THE CREATIVE PROCESS

*All of the work featured on this page comes from the “Yulia Project,” an ongoing body of work inspired by the dancing of world-champions Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko.

PART 1: INSPIRATION

When I start creating a new piece for The Fine Art of Dance, the catalyst is usually a stunning dance performance that moves me. I’ll find myself wanting to watch the performance over and over, or constantly returning to a photo of the dance performance to study its nuances.

In her book The Creative Habit, dancer Twyla Tharp notes that when she embarks on a new project, she starts with a box: “I write the name on the box, and as the piece progresses I fill it up with every item that went into the making of the dance.”

If I were to borrow Tharp’s analogy, all of my projects for The Fine Art of Dance begin with a file on my computer which I then proceed to fill with:

• All of the qualitative videos that I can find of the dancers performing.

• Still images that I take while watching the videos. It is not uncommon for me to watch a dance video at 0.25x speed so I can better observe all of the nuances of the performance and take still images. This process can take hours.

• Additional reference images of each dancer. Once I have decided the moment in the dance that I wish to draw or paint, I often look for additional pictures taken with a camera (as opposed to a video-still) so I can see more details - either of the costume, venue, or the individual dancer.

In my computer folder for the Yulia Project, for example, I currently have over 70 videos of Riccardo and Yulia dancing. Before I started drawing and painting from the Samba Show Dance that Ricccardo and Yulia performed in Paris in 2016, I took over 180 still images from Marius Mutin’s video depicting their performance. Similarly, before I began painting from Riccardo and Yulia’s 2019 performance of their Paso Doble Show Dance in Dublin, I downloaded 7 videos of this specific show dance, including the Dublin performance, and took over 70 screen shots of the video recorded in Dublin.

PART 2: EXECUTION

PLANNING

While it can be a lot of fun to paint directly on the canvas, usually if I am painting anything larger than 16 x 20”, I prefer to prepare a drawing first. In my experience, a slow, careful start tends to yield a finished piece more quickly. In other words, I go slow to go fast.

With the preliminary drawing, I try to focus on the big picture, rather than details. It is crucial that the foundational gesture of the piece convey energy or motion. Other components that I focus on while drawing include the dancers’ proportions, shadow shapes, and the draping of their costumes.

TRANSFER

Once I have completed a preparatory drawing, the next step is to transfer the drawing on to my canvas. For this step, if I am creating a larger painting, I will use my projector to project the image on to my canvas, and then paint the projected image on to the canvas using a diluted wash of burnt umber oil paint. For example, I used my projector for my piece based on Riccardo and Yulia’s 2019 Paso Doble Show Dance, since my canvas was 30 x 40” but my drawing was only 18 x 24”.

If the painting and the drawing are the same size, there is no need to use a projector. Instead, I can use tracing paper to transfer the drawing to the canvas, again by applying a diluted wash of burnt umber paint to the back of the tracing.

PAINTING

I usually start the painting process with a basic drawing . If I have not prepared a drawing to transfer on to my canvas, I will do a quick dry brush drawing first so I can work out the gesture, proportions, shadows, and draping.

Stage 1: Dead colour

Once the drawing feels good, I start laying in colour. Again, I want to focus on the big picture, rather than narrow in on details immediately.

My priorities at this stage including getting a sense for how my subject sits in space, hitting the right colour temperature and chroma, and ensuring that there is a gradiation of colour on the figure consistent with the overall lighting. Depending on the size of the piece, how much detail I include at the initial stage, and how much time I have, I may be able to complete dead colour in one session, although it usually takes longer.

Stage 2: First painting

Completing first painting is usually the lengthiest part of the process, taking multiple sessions. At this stage, I can start adding in some detail to describe the dancers’ motion, costume, or anatomy, plus the space where the dancer is performing. I particularly enjoy this stage because I can finally focus on capturing my subject’s expression.

Stage 3: Second painting

Finally, before I call my painting finished, I will focus on getting the details right, often making relatively small adjustments. For example, looking at my process picture of Yulia 1 (Samba Show Dance), during the second painting phase (featured in the last image), I glazed Yulia’s legs to make them look slightly warmer in temperature, refined her face to improve her likeness, and tweaked the background, darkening the floor to push it back visually and modifying the spotlight to cast a subtle cool beam, in order to make Yulia pop.

PART 3: RELEASE

As an artist, the release comes from sharing my work online - for example, on Instagram and this website - or better yet, at in-person shows! While its amazing that people anywhere in the world can view The Fine Art of Dance Portfolio online, I still like showing my work in-person best. Art is a tangible thing - an object - and seeing it in person tends to result in a different experience than seeing it online. An in-person viewing tends to be more intimate. I say this not only as an artist, but also as an art enthusiast. Whenever I go to New York City, for example, I make a point of going to the MET so I can visit John Singer Sargent’s painting of Madame X. While I can look at the painting online any time, seeing Madame X in person is a completely different experience for me. In person, I seem to pay more attention to the little details, like traces of Sargent’s brush strokes and the subtle colour gradations. Plus, the majesty of the piece is more powerful in person - framed, Madam X is taller than I am!

That said, one thing that makes social media particularly enticing is the ability to share in-progress pictures of the work before it is complete. As an artist, I am grateful that I can invite people into my studio with ease through the Internet, no matter where that person actually is in the world.