Tag: Oil Painting
I am currently working on a painting of a small owl statue (shown here) made out of twigs and tree bark. The owl statue is covered in different textures from head to toe. Since this is very different from anything that I have painted before, I decided to test some different techniques for painting the area around the eyes on an old canvas board before starting on the actual painting. After a few attempts, it was still looked a bit flat and boring. It was then that I tried using a plastic palette knife to apply the paint. A metal one would probably give you better control but I didn’t have one handy at the time. With the palette knife, I was finally able to get the area around the eyes up to a sufficient level of awesomeness. I also found that the same technique should be able to work for most of the owl. So far, I have completed the area around the eyes and the owl’s feet using the same basic technique for both areas.
First, I will go over how I did the feet. I started with two lines of paint on my palette, side by side, one of burnt sienna and one of cadmium red. I scratched a narrow, round tipped palette knife across the two lines to get a small amount of each color on the knife without getting them too mixed together. Then I applied a fairly thick coating of paint to the feet of the owl. Here is a picture of this in progress.
Once the feet were completely filled in, I added the texture of the small twigs coiled around the feet of the owl statue. For this, I used a different palette knife that had a pointed tip. Before each time that I touched the knife to the painting, I dipped it in a very small amount of black paint.
After dipping the knife in the black paint, I carved curved lines across the feet. The knife tends to build up some access paint, so keep a paper towel or cloth handy to wipe it on. Also, when carving into the paint, be sure to do it lightly if you are painting on a white canvas like I was. The knife can completely scrape the paint away and allow the surface below to show through. If a flat color were first applied to the canvas, it could be used to either reduce the impact of carving too deep, or you could use it to your advantage and have a color show through intentionally. Here are the finished feet.
The area around the eyes was painted in a similar way. I mixed white with very small amounts of yellow ochre and burnt sienna. Then I laid the paint onto the canvas like I was frosting a cupcake – which I have done about as many times as I have painted owl statue eyes. Check ‘em out:
Then, just like the feet, I carved in the individual bristles. In a few areas, I gave the palette knife a quick dip into some burnt sienna for a little extra spice. The centers of the eyes along with the remainder of the owl will come in once all of this is dry.
November 8, 2009
I have recently completed another painting of the old fire alarm that is at the top of my stairs. As you can see from a previous post, my first attempt left much to be desired. It was a good learning experience though. We can’t all be Salvador Dali on day one. I’m sure even he put out his fair share of lackluster fire alarm paintings early in his career.
Before starting this painting, I took a long hard look at the last one. What was it specifically that made it look so amateur? This was one question that I needed to answer before starting up the new painting. Aside from some obvious reasons such as the chain having a strange wobble and some sizing issues, the big one hit me one day while walking down the street over to the coffee shop. I happened to walk by a small art gallery that had a few paintings on display by various local artists. Aside from my opinion on the subject matter of each painting, I saw a strong distinction between some paintings and others. Certain ones looked well done and others looked like high school art class assignments. There didn’t seem to be much in-between. Then I saw what the well done paintings had that the high school art projects (my first painting certainly fits this category) lacked.
The well done paintings incorporated much more texture. Don’t get me wrong, a painting can have a smooth glossy finish and still look awesome. I just think it takes much more skill to pull off and I’m certainly not there yet. So there it was. Texture. How could I use a little texture to my advantage? To find out, I redirected my course for the book store which is conveniently located across the street from my original destination. After flipping through a few duds, I came across a winner: The Encyclopedia of Oil Painting Techniques by Jeremy Galton. Spicing up a painting with some texture is one of many helpful techniques illustrated by this book. It certainly gets my stamp of approval.
To fix the problems of proportions and arrangement, etc. I took some extra time up front to layout where I would be painting everything. I made sure to use a pen this time for my initial drawing. I used pencil last time and when I started painting, lead smeared all over the place. This time I took much more careful measurements and got the picture centered better on the canvas. Then when on got to the painting, I laid it on thick. The great thing about oil paint is that each brush stroke stays pretty much frozen in time once it dries, and you have a good long time to mess with them before that happens.
There is one other thing that needs to be mentioned. Unless you are a master calligrapher, I recommend laying down any text that you will be painting first. I waited until the end on my last painting, thinking the whole time that the text would make or break it. Well, the text broke it, bad. So his time, I laid down all of my text up front knowing that I could tweak it as much as necessary without risking the hours of hard work that lay beneath it.
And now that the suspense has officially been built, here is a picture of my latest endeavor.
Next on my list will likely be a painting of this little fella, and you can bet your bottom dollar that he will be loaded up to the beak with some nice rich texture.
October 17, 2009
…and by accomplished I mean that I have now accomplished about 80% of an oil painting. It is a painting of an old fire alarm that is in my apartment (see below). In fact, it is a painting of a photo that I took a few months ago not long after moving in (see further below). The next step might be a sculpture loosely based on the painting.
Although its far from perfect and the chain doesn’t quite hang according to physics, I still like it. I will probably try painting this again after taking the time to learn a thing or two about painting techniques.
July 13, 2009
