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Posted
Yes, it is extreme perhaps, but easily adapted!
Personally I’d forget glazing, it’s a slow and tedious process… fine if you’re trying to achieve silky peach like skin!
Get some paint dropped on and build up your colours and more importantly, tonal values.
Worth remembering… tone is more important than colour for a successful painting, be it portrait, landscape or still life!
Posted
Off to a great start Lewis and it looks as though it's going well. I've always stained my canvas since Alan first mentioned it in his demonstrations. I think it also makes it much easier to determine your values in comparison to a white background. I am a fan of Tim Benson's work. I do like the big brushwork.
Posted
Looking very good - this slow build-up approach is one of many you can (and I'm sure will) try; then there's direct painting, where you have a minimum of prior drawing, and just steam in - risky, can go very wrong, but is exciting when it goes right; and glazing - I know Denise has tried that, as have I, but .... I was about to say it can be very time consuming, but that all depends on the base, particularly the white used, if you do use a white in the underpainting: it was a lot easier with lead paint - I've painted portraits and landscapes with glazing, in oil and acrylic... it offers a distinctive appearance, which some might find too smooth and calculated, and it's a bit out of fashion. The artist who painted Kate Middleton (I think) used glazing - and for my money produced a very dull painting, though that had a lot to do with the not entirely formed and finished features of his subject.
There's a current storm in a teacup about Margaret Thatcher's portrait, which, it's said, Starmer has moved to somewhere less obvious: I don't remember seeing it in any detail, but it looks from the distant view as if it's painted in glazes, and effectively done (though the £100,000 purchase price is several stops before Dagenham - i.e. beyond Barking: was he painting with genuine gold leaf?). Whereas, to keep the controversy going, Rolf Harris's portrait of the Queen - which by the way I thought rather good, on the whole - was more direct painting; the only thing I found weird about it was the startling green dress: and I know he had trouble with the mouth; but then - most of us do, it's the hardest feature to get right, and if you don't no portrait is going to work.
Posted
If you listen to some on the various Facebook groups, using Winton is a crime against oil paint - the oily Gods will hate you for it, apparently. Now - it's a long way from being my favourite oil paint, but - it's paint; it's oil; how bad can it really be? Well, I'd give it an OK-sort-of verdict - around ten years ago, I exhibited with a group when my work was mostly acrylic, and a colleague painted in Winton oil paint; so far as I remember, he used nothing else. He painted on the grand scale, i.e. - big. Top grade oil paint would have bankrupted him, but he achieved striking results anyway.
This made me question paint-snobbery. I saw a Facebook post just yesterday, which claimed that if you used Talens Rembrandt oil paint - which is not a student grade - your paint would crack, bubble, and fall off the canvas. I rarely use Talens products, but all the same - that's pure nonsense: it just won't.
Of course I'd rather be using Michael Harding, Rublev, Wallace Seymour, Vasari, Langridge - some paint just IS superior to others. But I get by with small quantities of Michael Harding, Rublev, Wallace Seymour, heavily augmented by Daler-Rowney's professional grade, Jacksons' professional, and the occasional tube from Ken Bromley's oil range - I know these ranges well, I have a few Georgian and Winton colours, a handful of Winsor and Newton professional oils, and if a colour just doesn't have any saturation at all, I soon get to know it and discard it - can't have good tonal values with tonally-free paint.
If I were going to restrict myself to just a handfull of tubes, I'd go for the Michael Wilcox School of Colour range (which is all he offers, and consists of Titanium White; Yellow Ochre; Raw Sienna; Lemon [Hansa] Yellow; Cadmium Yellow; Pthalo Green; Ultramarine; Cerulean Blue; Pthalo Blue; Quinacridone Violet; Cadmium Red; Burnt Sienna; good colours in fat tubes, more than enough for a complete palette. Though I'm not too keen on the pthalo colours, and would try hard to avoid them - and with a broken sob, I'd have to do without Mars Orange).
Posted
It'll be a while before I feel confident to use the direct or alla prima approach with oils. I'll be using the slow build up mentioned by Robert, and described by Martin above. My knowledge of the brands of oil is zero, obviously you get what you pay for. I'll continue with the Georgian for these first few paintings. Should I continue with oils, as I expect to, I'll be going for Jackson's Professional. In the meantime, if I wish to add colours, I'll add Jacksons...I need Yellow Ochre for example.
