First things first, instead of calling these blogs ‘day 2, 3…’ etc, I figure it makes more sense to go buy painting number, since I am not able to paint every single day.
I did two paintings last week which I never got around to blogging about, perhaps partly because I was feeling so frustrated with them.
Well, painting number 3 was probably my most frustrating attempt yet. I didn’t have a canvas and I read online you could oil paint on paper for practice, so I thought I’d try it. Mistakes were made. The paint ended up so thick, it just dragged along the paper with so much friction; it felt so sticky!
Not only that, but maybe the reference I picked was really just so difficult. As always, the photo is my own, but boy are the value and hue shifts so incredibly subtle. No wonder I had so much trouble.
In the end I ended up with some blobby trees and really no depth to the image. Okay, fine, next painting!
The reference here is a photo I took of the best sunset I have ever seen in Croatia (from our hotel room, ugh!).
As you can see, I painted this far too orange basically all over the canvas. When I started painting I did this kind of orange wash that spread out from the middle, thinking that having that as the ‘base tone’ would do me favors. It really didn’t, it’s just ended up making the entire painting too orange, therever not allowing the focus of the painting (the sunset band in the central left) stand out.
However, I can definitely see an improvement. I tried to be more thick with the highlight (the sun and sun reflection) in order to give that focus. I guess it worked okay.
Next problem, how the heck to paint moving water, especially when it’s so zoomed out. The colors of the water were SO difficult to determine, I think that ultimately brings the whole piece down since it’s like 50% of the canvas…
I am not very happy with either of these paintings, but I did learn a couple things:
- Painting on paper is hard, needs a better priming and more medium so the paints don’t stick. Also, soft, subtle trees are not the greatest reference when you are a beginner at oils who doesn’t aim to be a ‘realist’ painter.
- Remember to paint the saturation where the focus of the painting is. I do believe I am painting way too thin because things keep mixing together and I just don’t know how to control the paint the way I want to still.
I really want to go for the thick, impasto painting. Something that’s more simplifying the forms, painting in a sketchy and study way. That’s actually want I want to achieve but every time I have tried, I’ve not figured out how to stop the paint from mixing together.
To be continued!
