Mark Carder is a highly regarded artist who started painting in 1986. He has painted commissioned portraits of two US Presidents and a US Secretary of State, among others.
Mr. Carder started painting seriously at the age of 22. He taught himself to paint in oil and then went on to copy works by John Singer Sargent, Rembrandt, George Inness and Henry Raeburn to complete his training. He considers John Singer Sargent and Diego Velázquez to be his greatest influences. His portraits are most often compared to those of Sargent. Please visit Mark Carder's website to view a selection of his work: www.markcarder.com
Mark Carder explains the origin of The Carder Method:
I have always felt that painting what you see before you is a technical process. The creativity comes in the subject you choose, your composition, lighting, perhaps in the way you stroke a brush. When I first attempted to paint, at the age of 22, I read several "how to paint" books but was left confused. I thought "but what colors should I use to paint my mother's skin?" The books gave me no specifics, they spoke of "warm" colors and "cold" colors, but what I wanted to know was "what specific color do I paint my mother's skin as it appears in our living room?"
The first question I faced was, "which tubes of color do I purchase?" There were 100's of colors to choose from. Well I ended up buying about 40, not sure which were best. Then I decided I would see which I could eliminate by mixing those colors with others. Why use Juane Brilliant if I could mix it myself with Ultramarine, Umber and White. In the end I found I only needed five colors, with those five I could mix all the others. The only exceptions were the very strong blue greens, and for those rare cases I could use Winsor Green or Winsor Blue.
So with just five colors I set out to match my mother's skin colors, from the darkest shadow on her neck to the lightest highlight on her forehead. I simply matched them from life by painting small strips of canvas and then holding them up (making sure I was in the same light as my mother) and comparing a color, one at a time to the colors in my mother's face.
At first I was shocked, I almost couldn't bring myself to do it. How could my mother's skin (in shadow) be the color of dark chocolate? How could the glow on her cheek be the color of mud? But I knew the colors had to be right, so I used them. After I had painted with enough color, I began to see colors as they really are, no longer surprised by the illusion. Soon I was painting without my canvas strips of color as aids because I had learned "to see".
In 1995, I hired my first employee. I was painting portraits and had a four-year backlog of work. I really needed to paint full time, so having someone to stretch my canvases, clean my pallets and brushes, run errands etc. was a big help. Before long I found myself teaching my employee to paint. To my great surprise he was painting like I was. Here I thought I was some sort of "artistic genius" when in truth I really had only just come up with a method that anybody could use to learn how to paint.
In time, I had four people working for me. And before long, I taught all of them to paint. I thought, I need to write a "how to paint" book.
And so I started to do that. I finished with the text and was assembling the photos for the book when I decided I really should film a DVD instead. It would be far more effective and easier to understand. I had taught some classes in order to get some feedback on my teaching method, and I knew how important it was to visually demonstrate what I was doing.
It was while I was teaching my classes that I invented the Color Checker. It was a "fool proof" way for anyone to mix their colors.
At first I taught my students to draw using the concept of proportion. For instance, the height of the vase equals one and three quarters the width. But some students had difficulty with that concept. I discovered the proportional divider while looking for a ruler at an art supply store. It was small and really designed for comparing maps of different scale to one another. But I realized that if I modified it, and simplified the design, my students could use it to measure proportion directly from their still-life.
And so after several years of effort (I had no idea how difficult it would be to create this DVD), The Carder Method was finally completed.
I enjoy teaching people to paint! I discovered that teaching is personally very satisfying. In the past, before I started teaching my classes, more people would call me to see if I taught painting than would call me to ask about painting their portrait. Aspiring artists often came by my studio to watch me paint and listen to me explain my technique. What I really appreciate about having this DVD completed is that now when someone says to me, "I have always wanted to paint", I can just hand them my DVD.
