Following a rigorous study of

anatomy and classical technique,

Andrew Ameral is prepared to
go beneath the surface.

beyond
skin deep
By Lisa Wurster

realized his casual hobby could

be his lifes calling, he took the direction friends and family always suspected he was destined to. While art and illustration had always interested himComic books were
the soundtrack of my youth, he sayshed never taken art
seriously. Instead he toyed with joining the military or studying to become a nurse. The end of a relationship drove him
to an introspective journey. When he was 25, an expedition
to Washington state set him in a definitive direction. After
ascending a mountain and fasting for four
Right: Valentina was not only
days, his lifes compass made a decisive turn
extremely beautiful, but she was
he would pursue art: I just had to mature
one of my favorite models to work
enough to say, Its OK that I do this.
When Andrew Ameral

with, Ameral says. Its always a

blessing when you find a model who
understands the importance of his
or her role in this process. When
Valentina first struck that pose, it just
blew me away. I wish A Moments
ReflectionPortrait of Valentina
(oil, 20x18) could have been closer
to that initial moment of inspiration.
Every painting I make is a testament
to my strengths and weaknesses at
the time.

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Laying the Groundwork

This sounds like an epiphanic tale of coming
down from the mountaintop with a revelation, but the realization wasnt without roots.
A family Bible with prints of paintings from

January/February 2011

the Ufizzi Museum and the Pitti Palace in

Florence had always intrigued Ameral and
his mother. Upon learning of his decision,
his mother declared that he must study in
Florence.
Before he crossed the ocean, however, he
enrolled at the California College of Arts and
Crafts (CCAC; now the California College of
the Arts) in 199. He believed the trend in art
instruction was less about developing skills than
embracing a lifestyle that promoted inquiry
and self-expression. To learn the fundamental
techniques he felt hed missed he took a leave
of absence from CCAC in order to study for a
year at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy.
Returning and earning his degree at CCAC,
he worked as an illustrator, as an apprentice
to a sculptor in San Francisco, and as an art
teacher at a private studio in Oakland. Then he
realized his training had been incomplete.

Anatomy and Shape-Making

He returned to Italy, this time staying for six
years. At the Florence Academy of Art, director Daniel Graves offered him a position teaching corchdepicting the figure to show the
muscles without skin. Ecorch demands that
students sculpt a small model of the human
form by applying clay over a skeleton, building
tissues and muscle mass particle by particle.
Studying anatomy plays a crucial role in
helping artists to conceptualize those boney
and muscular forms underneath the skin, he
says. Even more important, anatomy helps
artists to see and define the edges of form and
interpret and refine the silhouette. If artists
dont understand skeleton and musculature,
the figures they draw will look generic and
tubelike.
Teaching corch, Ameral continued his
study of anatomy on his own, perusing the

Above: This sketch, Drawing of Sara (graphite, 9x7) was a quick

Above: The painting Portrait of Kelly (oil, 14x10) was one of the first Id

study on toned paper.

done on my own without a teacher looking over my shoulder, says Ameral.

It was during summer and the school was closed, so I had the whole studio
to myself.

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Left: Ameral had

just returned from
Italy when he did
Grandmothers
ChairDrawing
of Bilge (graphite,
13x9). Bilge is a
wonderful model
from Turkey, he
says. The chair originally belonged to a
colleagues grandmother. I thought
it would be cool
to draw someone
sitting in that chair,
reflecting on generations past. I also like
treating graphite like
charcoal, pushing
the medium around
and relying on tone,
yet working within
its limited range
to create a mood.

January/February 2011

Building the Form

By Andrew Ameral

Measuring by a Head
A 71/2-head figure, in which the length of the head serves as a basic unit of
measurement, is the standard cannon of proportions used in most realist
schools. Most humans are approximately 7 to 71/2 heads high. In comparison, a toddler is approximately 4 heads high.

Left: Portrait of Eva (oil, 28x20)

was the first life-size portrait I
painted, explains the artist. One
of the greatest opportunities a
painter gets when working from
life is that connection with a live
modelsomething you cant
get working from photos. Over a
period of time, you get to know a
little about that person.

Approximate Measurements:
The length of the trunk and head together measures 4 heads.
The first measure falls at the chin.
The second head-measure is just below the nipples or the bottom of
the fifth rib.
The third lines up with the navel (At the back, this measurement also
roughly relates to the very top of the gluteal muscles and defines the
top of the pelvis.)
The fourth division lines up just below the groin and just above the
bottom of the gluteal fold (the prominent fold on the back of the upper thigh) when looking at the figure from the rear (no pun intended).
The distance from the bottom of the gluteal fold to the bottom of the
kneecap equals 11/2 heads.
From the bottom of the kneecap to the bottom of the foot measures
2 heads.
The hand, from the tip of the middle finger to just above the wrist,
measures roughly 3/4 of a head or from chin to hairline.
From the tip of middle finger to the armpit (outstretched arm)
measures 3 heads.
The leg measures 4 heads from the sole of the foot to the great
trochanter or top of the outside of the femur (upper leg bone).

