by M. Stephen Doherty

The detailed graphite drawing Kassan created before the workshop.	Step 1 Kassan arranged an extensive group of oil colors around the palette he hung vertically next to his easel.

It didn’t surprise anyone attending the Portrait Society of America convention last spring that David Jon Kassan’s painting received the People’s Choice Award. Everyone at the gathering in Reston, Virginia, was talking about his portrait with its contemporary style, polished surface, and masterful conception. To many of the artists reviewing the finalists in the Portrait Society’s competition, Kassan’s oil painting offered the promise of a new direction in portraiture, one that is firmly planted in the 21st century while paying respect to the great traditions of Velázquez, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio.

Check out Kassan’s analysis of his favorite drawings in our new online-exclusive feature, “Looking at Drawings.”

Because of the growing interest in Kassan’s paintings, artists quickly signed up for his recent workshops in New York and Santa Fe. A two-day class at the historic Salmagundi Art Club on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan included an 11-hour portrait demonstration on the first day, and a second day when Kassan focused on the study of hands, with students having the opportunity to paint and receive personal critiques when the model took breaks. The two-week workshop at the Andreeva Portrait Academy, in Santa Fe, made it possible for a smaller group of students to watch several demonstrations and receive personal advice about their own paintings.

Step 2 After transferring the lines of his graphite drawing to a toned panel, Kassan blocked in the cast shadows of the model’s head and her hair.	Step 3 After roughly indicating the flesh color in the neck, the artist applied spots of oil color to the face.

Kassan studied illustration and painting at Syracuse University, in New York, and he is adept at using a computer to convey information that helps prepare students for his workshops. The instruction section of his website (www.davidkassan.com/instruction.shtml) offers a 16-page list of recommended visual material, including the 17 oil colors he uses; the sable, mongoose, and Japanese hake brushes he employs; the specific brands of solvent and medium he mixes with oil colors; the mahlstick he made for himself; and the step-by-step procedures he followed to make his own wooden palette. Kassan’s website also provides a link to a lengthy booklet he wrote on human anatomy titled An Artist’s Guide to Portrait Anatomicae. The 14-page anatomy booklet can be downloaded for a small fee.

When he began his first demonstration for both workshop groups, Kassan cautioned the students that, unlike most portraitists they might have studied with, he is not accustomed to starting and ending a demonstration in just three hours. His normal approach to developing a portrait is much more complicated and lengthy. “I might spend as much as a full week on a drawing of the subject before I ever pick up a brush,” he explained. “To prepare for the New York workshop, I spent four hours on a drawing of the model and then decided I didn’t like the pose, so I did a completely new drawing that I felt more confident about using as the basis of the demonstration. I then transferred the basic lines of that drawing to a toned panel before starting the presentation.”

Step 4 Using oil colors thinned with walnut alkyd medium, the instructor continued developing the appearance of the model’s face.	Step 5 The portrait after Kassan had blocked in most of the areas of the model’s face, hair, and neck.

Students at the recent workshops were somewhat incredulous about Kassan’s plan to spend so much time standing at an easel while he progressed through one demonstration, but the instructor explained that even an 11-hour presentation would be brief compared to the total amount of time he spends on one of his large paintings. “I’ve had to become more economical about how I spend my time now that I am taking care of my 15-month old son during the day, but I still put in long days, carefully working on drawings and paintings,” he said. “To me the whole point of painting a portrait is getting to know the subject and allowing his or her emotions to come through to the viewer. I can’t accomplish that if I just dash off a quick report of what I observed about a stranger during a short period of time. I have to study them to know their body structure, proportions, gestures, and expressions.”

Kassan’s extensive study of human anatomy gives him an exceptional understanding of those human proportions and structure. However, he avoids viewing a model in terms of ideal or scientific relationships, because such a rigid approach would lead to a “stiff, lifeless representation with little or no character,” he wrote in his guidebook. “I recommend a proportion concept that is based on each individual model. ... First, establish the top, midpoint, and bottom of the figure, based upon a measurement that will remain constant. Usually the head from chin to crown/top of the hair works well. After these benchmarks are set up, the large masses of the figure will fall into place like the missing words in a crossword puzzle. These masses can be laid in and gestured without worry of the proportions growing or shrinking. After the correct placement of the simple masses is developed, the artist can exercise the use of relative sizing.

The portrait demonstration before the background was indicated.	Tanya 2007, oil, 16 x 10. Private collection.

“Relative sizing is an approach to drawing that relates the sizes and placement of the body’s large masses through the use of triangulation and comparison to other areas of the body by using horizontals, verticals, negative space, and angles,” Kassan added. “Each measurement is specific to each individual model and does not make a figure conform to an outside standard.”

