My Vision in Oil

I decided to paint on thin MDF board primed with two coats of white household acrylic mixed with Polyfilla to form a thick creamy consistency. This was brushed out randomly with a 2in decorator’s brush to leave a pattern that would show through the subsequent paint layers. This priming coat would also absorb some of the paint medium and aid the initial drying of further paint applications. When dry, I rubbed in a watery mix of burnt sienna to render a half tone over the whole of the board.

I decided to do a preliminary sketch with a permanent black marker pen. I could have done this in oil, using a suitable colour such as burnt umber or ultramarine blue, but the marker pen gave me an immediate fixed image that would not smudge or pollute any subsequent paint applications.

To speed up the process I used Cobra water-mixable oil colour, although most of my paint application was direct from the tube with very little dilution, so this was not a case of applying oil paint in a watercolour fashion.

Having established my half tone with the overall watery wash, I put in my darkest darks, quickly followed added the general shapes that made up the rest of the picture design, using appropriate colours and tones. This gave me a rough image to which I could add considered marks to work up the detail of the finished painting.

I almost forgot the telegraph pole, and quickly scratched this in with a palette knife to remind me of its position.

TRY COBRA WATER-MIXABLE OILS

I continued to work up the detail of the picture, breaking down large shapes into smaller detailed shapes.

Generally I worked from the back of the picture to the front, firming up the foliage profiles and some of the branches.

I also considered some of the shadows across the road and a few of the highlighted branches.

Up to this point I had used five colours – ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, burnt umber, cadmium yellow and king's blue in the sky.

Finished painting

Autumn Lane near Dedham Hall, oil on board, (45.5x61cm)

I continued working up the detail of trees, road and verge.

By now I had added Naples yellow and cadmium red to my palette, in order to help with sunlight and shadows. I increased the sparkle on the left-hand bank, telegraph pole and some of the tree trunks and branches.

Although such marks add dynamism to the composition, care must be taken not to use these highlights to excess.

Overall, I also darkened the picture, in order to help bring out these sunlit areas.  Finally a few traffic marks on the road and I was about finished.

Looking back I realised that I had considerably beefed up the autumn colours in the finished picture, particularly the browns.

In the initial stages I had somewhat underplayed the autumn tints and was beginning to create a greener summer impression of the scene, so needed to correct this.

My Vision in Pastel

I selected a sheet of mid-brown ingres paper and sandwiched it between two sheets of hardboard, the front one of which had an aperture cut out measuring 18x25in (45.5x63.5cm).

The sheets were joined at the bottom edge with tape and two bulldog clips towards the top of the frame held everything together while I worked on the picture.

A piece of folded masking tape was attached to the bottom of the paper to catch any pastel dust, so helping to keep the studio floor clean. I can take no credit for this painting frame as it was designed by the late, great Edward Wesson in order to hold his watercolour paper in place during his painting process.

As I knew nothing about types and makes of pastels, I asked around other pastel painters for their advice. Highly recommended were Unison soft pastels, so I bought a landscape set of 18 colours. These had various code numbers, which I am sure would mean something to the established pastel painter, however a cursory glance at the contents of the box seemed to show a good range of hues, so off I went. I also bought five additional sticks of pastels in hues that I thought might be useful.

My immediate problem was that, as opposed to other media, I would not be able to mix colours from my standard range. However, I had done some basic study of working methods and realised that it would be a case of overlaying and Pointillism – how exciting.

ORDER A LANDSCAPE SET OF UNISON PASTELS

I began by sketching the design in a light tone pastel. I could have done this in water colour, ink or felt tip pen, but decided that for the purposed of printing reproduction this method would show a clear representation of my initial layout

Using the side of the pastels, I created the initial shapes of the composition with broad strokes of colour, trying to work from the shoulder rather than the wrist or hand.

This method of working was both liberating and exciting and I was already starting to get a feel for the design of the painting. I kept overlaying colour to give both variety of tone and texture and to closer define the image.

By now the picture had started to emerge. Athough excited, I was very nervous. The marks looked weak and somewhat indecisive and I was in desperate need of a shot of encouragement as I was not sure where the picture was going.

I decided to partially finish the right-hand side of the picture. Normally I would not do this, preferring to advance all parts of the painting together; however, I needed a confidence booster, and this seemed to do the trick

Finished painting

Autumn Lane near Dedham Hall, pastel, (18x24in.)

I continued to work up the rest of the design, gradually defining edges and tonal forms.

I sharpened some of the detail, particularly in the tree foliage and branch shapes.

I was also able to add deeper shadows and glints of sunlight on the autumn foliage, roadside grasses and fencing.

Finally it was time to stand back and recall the enjoyment of painting in this exciting medium.

Steve Hall’s work and teaching programme can be viewed on www.stevehallartist.co.uk

This article is taken from the September 2019 issue of The Artist. Enjoy endless inspiration with access to past and present issues of both The Artist and The Leisure Painter, plus exclusive video demos, tutorials and more, with our Studio Membership! Discover how you can join today. 

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