Oil Painting . . . Surprise your friends and yourself
If you’ve ever had an itch to be creative, painting with oils is one of the most forgiving and fun activities to try. Unlike acrylics, oils don’t dry as quickly so they are more flexible and easier to correct. To give you a sense of what is involved, a brief outline of the process follows.
- Start with a still life, and pick your subject carefully. You want it to be relatively simple, but something that you feel is appealing. It is more difficult to stick with the painting if you’d don’t find the subject enjoyable.
- Sketch the subject in pencil first.
¨ it may be helpful to focus upon the background rather than the subject, and sketch how the outline of the subject interfaces with the background.
¨ measure the relationships of the key dimensions – not only with your eye, but with a stick or ruler as well.
¨ for a portrait, some key relationships are – 1/3rd chin to nose, 1/3rd nose to line of eyebrows, and 1/3rd eyebrow line to hairline. Eyes are about halfway from top to bottom of head. Distance between the pupils of eyes is about the same as the width of the mouth.
- Before moving to the canvas, prepare it by priming with a background color rather than leaving it white. You can even use latex house paint.
- Then prepare your palette – cover it with wax paper, and then dab the colors you will use that session at specific spots around the edge. For example, a counterclockwise arrangement is – white, black, lite yellow, dark yellow, lite red, dark red, red-brown, green, violet blue, green blue.
- Once prepared, and comfortable with the spatial relationships you have discovered doing the pencil sketch, lightly paint the outlines of the subject onto the canvas using a thin brush (filbert #2) and a light shade like raw sienna. Any mistakes can be washed away with a bit of Gamsol. Sketch in not only the subject, but the main features of the background as well.
- When painting, hold your arm out and use the brush as an extension of your arm. A knobbed support stick can be used to steady your hand for detail work.
- Once you’ve established your lines, it is time to analyze the coloration.
¨ hot colors (yellow) will predominate and come forward to the eye.
¨ cool colors (blue) will regress and fade away from the eye.
¨ to define a shape, e.g. an egg, use hotter colors at the center and cooler colors toward the edge.
¨ for a shadow, you swap from warm to cool.
- All colors are combinations of yellow, red, and blue – but their differences are extremely varied, e.g.
¨ cadmium red is warm – alizarin crimson is cool
¨ cadmium yellow is warm – naples yellow is cool
¨ sap green is warm – viridian green is cool
¨ ultramarine blue is warm – cerulean blue is cool
¨ burnt umber is warm – raw umber is cool
- Make sure you use enough paint when you are mixing colors so that you don’t lose the right shade before you finish. In addition,
¨ be certain that the light is good when you are mixing and applying colors because they will change in different light.
¨ some combinations can be predicted, e.g. flesh tones are composed of red+yellow+green+white
¨ phthalo blue and phthalo green can be combined to yield turquoise.
- When applying your paints, the general rule is to start –
¨ from the center out, and
¨ from the dark to the light
- Observation is the key to all painting. You must observe your subject and determine what color values are present. Once you have determined the color value of a given portion, create a mix of that value on the palette. Then use part of that mix to create a lightened mix and a darkened mix that you use to accent the core value. Apply the paint, using generous strokes at first to spread the color around. This is an initial application, not final. You are trying to lay out the major values, not the details. While the paint is wet, it is easy to blend these values. But in the process, you will continually have to go back and reinforce the initial darks as the lights are laid down.
- Laying down the paint is an iterative process. The details become a bit more defined with each iteration. To help your observation, look at your work upside down or with a mirror. The change enables you to see aspects you would otherwise miss.
- When cleaning up –
¨ you can preserve your palette oils for awhile by placing the wax paper containing them in a Tupperware container or a Ziploc envelope.
¨ brushes always must be carefully cleaned - first with Gamsol, then with Dawn.
¨ to assure you can open the caps on the tubes in the future, don’t tighten them all the way. If they are stuck when opening, you can free them up most easily by first tightening them more.
- Be patient with yourself and enjoy it. This is an activity whose pace you can control and go back to again and again. You, and your friends, may be amazed by what you create.
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