just in pencil outline)

Picasso: The Artist and his Model, 1914. (detail of how Picasso started the painting)
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