Below: Drawing of Meghan 1

(graphite, 11x7)

Muscles Beneath the Skin

This corch drawing (at right) is the kind my students draw after they
apply the clay musculature on the skeleton. Having to sculpt these
complex shapes, both boney and muscular, gives a student an intimate
knowledge of the forms underneath the skin that are impacting its surface. I believe students can only sculpt as well as they can draw that form.
Drawing gives them a familiarity with those specific anatomical shapes
and develops their visual memory.

wax figures dating from the 18th century on

display at La Specola, the Museum of Zoology
and Natural History in Florence. They didnt
plasticize a dead body but instead rendered the
human figure artistically, as if the person were
alive, he explains. Its a bit macabre, but what
a fascinating resource!
Amerals experiences in Florence pushed
him to abstract the figure to see how shapes
relate. He does refer to himself as a shapemaker. For drawing those shapes, he loves
graphite and charcoal. Graphite is a great
way to explore form, and charcoal is great to
explore tone, he says. Graphite provides accuracy, while charcoal is more malleable and


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can be pushed around expressively. He holds

the charcoal as a painter would a brush.
A Direct Painting Process
As for painting, Ameral starts with an imprimatura, staining the canvas to rid it of
white. Painting always from life, Ameral uses
the sight-size method, the traditional way of
measuring spaces and conveying proportions.
Basically, you position the model and the easel
so that you can draw the model at the same
size youre seeing her; in other words, you dont
have to scale up or down, but just depict what
you see.
His muse is always the model. A model

is 90 percent of the creative process, he says,

only selecting men and women who are genuinely interested in the process of art, and with
whom he has a rapport. Wearing everyday
clothing, a bit of it askew, theyre not idealized.
I want to convey the feeling of the person
looking inward, reflecting on experiences past,
he says. His figures in fact seem as if theyre
eyeing the future hesitantly.
When Ameral had his own father sit for a
portrait, their relationship took on an entirely
new shape. People see the end, not the process, so my father finally got to witness what I
do, he says. Afterward his father said, I know
more about you now than I ever have before.

web

Extra

See additional measurements for the human

body at www.artists
network.com/article/
drawing-proportionshuman-body-ameral.

January/February 2011

Drawing Demo: Meg Step by Step

By Andrew Ameral
I use classical proportions as a visual plumb
line. When youre stuck
and having difficulty with
imagining and rendering
a form, these guidelines
can help you more critically see form and relationships. But you still
need to stand back and
look with a critical eye
at your drawing and your
subjectand then have
the courage to make
changes where needed.

Palette Limitation
Ameral encourages beginners to start with a
basic palette of five colors: lead white, yellow,
ochre, vermilion and ivory black. The student
learns, for example, to use the ivory black as
a blue. This five-color palette will inculcate
an honest approach to painting, wherein the
beginner learns to mix colors; to understand
value, color and intensity, and essentially to
draw with a brush. His own palette has expanded to include colors like cadmium red, red
iron oxide, cobalt blue, ultramarine, alizarin
crimson and viridian. I dont use all these
colors at once, but I do understand their
differences and how they react.
A common mistake beginners make is
describing every detail, as if their job was to
record everything in front of them. The human eye doesnt really see all the details, he
says, and, furthermore, the eye registers light

B
A

1. Begin the block-in by first establishing horizontal lines for the top of the head, the bottom
of the feet and the center of the body. Draw the
figure using only long, angular lines. Then focus
on developing the silhouette (outer contour) and
the shadow line (separating light from shadow).
At this initial stage, explore and establish correct
proportionsright heights and widthsby using
a number of vertical and horizontal lines:
A. Use oblique lines to indicate and check
major angles and inclinations: the lines at
the shoulders, the bottom of the breasts,
the hips, and the bottom of the knees.
B. Draw a centerline through major forms
(such as the torso and the head) to conceptualize their rotation and perspective.
C. Establish a vertical plumb line descending
from the pit of the neck to better understand gesture and how one form (the torso)
rests on top of another (the hips). Measuring is paramount at this crucial stage, when
you set up the foundation that the rest of
the drawing will be built on. You must see
simply and break down complicated forms
into their basic geometric constructs using
as few lines as possible.


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2. Refine the silhouette by bringing the edges of

the form closer to what you see in nature, making the silhouette rounder and more organic.
Break up the larger shapes to include more internal information.
Then refine the shadow edge by defining
cast shadows (created by one object casting
a shadow upon another, as a tree does on the
ground) with hard edges and form shadows
(value changes created by the contours of the
object itself) with soft edges. Mass in the shadow
with a simple, unified value, thereby creating a
visible pattern.
Explore and define more clearly the proportions of light shapes and shadow shapes, keeping
the shadow simple and flat, not dark and heavy,
and with no variations or modeling. Use a value
for the shadow thats a little lighter than what is
seen in nature.