I began using cheap materials. About 50 years ago I was painting in oils. Cheap Reeves student grade. I'd paint hardboard panels with several coats of matt household emulsion. I know...but I couldn't afford anything else. I have one sole surviving painting from this era. I'd copied a Renoir painting (a favorite artist). It wasn't a bad copy, but the face wasn't quite Renoir. Even so, I liked it as a painting, not quite Renoir and not quite me. It hung on the walls of our previous house for nearly thirty years. It was a nude. Several family, and friends, including one of my sons were convinced it was my wife. They would not be persuaded otherwise. It would come up occasionally, over time, we gave up, and my wife would smile and say 'yes, that's me.' When I moved to my present house, I dumped all my oils save the Renoir copy and two other pictures. In the chaos of moving these pictures were put in a cardboard box together with some tools I rarely use. Stupid. At the new house this box was put in my garage, I'd forgotten about the paintings. About four years later, when I needed one of the tools, I rediscovered the paintings. The damp had destroyed two of them. The Renoir copy had lost paint and was badly cracked, I did what I could to save it. Here it is...
It's quite dull for one of my paintings, considering how I treated it that's hardly surprising. It shows how tough oil paintings can be, even when made with cheap paint. I cherish this painting now, flaky paint and cracks included. It comes with the luggage of fond memories. I don't 'cherish' my paintings, I think they are sometimes Ok, or 'not bad'. But this one, made with the cheapest materials, is special.
I think I've mentioned this before, sorry if you've heard it all.
It's quite dull for one of my paintings, considering how I treated it that's hardly surprising. It shows how tough oil paintings can be, even when made with cheap paint. I cherish this painting now, flaky paint and cracks included. It comes with the luggage of fond memories. I don't 'cherish' my paintings, I think they are sometimes Ok, or 'not bad'. But this one, made with the cheapest materials, is special.
I think I've mentioned this before, sorry if you've heard it all.
Posted
Interesting and great that this one has survived, all things being considered!
I treasure nothing either, to me, any painting that I’ve done is simply another episode in my life…no big deal in fact I rarely like anything I paint! That suits me fine, rather that than sitting drooling over a completed work!
The Jackson’s Professional range would be a good choice Lew, I’ve got some and if I’m not mistaken, I’ve written a report on them, but it may have been their cheaper range, which are still pretty good!
Posted
Thanks for that Martin, crammed with useful tips. I won't be trying alla prima until I've got used to oils again. I'll be using the method you described earlier. I've got Daler-Rowney system 3 brushes, they seem ok, but I don't have the experience to know if I could do better. Had a look at the shinku brushes, I'm expecting to add stuff as I go along and have more idea of what I want. But I've bookmarked this thread so I can easily dip back into it. Like yourself, people have been very generous with their knowhow.
Posted
Reeves actually have a long pedigree - there were one of the major paint-makers, alongside Winsor and Newton, and George Rowney; but now seem to be firmly in the student quality camp. I used them quite a lot, back in the distant day. There's obviously something to be said for them to have survived the treatment described - and, if you can still find them, they'd be fine for sketching and general practising/playing.
To avoid cracking, avoid Zinc - though the survival of that not-quite-Renoir proves that oil paint is tough stuff.
Posted
On the subject of brushes for oil painting, there seems to be such a vast selection to choose from these days.
I’ve got a selection of Rosemary & Co, Evergreen range and others from her vast selection on offer.
A good brush is the Black Hog range from Jackson’s, I’ve got all the shapes, Round, Flat and Filbert! Definitely prefer the filbert shape when it comes to oil painting, but it doesn’t take very long for the Flat to end up as a Filbert.
There’s something about the shape of the Filbert that gives me the mark making that I’m after. Softer than Hog bristle of course!
It’s worth noting: there is NO industry standard for brush sizing in the U.K., it probably stems to worldwide but I can’t comment.
So, a number 4 filbert hog from say ProArte as an example, can and probably will be a totally different size than from Daler Rowney.
I’ve come unstuck many times over the years. Sensibly, Rosemary & Co show all the illustrations of brushes in their catalogue as being the actual size… what you see is what you get…well done Rosemary! At least you know what you’re getting!
Edited
by Alan Bickley