Tuesday, August 18, 2009

painting in oils - 1

I love oil. I believe it's the second most worthy medium after marble sculpture. I don't do sculpture but to me it's the single greatest art form imaginable. Then comes oil.

Watercolor? It's for lighthouses unless you are John Singer Sargent. Sidewalk chalk? Maybe.

In any case that is my opinion.

I'm working towards learning the Dutch-Flemish method of painting. To my understanding, it simply involves a fully resolved underpainting with finished values; color applied in glazes.

With that in mind, here is the first stage :

I've fixed the drawing to a board and with some kind of medium (I forget what, Justin helped me with this part) You can see the drawing just barely in the first picture below, the stray pencil lines. I wish I had photographed it before hand. I did a probably half finished drawing.

Once that was dry I did my first toning. I used Burnt Umber. I then rubbed out the face some to make some light/shadow and started drawing in the details with paint.



Next I painted the hair. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to glide a brush filled with oil across a surface.



This first pass at the underpainting is complete. I let this dry. When it's totally dry I could (and did) make mistakes in the next phase but because the foundation was dry I could simply rub the mistake out.

In all likeliness, what I'm doing here is trying to make oils work like watercolors, watercolors come more naturally to me. I have a harder time working opaquely. So color glazes, being more akin to watercolor has me intrigued.

Next post : The painting the highlights.

5 comments:

Rick said...

No matter the medium, I can tell it's you because of the hair. You need to do a tutorial on how you draw/paint hair. Love the flow. Really cool.

nicholas said...

Cory this is going to be great! Hurray for oils. Is this a commissioned piece?

Anonymous said...

Oh no Corey don't drink the art school kool aid!! This is the crap art school elite try to cram into students brains because they think art should only be 'fine art'. Horsedookey!! Sure it should be respected cause it aint easy, but oils are just one more way to create and image. If you create a great piece of work even if its ballpoint pen on a napkin its still worthy. There are a lot of crap oil painters out there who think they are good because they use oil, but their themes and images blow. Don't think you have to learn this to validate yourself as an artist, you're super great already.

ThinkBaker said...

I'm interested in what you / Justin used to mount your board/paper with.???

is this masonite? illy board?

Cynthia DiBlasi - Fine Art said...

I have studied the Dutch Flemish method extensively in the past, and consider no other method when painting with oils. The Marojer medium used in this process is dangerous to make, (have the recipe!) and calls for very unique ingredients, so I buy it already made online at http://www.oldmastersmaroger.com
I prefer using linen canvas rather than Masonite, because I like the flexibility. Let me know if you have any questions!

And like you, I have switched up my mediums and have become mostly digital, to become a better illustrator. Everyone is giving me hell for it too! There is nothing like oils. :)

Good luck!