Jeffrey Jones 7.9

8/2/2019 Jeffrey Jones 7.9

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Painting Process Notes From Jef JonesNo piece of art is ever a failure, because you never come away with less than you started with. - JJ

Artist Jerey Catherine Jones (1944-2011) is admired, copied, and emulated by many artists who nd Joneswork to have desirable qualities including strong drasmanship, quality o line, inventive design, etc. Te list omaxims that ollow are derived rom the artists comments & email correspondence 2009-2011. Tey are not a

recipe book or painting like Jones but they do briefy articulate Jones process and thinking. I you wonder whatyou are responding to in Jones work consider the ollowing ideas in how it was produced:

1) Develop a strong overall graphic design o pleasing shape / shapes on the surace.

Jones: Im starting with what I think is the most important actor in any fat visual work: shape. Even i thatshape is yet to become very descriptive, the basic shape - i interesting enough - can hold the eyes o the viewer.Ten I can continue to work within it, rening until I eel it is time to stop. Knowing when to stop is ar moreimportant than to continue to add unnecessary details until everybody is exhausted.

2) Work on the entire canvas and do not become ocused on specifc detail (too soon.)

Jones: As I work on a painting - rom the start - I try to keep the entire thing going along at the same rate, sideto side, corner to corner. Tis not only helps me keep in mind that the whole is more important than any o theparts, but i I have a heart ailure or get some rare atal cerebral hemorrhage while Im painting then the work toowill look nished. I cant allow any part o the painting to become too darling to me. Ten the temptation will beto beat the whole into a shape just to justiy the darling. Murder your darlings.

Compiled by Walt Mortonwith the permission o

JCJ 201


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3) Find a pleasing design in your preliminary reerence, sketch, or drawing. Consider it as 2 values.

I you want the nished painting to look good start with a design that works. I you are dissatised with thedesign in your the drawing you cannot make the best painting o it. Make clay models or take photos orreerence. Work out your preliminary design rom sketches or photo reerence in black and white. Reducing toblack and white - 2 values - reveals whether the design works on the simplest iconic level. I you are not happywith the design in 2 values, adding a lot o color will not save it. I dont like color on drawing. Black and white

has a strength to it, an abstractive quality about it that allows the viewer to use his imagination. When I do an inkdrawing, its black and white.


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4) On painting materials:

Jones: I stretch my own canvases and preer linen, unprimed. wo coats o gesso with sanding on each dry coat.Bristle brushes, lberts give me the texture and quality o surace I like. I use no mediums, just turpentine. Mypalette consists o yellow ochre pale, raw sienna and chrome yellow. Te reds I use are venetian, burnt umber,burnt sienna and cadmium. I like oxide o chromium or green, all other greens are mixed. Ultramarine is theblue I avor, occasionally I will use cobalt blue or cerulean. Very rarely I use emerald green or cadmium yellow.When painting I consider complements and mix them together on the palette, using a bit o a complement in

each mixture. For example, I might make a purple using ultramarine and venetian red and add a bit o ochre totemper it. I I use a yellow I add a little purple to temper that color. I never use a tube black but mix it rom othercolors. My black is a mixture o sap green, alizarin crimson, indian yellow, and ultramarine. I like to paint wet inwet to keep the painting consistency soupy. Direct mixing, very little glazing.

I usually start a painting with a house painting brush, covering up the white o the canvas and laying in darkand light shapes. Ten come some middle tones. I think in tone at rst and color later. I do a lot o scraping andwiping in the beginning-at this point its all rather abstract. I always use titanium white because o its opaquenessand covering ability. It doesnt matter which white you use, mixing white with any primary color will give you apasty pastel. You have to mix the colors beore adding white. Also lack o pastiness depends on which colors are

next to each other.


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5) On Process

Jones: Sometimes when I do a prelim, its more dynamic than the nish. As a rule, I always start with bigbrushes and work my way to small brushes. Te dark and light show the underlying design and all the work oa painting is in the mid-tones.

I dont know how many ways there are o working but what Ive ound, and it took some time, is perhapspeculiar to me. Te most exciting thing is a blank white canvas or piece o paper - anything can happen. Tis iswhy Ive long ago gotten away rom scripts and manuscripts. Im not really an illustrator. Its probably my educa-tion in German Abstract Expressionism where whatever happens on a piece o art happens all the time. Tere isno real beginning and no end, there is just a time to abandon. I honestly never know what the nish will looklike. Ive said this beore so bear with me here. Te work and I have a conversation. Tere are times it listens tome and times I must listen to it. As long as its a we process there are no dull bits. Tere are impasses where Ihave to put it aside or a while but thats not boredom. Boredom can just be another word or anger. For almost30 years I have written my own comics, and the writing is done along with the drawing, not beorehand. Its thesame with painting. Te narrative, which is oen ambiguous, evolves with time. I it does indeed ever get dullthen it is nished.

ASSORTED PROCESS EXAMPLES THAT DEMONSTRATE THESE IDEAS FOLLOW (24 PAGES)


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Model o tyrannosaur head in clayused as reerence or painting. Andphoto reerence below as design basis.


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Done entirely in photoshop rom a previous design. Jones considered it a disaster.

Jones: I say never and now I say never again. Where is the painting? It doesnt exist. I cantcarry it around in the backyard thumping it.


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Tese notes were produced with the co-operation o the artist until their death in 2011.

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Jeffrey Jones 7.9