Once Kassan completed his carefully measured, detailed drawing, he scaled it up to the dimensions of the canvas on which he would be painting, and he transferred the important lines marking the edges of each body part on the lightly toned surface. He then blocked in the dark shape of the model’s hair, the cast shadow of her head against the background wall, and then the subtle flesh tones of the face. Throughout all these stages of blocking in the figure, Kassan kept his palette in a vertical position so he never had to shift his vision up and down. Instead, the selection of oil paints was kept close to the painting surface and on a level that didn’t require him to change the focal length of his vision. That close proximity also helped him mix colors in the same light as the painting.

A composite of the various stages of Kassan’s portrait demonstration. Photo: David Jon Kassan, New York, New York.

Kassan added a small amount of M. Graham & Co. walnut alkyd medium to the initial layers of oil colors so the applications were smoother, slicker, more lustrous, and faster drying. Later in the painting process, he thinned the paint with Grumbacher, Gamblin, or Winsor & Newton brand stand oil so he could glaze one color directly over another. “There are many benefits to stand oil,” the artist stated. “It will not darken over time the way pure linseed oil will, and it helps in the formation of a more enamellike surface than just straight linseed oil.” In addition to the stand oil, the artist also uses James Groves’ Gentileschi Amber Medium to get a tougher, more archival paint film.

Adding mediums to the oil colors also helped Kassan smooth out brushmarks and blend edges so there was never an obvious gesture of a brush in a painting. “I don’t want technique to be obvious to the viewer because that brings attention to the artist, not the subject of the painting,” he explained. “To my way of thinking, loose, brushy marks on a canvas represent the ego of the artist and get in the way of presenting a broader concept.”

As he gradually refined his paintings with layers of smooth brushstokes, Kassan constantly evaluated whether those additional applications of oil color needed to be warmer or cooler than the colors painted next to them, and whether they should be lighter or darker in value than those existing marks. “I constantly review a mental checklist about the relative temperature and value of the mixtures of paint,” he described. “Doing that keeps me on track and keeps my head in the game. Every mark should be the result of a thought process.”

Kassan's Work Self-Portrait 2007, oil, 34 x 24. All artwork this article courtesy Gallery Henoch, New York, New York, unless otherwise indicated. Graciela, New Mexico 2007, oil, 361⁄2 x 25. Approaching Noise 2007, oil, 34 x 40. Private collection. Sospeso Nell’Equilibrio 2007, oil, triptych, 80 x 60. Private collection. Looking Back (Survivor) 2004, oil, 30 x 40.

The concept Kassan often referred to was the deep emotions expressed by a person existing in an urban environment. When looking at his paintings, one senses that the attention of the figure is turned inward and he or she is not conscious of being watched and studied. Even if the person’s eyes look straight ahead, one never senses that they are looking at the viewer of the painting but, rather, into a vast space only they can see. The artist always paint figures close to life-size so they seem as if they are coming out of the picture plane into the viewer’s space because that heightens the emotional presence of the subject. The backgrounds of these portraits are often the rough, gritty spaces of a Manhattan side street.

Kassan sees himself as an artist who is as much a product of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists from the 1950s and the Ashcan artists of the turn of the 20th century as he is a descendant of the academic artists of the 19th century. “Painters of the Gilded Age, such as Sargent and Sorolla, created stunningly beautiful paintings, but I personally don’t feel part of that era of stately English country homes or European palaces. I live in New York City and understand why Robert Henri, George Bellows, and Willem de Kooning created their paintings of people living in that bustling, crowded, rich environment. I can’t ignore the fact that most of the people I paint are very much a part of an urban space at a time of challenges.”

In addition to drawing and painting hired models, Kassan accepts a limited number of portrait commissions and frequently paints himself and members of his family. “I have done a number of self-portraits because I’m the most available model I know, and because I know myself the best,” he said. “On the other hand, I know myself the least. I’m always trying to learn who I am through painting. That’s also true of what I know about art. I’ve learned a lot, but its just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll spend the rest of my life learning more—it’s an endless journey that is very rewarding.”

About the Artist
David Jon Kassan studied at The University of the Arts, in Philadelphia, and graduated from Syracuse University, in New York, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He continued his studies at The National Academy, and the Art Students League of New York, both in Manhattan, and won awards for his paintings from the Portrait Society of America, the Art Students League of New York, the Society of Illustrators, and Communications Arts magazine. He received a Newington-Cropsey Foundation travel award that allowed him to continue his study of art history in Italy and to publish a limited-edition book of his thoughts and sketches, Lentamente Italia. He teaches figure drawing at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, in New York City, and in workshops around the country and abroad. He is represented by Gallery Henoch, in New York City. For more information on Kassan, visit his website at www.davidkassan.com.

M. Stephen Doherty is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Workshop.

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Yes-this is the way I want to paint!