3. Introduce the halftone values in the light areas

to define planes. Halftones are always a part of
the light and connect the light to the shadow.
Dont make them as dark as the shadow. Halftones must always describe a plane, and that
plane must define a shape. (Though the edge of
that shape may be very subtle and soft, it still
must define a discernable shape.)
Now its time to explore a greater value range.
Establish proper value relationshipsusing no
more than five to nine gradationsand key your
light and shadow values properly, determining
the lightest light and the darkest dark. Establish
an accurate relationship between the light and
shadow. Information in the shadow can be explored in terms of planes but should be kept simple and not compete or interfere with the lights.
Finally add the details to lend a better impression of form, but never lose the overall impact of
the pattern created in step 2. The finished drawing should have a believable sense of light, and
the form should look organic and convincing, as
in Drawing of Meg (graphite, x).

Anatomy plays a crucial role in helping

artists to better conceptualize those boney
and muscular forms underneath the skin
that are impacting its surface and creating
form. Even more important, anatomy helps
artists to more clearly see and define the
edges of form and interpret and refine the
silhouette. Without it, drawn figures look
generic and tubelike. Andrew Ameral
and shadow first, before details. Form is expressed in light, and atmosphere, in shadow.
To convey a strong impression, artists have to
see relationships. If you paint a color, the eye
doesnt see that color but rather sees relationships of color, value and edges, Ameral says.
He compares seeing relationships among color,
value and edges rather than singular entities to
experiencing music. A note has to be accompanied and followed by others. When notes go
up and down, he says, the melody takes you
somewhere.

web

Extra

Andrew Ameral explains the sight-size

method for drawing
the figure at www.
artistsnetwork.com/
article/sight-sizedrawing-andrewameral.

Studio Lighting
Sometimes the problem of describing too
much or too narrowly lies not in the students
themselves, but in the studios where they work.
January/February 2011

Below: The model in An Urban IconPortrait of

Francesca (oil, 13x9) had such timeless features, Ameral

says. She reminded me of the paintings and icons Id
seen in Florence. Instead of a halo, there was this beautiful
golden cloth behind her. The interesting quality some models possess is a presence. This was a very petite and quiet
woman, but the moment she stepped on the model stand,
it was as if she grew 10 feet taller.

Definitions

same type, be it cool or warm, natural or artificial. But the students light should be ambient
and not interfere with the light on the model.
His own studio walls are a mid- to dark-gray;
the warmer the gray, the better. Warm gray
keeps the light where it should beon the
model, he says.

direct painting:
painting usually
done in one session
without underpainting or glazes, and
directly from the
subject; alla prima
painting

Always Aspiring
Ameral has focused so long on the craft of
painting, he says its now time to discover what
he wants to say as an artist. Some of his favorite painters are the Italian academics, such
as Giovanni Morelli, Antonio Mancini, Giacomo Favretto and Giulio Aristide Sartorio.
They werent only profound draftsmen, but

corch: meaning
literally flayed; a
figure drawn, painted or sculpted that
shows the muscles
of the body without
skin
imprimatura: an
initial stain of color
painted on a ground
and left visible in
areas over subsequent transparent
layers; usually made
with an earth color
like burnt umber

impressionistic painters as well, he explains,

referring to the sculptural appearance of impasto application. Sometimes, in classical realist work, transitions are so delicately handled
that you dont see the hand of the artist, but Id
like to explore leaving the brushstrokes there,
he says. Indeed, the need to keep exploring
has consistently been at the heart of his enterprise. One of his memorable stories involves a
group of Venezuelan painters who studied at
the Florence Academy of Art. A priest from
their home country visited them and at dinner raised a glass for a toast: May you never
arrive, he saidwords to live and paint by. n
Lisa Wurster is a writer, proofreader and editor in
Cincinnati, Ohio.

Left: Study of Irene (oil, 30x16) was only the second

painting Ameral did in Florence from a model using the
limited palette. Painting from natural, north light definitely
has its challenges, he says. The light constantly changes
depending on the time of day and weather. It really pushes
a student to develop confidence and flexibility.

10

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Above: Drawing of Flavia (charcoal and chalk, 171/2x19)

was a demo for a summer portrait workshop Ameral

taught in Florence. What were really doing when drawing
is designing shapes, he says, beginning with the largest
shape first, going from large to small, simple to complex.

sight-size: a
traditional method
in which the artist
draws and paints an
object exactly as it
appears to the artist on a one-to-one
scale; same as rightsize method
silhouette: in
figure drawing, the
outline or contour
only

Meet Andrew Ameral

Classically trained at the Florence Academy of Art,
Andrew Ameral later was director of anatomy there,
teaching corch, painting and drawing. To appreciate
what one sees in the physical world, he
says, and to be able to interpret that
information clearly and efficiently, requires
the deepest humility. Good painting is
having the courage to make big drawing
corrections. Ameral currently teaches at
a private studio in San Francisco. Visit his
website, ameralart.com.

Photo by Hilary Scott

The walls are typically white, which presents

a handicap because the white reflects light off
the walls, thereby revealing too much detail
in the model or setup. The poor students go
bananas with all this information, Ameral
says. The light on the model is direct and the
light the students work under should be the

January/February 2011

11