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When I began painting again sometime last year, I attempted to do an oil painting with some Winsor & Newton water mixable oils. It was an absolute disaster. Paint still wet after 6 months, paint not sticking or going where it should, clumsy brushwork... Ugh. The weird thing is that when I was a teenager, I painted with oils without any problems (or knowledge!) and got half decent results. Needless to say that painting got shelved, and I started another as a test piece. I didn't want to think too much about it, or plan it, so I grabbed a photograph and got to work.
One of the issues I had was the consistencies of the paint, and over the course of 3 weeks experimentation, I realized that my watercolour background was undoing my plan. I was basically using water a lot more than I should as a thinner. Its become habit for me to dip the brush into the water when I need solvent, so I had to retrain myself away from that, and also to wipe as much water from the brush as possible before going back to the palette. Harsh lessons. I did have a bit of trouble with paint not sticking, so I started over in that area, sweeping everything off down to the gessoed board, then built up the layers again. All in all a decent learning experience. This was my first successful oil painting in 20 years, and perhaps the seventh I've done. I enjoyed doing it: its nice to use paint that stays the same colour as when you mix it!!
The photograph I used by Maja Topčagić was nothing short of beautiful. ( 500px.com/photo/64451593/in-th… ) Full of bright colours, striking lighting, when I saw it I had to give it a shot. I wasn't interested in painstakingly replicating it, though I did gravely consider the freckles from the original, though by the time I had done that, I felt that the exercise had come to a conclusion and I was hungry for another subject. Oddly though, the likeness is similar to a combination of several women I had known over the years, but haven't seen in a long time, so there's probably some issues lurking deep inside!
Now I just have to figure out how to keep hair and dust out of the damn paint!
One of the issues I had was the consistencies of the paint, and over the course of 3 weeks experimentation, I realized that my watercolour background was undoing my plan. I was basically using water a lot more than I should as a thinner. Its become habit for me to dip the brush into the water when I need solvent, so I had to retrain myself away from that, and also to wipe as much water from the brush as possible before going back to the palette. Harsh lessons. I did have a bit of trouble with paint not sticking, so I started over in that area, sweeping everything off down to the gessoed board, then built up the layers again. All in all a decent learning experience. This was my first successful oil painting in 20 years, and perhaps the seventh I've done. I enjoyed doing it: its nice to use paint that stays the same colour as when you mix it!!
The photograph I used by Maja Topčagić was nothing short of beautiful. ( 500px.com/photo/64451593/in-th… ) Full of bright colours, striking lighting, when I saw it I had to give it a shot. I wasn't interested in painstakingly replicating it, though I did gravely consider the freckles from the original, though by the time I had done that, I felt that the exercise had come to a conclusion and I was hungry for another subject. Oddly though, the likeness is similar to a combination of several women I had known over the years, but haven't seen in a long time, so there's probably some issues lurking deep inside!
Now I just have to figure out how to keep hair and dust out of the damn paint!
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