Painstaking Process of Painting St. Kolbe
by Kevin Pawlowski
Paradise Found Studio
After four months of research, reference preparation, and finally painting, I completed my portrait of Saint Maximilian Kolbe on his feast day, August 14, 2023. Although Hollywood likes to glamorize the painting process as a flash of inspiration and quick flicks of the blush, it can actually be a long but satisfying journey.
This post is an inside look at my process. I can’t say for sure it is typical, but I know from talking to other artists that it isn’t unusual. If you are interested in understanding the symbology woven through this painting and the life of St. Kolbe, check out my article “Learning About The Life of St. Maximillian Kolbe Through Painting”.
Starting out, I had a rough idea of who St. Kolbe was, at least how he was martyred. His portraits (like those above) generally include an emaciated figure in Franciscan robes, and a concentration camp shirt flung over one shoulder. In one hand he might be holding a rosary, and in the other some books, scroll, or even crowns.
In preparation of this painting, I read “Kolbe: Saint of the Immaculata”, which is a compilation of essays edited by Brother Francis M. Kalvelage, FI. This helped me get a deeper understanding. I wanted to gain my own inspiration versus copying what was already out there.
Initial sketch on iPad
My initial sketch was done on an iPad using an Apple Pencil and the program Procreate.
I kept many of the common visual devices in St. Max paintings. It isn’t unusual to see a concentration camp behind him, sometimes even contrasted with a landscape, perhaps representing paradise. From the start, I limited my reference research to Polish landscape photos.
Many saint portraits focus on their martyrdom, even going as far as showing the moment of their death. For example, the image of Saint Sabastian with arrows sticking out of him always fascinated me (although that’s not how he died, surprisingly enough). Personally, I was more interested in painting a more idealized figure, a victor rather than a victim.
I posed for some reference shots, using friar ropes I sewed for the occasion, and a denim jacket that I had.
I wasn’t quite happy with everything on those 1st reference photos, so I shot more with my son.
Once I was satisfied enough with my sketch, I could start gathering reference material. I hand sewn his friar ropes, at least the front. My daughter, Catherine shot photos of me posing like I intended for the painting.
Since I was the model, and couldn’t closely direct, I wasn’t happy with all of the details, like how the jacket draped down my arm. I reshot the body reference with my son Kyle, and was able to work on all the folds and other details. Also, instead of a book, I decided to represent copies of the magazine St. Kolbe founded, “Rycerz Niepokalanej”, or in English "Knight of the Immaculata”.
It was a good thing that I was going for a more idealized image of St. Kolbe, because both my son and I are over 6’ 3”, much taller and broader than the thin, sickly person St. Max actually was. That’s why I painted him with the beard, which was almost his trademark in life, not being typical for a Franciscan priest, and stuck me as sort of defiant looking.
In reality, he had been frail his whole life, and was certainly emaciated to the bone at the moment of his death, but that doesn’t have to be what is shown.
References compiled into one Photoshopped image, including 2 different Kolbe portraits.
Once I had all of my reference materials pulled together, I combined them in Photoshop to get the exact composition I was going for. I had this printed at 1:1 scale, and transferred the image to the 24” x 30” canvas.
The Photoshop work isn’t exactly a typical process, but my experience in digital graphics comes in handy. Diana Bruitrago, the amazing portrait and landscape artist that mentored me through this process, told me it gave her ideas for her own work.
Painted color and value studies, in addition to some reference photos.
The skull and robe came in handy for shape and texture references. The beard was just funny.
The next step was to complete small value (basically black and white) and color studies, which allowed me to test colors and the value range without fully committing on the large canvas. This is really helpful because in the process I learned from Grand Central Atelier, you work on one small section at a time. You don’t see the whole until very late in the process, so the smaller studies give you a sneak peek to make sure you are on the right track.
I also drew a few graphic portrait studies of St. Kolbe to get a good feel for his face structure. This was important because the grainy old photos lacked some of the details that are needed to bring the image to life. Any missing details had to be invented.
Drawing, underpainting, and painted pass of the sky.
Complete 1st painted pass, which you can see looks a bit lifeless.
My canvas was prepped with a raw umber wash. The image was transferred by painting the back of the color print with raw umber, laying it over the canvas, and tracing over the details. The image transfers over sort of like carbon paper (for those old enough to remember what that is).
Next I applied diluted paint to get a wash underpainting. Then it was a matter of painting one section at a time, starting from the background and moving forward. The size of each section can be defined by what can be painted in a reasonable amount of time (typically 4-6 hours), similar color pallet, and an easy seam to hid between sections.
After the 1st fully painted pass, most of the form and details were there, but it was looking a bit lifeless to me. I was happier with the value range of the jacket more than the robes and some of the background, so that gave me direction on what to improve on the next pass.
The values I established in the jacket worked well, so carried that through the rest using painting, glazing, and scumbling techniques.
Final painting, including the drastically reworked clouds.
The goal is to work from thin to fat, so the initial underpainting is thinned by solvent, while some of the final work is thinned by oil. The method of painting those final passes are called glazing, which adds transparent color, and scumbling, which adds translucent color with a little white.
This stage is where you can add incredible subtlety, like indirect lighting bouncing off various objects in the composition, a hazy glow from the sky, the pop of red as light passes through the ears (some of my favorite details), and of course that silver thread of a halo.
I basically continued to add and adjust, with the goal of fixing large problems and move through as they get smaller and smaller. When I stop finding problems, I call it quits. I tried not to rehash decisions, just move forward.
I was quite pleased with the end result, and I hope you are too. I did my best to make Saint Maximilian Kolbe proud, and learned a lot in the process.
Buy A Canvas Reproduction of Your Own…
Artist: Kevin Pawlowski (Georgia US, 1968- )
Title: St. Maximilian Kolbe
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Date: 2023
This painting of St. Maximilian Kolbe won honorable mention in the 2023 Catholic Art Institute Sacred Art Prize, a global art contest with almost 400 entries.
Original composition that was painstakingly researched, and took 4-months to complete. It was completed August 14, 2023, the feast day of St. Kolbe. The original is 24” x 30”, but is available as high quality canvas prints in various sizes. Perfect for your home, Church, and anywhere you want to venerate this amazing Polish saint.