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Oil type pens for drawing on canvas
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Message
Posted
Can anybody recommend a brand of oil-type pens for drawing on canvas prior to oil painting ? . I'm saying oil as I shall want to wipe off with turps if/when I made a pigs wotsit of it , and I'm preferring a fine tip . I have tried oil pastilles but I have to keep re-sharpening them . Any suggestions welcome .
Steve
Posted
Well, to be quite honest - no.
I think your best bet is just to lay down your basic design in charcoal, perhaps reinforced with a weak mix of cobalt blue and burnt sienna, keep it broad to start with, and refine it gradually. You can always lay out a detailed design on a piece of paper/canvas paper and transfer it optically or, if you wish, more accurately, to your surface. But given oil paint will inevitably blur any lines you first lay down, because it spreads, I do not think this process is an especially sound way of working.
I'm not aware of any 'oil-type pens', and I really don't think I'd recommend them if I were. You can cut in to oil paint over a series of layers, to refine the image; you can lay out a grisaille and glaze colour over it; but while these methods will give you as much precision as you should want, I don't believe there's a ready shortcut to them. If I did want a very precise preliminary drawing, I'd do it with a brush and thin oil, let it dry, and glaze over it.
Posted
Robert is right, there isn't anything out there. I generally draw my image out using a thinned down Raw Umber, but greys and blues are fine. It's not necessary to go into too much detail at the initial stage of a painting. Just get a get a small brush, not too small, and draw out your design. Any mistakes, and I make loads at this stage will be covered over anyway, so just go for it.
If my memory serves me correct, and I'm sure it does, you were the chap that asked about projectors a while back. Did you ever get one?, I can't recall a reply from you, but may be wrong.
Posted
Robert - thanks for that
Alan - yes . after much meandering I sold one of my woodworking machines and bought a digital projector , its the InFocus IN114xa , in the lower price range at £300 but does what I need . I have just about finished experimenting with where to use it , what to stand it on , focal distance etc and so last week I mounted a 20" x 16" mdf board on the easel , already primed , and projected an image of a painting I have often seen in the Southampton Art Gallery , A Sale at Tattersalls by Robert Polhill Bevan . I was pleased with the drawing ( done with a graphite pencil) but was not happy about the basic underpainting so that was turpsed off , then I found that the pencil lines were too feint and made the mistake of going over them with what I thought was a fine-point marker but it looked too bold . Hence my asking about oil pens . I will try a rigger with burnt umber . I'm pleased with the way its going but will also now mount the projector on top of a step ladder so I can draw whilst standing . ( first one was on smaller steps and I was in a crouching position ) .
Steve
Posted
Robert and Alan are spot on as usual with their advice. I find the best way of drawing for oils is with a flat brush, using flat or on edge as required, to give a loose drawing before starting to block in tones. No need for precision drawing as oils are forgiving and the structure can be amended/adapted as painting progresses.
Posted
Hi Tracerman, you could try pastel pencils, I use them as its easy to scrub out all or just part of a drawing on the canvas, it also has the advantage that as its just pigment it mixes well with oil and will not bleed through on thin paint areas like pencil and other markers will, though I never do, you can always match the pastel colour to the main colour of your painting. One disadvantage though is the pencils quickly blunt and need constant resharpening though I do find the ease of drawing outweighs that problem.
Posted
Hi Alan, I agree with you generally especially that a drawing is only a guide when painting in oils, however a fair amount of my paintings are imaginary where I sometimes dive into the work with only a vague preconceived idea that needs no drawing, other imaginaries may be painted with no more than a rough doodle for reference and in this case translating the doodle to a drawing on canvas necessitates a few tries until I am satisfied enough to start painting, I have to admit though I am guilty as charged of going into too much detail in an initial drawing not only on imaginary paintings but also on well referenced works because inevitably as the painting progresses it gets changed, sometimes drastically. This method may not appeal to you or many others but its the way I work and what I am comfortable with, we all have our own little ways to achieve our desired effects Tracerman is looking for his and I sincerely hope he finds it.
Posted
Can I just say thanks to all who have commented , I've noted the advice . I take the point about accuracy - Monet's " Madame Monet a la Plage " showing her sitting on the beach with her mother (?) looks to have been dashed off very spontaneously , almost sloppily , and I have roughed out a drawing and my painting will probably be a fourth-rate copy at best . However Robert Bevan's " A sale at Tattersals " would , in my opinion , need a bit more accuracy if it is to resemble the original at all . These are to be done on 6mm MDF so my surface is fairly smooth and pencil seems ok , once I get sorted I will also use canvases . Once again thanks
Steve Weight
Posted
There are oil pens available, of a sort, but I don't think they're in this country. They are mentioned in Serena Barton's book on Wabi Sabi painting with cold wax. I didn't look at them too closely, though. I have found pencil sometimes shows through oil paint, but admittedly I don't paint that thickly to cover it up. I wouldnt worry about oil-pens too much, it sounds like it could be just another expense. Someone mentioned marking in with pastel pencil....I've done that...maybe use a harder pastel, like a Rembrandt, or a Conte carre; you can shave those down to points if you need to. I've tried charcoal but a too heavy application can muck up the paint colour; my art teacher used to fix it with a turps wash-over.