My approach to an oil painting.
There are many ways to approach an oil painting. I would first like to talk about my tools for the painting and I will demonstrate how I approach the painting. I first have to decide what I want to paint. What is the subject matter going to be? What is the background going to be? What medium will I work in?
My favorite subject to paint is the figure and portraits. Nothing pleases me more than interacting with the subject and doing my best to capture the likeness of a person. Hopefully, a friend of mine will be able to pose for me in a few months for a portrait and I will be able to demonstrate my approach to a portrait. For now, I am going to start off with a still live.
1) Well I have to have something to paint. So, I keep a number of items around the house that I can use in a still life. Sometimes I go out and purchase items from local stores or antique shops or garage sales. I always keep an eye open for interesting things to paint. In this painting I have an old tea pot, cup and saucer and purchased some lemons. I have also accumulated a number of different color and texture material backgrounds that I use in my portraits and still lifes.
2) Set up the still life items to what I think looks like a good composition. I usually take 2 "L"shaped pieces of mat board and make them into a frame to view my still life composition. See how I would hold the "L" shaped pieces to to make a frame?
3) Paints and mediums: I use mostly Winsor Newton Artist grade paint. And I do also use Old Holland for cadium colors. The more expensive paints have more pigment so you use less paint when mixing colors. The cheaper paints uses less pigment and more filler. I also use a mix of Stand Oil, Turpenoid and Liguin dryer all can be found in your local art store or online. I will discuss this in detail in a future blog.
4) Brushes: When choosing brushes I buy the more expensive brush from an art store. You don't want to buy cheap brushes and have the hairs falling out onto your painting. You also what to brush to apply paint the way you want. There is a certain feel to a brush when you paint. I like to take a brush and wet it and then brush the water on a piece of paper to see how it works. There are several type of brushes. Camel hair, sable and synthetic to name a few. You want the brush to have some bounce and the brush to maintain it's shape. A good brush will last you longer then a cheap one. They are worth the investment. There are several shapes of brushes. A? Is a fan brush and can be used to blend in SOME instances, B) Is a sable brush which can be used for detail and larger sable brushes can be used for blending paint and also glazes. C) A round brush has a round tip for certain detail. It is great to shape to a point and yet you can load plenty of painting on it. D) Is a flat brush and there is also a short flat brush known as a brite. E) The filbert shape brush is the work horse of all brushes. It comes to a point but can also paint large brush stroke. F) Is what is called a maul stick. I use it to rest the end of the stick on the painting or easel and then rest . Then I rest my hand with the brush and use the maul stick as support.
5) Drawing tools: I like to sketch my rough sketches and compositional studies in graphite pencil first on drawing paper. Some artists prefer charcoal because you can easily get a darker and wider range of tone with charcoal then graphite. Either way would be ok. Up to you.
6) The Pallet and the Canvas. I used OIl Linen canvas on all my paintings. I find that Oil Linen is a far superior surface then acrylic cotton canvas you buy in the store. There is also another reason, acrylic paints have been around for about 60 years. Oil paint has been around for centuries. If you paint oil on acrylic there is more of a chance of it the paint not adhering well and over time the painting may be damaged. So, even though you are painting oil over water (Acrylic is water based paint) I would still paint on oil linen.
7) Preparing to paint: I prefer a wooden pallet I can hold. When it is new. I shellac it and when it drys the rub oil paint on the pallet to make it a neutral color like in the photo. I stretch my own canvas and then I tone the canvas with burnt umber and black paints. I put a dab of both colors on the canvas and then take a rag with turpenoid and smear it on the canvas as in the photo shown below. You can see the difference between the toned canvas and the white piece of canvas on the right. I never paint on a white canvas. I do this because it makes it easier to get your values correct when you see the paint on the canvas.
I will be updating this blog soon. Thanks
