Tuesday 11 October 2016

Start Oil Painting - Glazes, Scumbling, Impasto

The second of my beginners oil painting class  built on the underlayers we'd  prepared the previous week - oils need time to try.
In the morning on the primed board we  first applied glazes of  Alizarin diluted with  thinner and linseed oil mixture - the idea being that the underpainting shows through . Then glazes of grey   and yellow ochre- at last the kiwi fruit started to take shape
Then adding highlights using a pale pink ( a little white goes a long way and lots of mixing involved from starting point of Barbie pink!)
These were left to dry  and similar process of glazes added to red and green sketch on paper.  First glazes of alizarin and yellow ochre, also some cadmium red with a teeny bit of white to make it opaque rather than transparent.


The addition of bright greens and then greys made a dramatic difference - I really liked how the complimentary colours  make the apples 'pop'.
Then after lunch   with glazes partially dry we 'scumbled' dry paint into the glazes ,built up layers with small brushstrokes of concentrated colour, and scratched out areas with palette knife. I loved how the brush marks from my imperfect priming of the board show through. And look how good my palette control was ! It helped that I'd brought lots of my own palette knives and brushes with me - you really need a separate brush for each colour as you don't clean them until the end of the session
I was really pleased with the results considering it was just 2 session, I tried to use different techniques for each piece of fruit, some more interesting than others. I look forward to applying them in my 'advanced painting ' course which starts soon.
Considering we were all working from the same subject with the same materials there was a wide variety of paintings produced.  From across the room  Julia captured my concentration in her charming study ( even my earrings!)

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