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Old paintings, copying, and all that jazz.
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Message
Posted
Back in the 1970's I was trying to get to grips with oils - I've never been comfortable with them. I decided to copy a Renoir painting, choosing one of his simpler compositions (??)...the Blond Bather. I copied it from a library book. I didn't use a grid, just painted, luckily I got everything in. It's a poor copy, I'd imagined I'd manage the face easily, for example, but never got there. (The picture is shown below) So I ended up with a poor copy of Renoir's art, and a picture unlike my own work. A kind of orphan, really. But I liked it...so did my wife. It hung in the living room of our previous house for about 10 years. As a sideline, a couple of friends were convinced it was a painting of my wife. No amount of explanation could shake them free of this notion.
So, whenever it came up, my wife would say, 'yes, that's me'. Ten years ago we downsized to a smaller home. With fewer walls this painting had to go, so I got rid of it, along with a lot of other paintings. (I wish I'd at least photographed them).
Four years later, whilst emptying a cardboard box in the shed (containing items 'that might come in handy'), I found the painting - I'd used it to strengthen the bottom of the box. Having acquired a computer and photoshop, I tried to 'save' it. The painting was past it...damp had caused paint to flake off, it was dirty and faded (I'm sure I didn't paint the sky green). I was able to glue some flaked paint back on, but I could only resurrect the picture as a photograph, using photoshop. It's shown below. The image on the right is the original damaged painting, with flaking that I hadn't been
able to glue back.
I copy things quite often, usually faces. I like to paint in cartoon style, but often when I attempt a 'normal' style, the pictures have a cartoon edge to them. Copying photos is an attempt to get away from that...and I enjoy it as well. A lot of paintings on this site are made from photographs, but some people are still able to develop their own style with that method, I can't do that...at best my pictures look like the photo.
It's also interesting to look at old work, I wish I hadn't dumped so much. From the few old paintings I have, I don't think much has changed. I was wondering how you feel about your older work. Also, whilst I'm on this subject and still struggling with oils, does anyone use 'Alkyd' (??) oils, do they dry quicker for example?
Posted
Yes Lew, Alkyd paints dry very quickly - overnight if the paint isn't put on thickly. You certainly can't save colours on the palette for long. HOWEVER, if you are in a hurry you can put Alkyd white on your palette, together withe "normal" oils and, because you tend to use white in other mixes, the whole painting will dry more quickly. It's quite useful to use this way but, again, any mixes with the Alkyd white in them will stiffen quite quickly - next day it would be hard to use them.
Posted
Thanks Marjorie, I've got 'normal' oils, and I have water-based oils. I was disappointed with the water-based, they still didn't dry very quickly, and I wasn't that impressed with the colours. I think I'll try the alkyd white with my normal oils. I don't have much success with a stick to keep my hands off the wet paint, I end up with an abstract painting up my arm...just clumsy, I guess.
Posted
I've kept one or two of my older paintings - and one from 1973 (date written on the back). It's probably a good thing to do, because not only can you see where you've come from and the progress you've made, you can also see (in my case anyway) if you've become more cautious and "controlled" over the years - I know I have, so it's quite useful to have the contrast: I hope it's going to persuade me to be less conventional, and to break out of my tramlines!
Marjorie has correctly answered your alkyds question - it's interesting to me that people seem to want their oil paintings to dry more quickly: for one thing, I rather like the fact that they don't - even if I were physically able to finish a painting in one sitting, and for reasons with which I won't bore you it very rarely is, I always like to take time to think about it and add bits, glaze in places (granted, the underlying paint needs to be dry for that) and generally tie up loose ends - eg, I thought I'd finished an oil last week; closer inspection revealed that I'd not actually covered the ground in one or two places: I think it worked even so, but you don't want to leave areas of unpainted canvas; at least - I don't. But perhaps that's going back to my tramlines again..... oh dear....
Posted
I'm happy to use traditional oils and give them periods of drying time. It makes for a slow process, although some progress faster than others depending on subject matter and type of painting. Building a picture in stages can have its' benefits but so can alla prima, especially outdoors. It's horses for courses really.
I agree with the sentiment about keeping old work and recently I opened a folder containing old watercolours from the 70's and 80's only to find damp and mildew. Not a case of foxing more an attack of water rats. We had a burst pipe in the bathroom above my studio some two or three years ago and water poured through the ceiling. I thought we had rescued all the damaged items, including my internet router and various pictures and folders, but apparently not. All the old watercolour work, bar one or two items less damaged than others, have gone. Never mind, I can always start again!
Posted
You are right, Peter...start again. It's no big deal, and only of interest to me. All the paintings and drawings I dumped on moving house had been in the loft, if they'd been stuck up there for years they are hardly a loss. I've now started taking pictures of my paintings, against the time when I'll have to have another clear out. From the 1970's I have five pictures...two paintings including the damaged Renoir copy, one pen and ink from 1965 (my oldest surviving picture), and two photographs of oil paintings dumped. I'm not quite sure how these made it.
Posted
Watercolour. I start with a light pencil drawing, and then paint the watercolours. Mainly, I don't use reference pics for my cartoon style pics, you can get away with a lot doing cartoons. I like to 'outline' my figures, it makes them 'pop', and is an old cartooning device. In this case I used a fine brush and watercolour, sometimes I use a pen. The outline is the last thing I do...sometimes, when I'm feeling brave, I don't outline. As you can see, I like really bright colours, subtle colour mixing is not my forte. But I'm working on colour mixing. The picture is 16 x 12 inches on 250 gsm multi-media paper.