Trying new media- why it's so important

So it's no secret that I love acrylic and watercolor... Recently adding oils to that list has been a great exploratory experience, and I'm so very glad I did. Oils force you to think more about each move you make, and for me, that means a tighter painting style.

But what about loosening up?

My answer was pastels- a good friend and artist, David Kaphammer, is a pastel genius. I decided to take one of his method classes to see how he can achieve such a strong style in his work. Here was my resulting piece:

Dave claims that his loose style was born out of an inability to draw even a straight line. I doubt that this is true, but learning to forgo rendering and seeing masses as groupings of color and tone rather than shape lends itself to an increased understanding of tonal value and cohesion throughout your entire piece. I plan to carry this lesson throughout all of my other works!

Dave is also the kin of purple shadows! His understanding of purple is a special effect that can only be understood by looking at his work. Check out his work at 

Www.davekaphammerart.com

Fast landscape sketches in oil

Oil is traditionally, by definition, not a medium that is conducive to quick painting. However, I find that by trying to paint quickly with oils, and forcing them to blend quickly, a very natural and spontaneous effect can be achieved. Below are 3 oil sketches I have done in the past 2 weeks. One of them was done outside, and the other 2 were done out of my head, based upon the experience of painting from observation. 

This first one was done on location. I spent about 5 minutes on it, although I did spend 10 minutes beforehand choosing colors. Lets call it a 15 min. painting all together. The spontaneity helps to keep character in this, and allows it to be very loose, as well as read cleanly and clearly. A palette knife was used in the end to add a bit of texture to the trees; the whole thing just seemed too soft without it.

This one was done in about 15 minutes, done based upon the color scheme of the previous one. I enjoyed the colors and the palette knife effect so much that I decided to construct my own version in my head of the treeline, and then used the palette knife even more intensely for snow in the foreground. I like this one better than the first one I think.

I decided to try and do a quick study using the same tones I had used on the previous two, but a different set of colors. I tried to match each color value previous with a new color (for example, switching my naples yellow to a cadmium yellow, and my ultramarine violet to purple madder). This change created an entirely different tone of painting, with the same stylistic effect. This one took about 20 minutes.

...All three of these pieces are available for sale on my website. They're also very cheap, because they are just studies! If you're looking for an opportunity to own some of my work at a very approachable price, this may be it!

Working in Oils

Hello All-

It has been a while, with lots going on, but I am back in the blogging swing (and this time, to stay!)

Here is a work from start to finish- A piece from my fantasy setting I have been crafting over the past 3 years. Pictured is a Nagini Warrior, a snake-like humanoid race who live in the jungle city of Opedia. A knight of sorts, he is pictured on a dinosaur. This panel was done in oils, and is nearly finished.

Oils are a new challenge for me, so I have included some notes at the bottom for any artists interested in reading my observations on the medium.

I began in pencil, locking down a loose sketch on a 9x12 board. I then, when mostly happy, locked it in place with some krylon matte fixative, used to seal acrylic paintings. This was both to keep oils from seeping into the board too much, and to keep the pencil marks from smudging. I then began adding in some warm and cool tones, and lightly worked the background. I chose my color palette ahead of time too. I was going for a very balanced green and purple set of tones, with soft yellow light from Naples Yellow Warm, my favorite yellow.

A couple more sessions in, I have started to block in the dinosaur color shades, as well as the background. It was at this point that a good artist friend of mine, Concept artist Britt Snyder, stepped in and suggested I soften my edges in the back to help draw attention to my subject. He also suggested I turn my Nagini's view to 3/4's, so that he looked less frog-like.

I also here have removed the foreground huts- I just didn't think they added to the overall picture too much. 

Warm and cool color tones finally giving me the lighting I'm looking for- notice, still not working too many details yet.

Here is the 'before' shot of the head

And here is the after- having fleshed a few more tones out, as well as adjusting some highlights and details. 

Oils are very different than acrylics in a few distinct ways. Although much of the methodology is the same, there are ways in which it is far more like watercolor, or even pastels. Here are some basic things to think about.

1. In oil, your paint will go a lot further. This is because the binder (oil) is far more fluid than the liquid resin inside acrylic paint. We generally water down acrylic to help with flow (or even add a glaze or matte medium), but with this comes a less strong chroma. With oils, we keep a brilliant chroma and achieve a fast flow. While this seems wonderful, it does mean you have to think about colors flowing into each other- because they are so fluid, they muddy quick. It is in fact, much easier to "over muddy" your active colors with oil than with acrylic.

2. Oils interact strangely. This is because the way the oil binder and color interact is so drastically different in the tube from color to color. Titanium white takes easily a week (at fastest) to fully dry, and is opaque second to none, whereas Purple Madder has no opacity and will simply darken and cool anything mixed with with a dark red tint, as well as will dry within 30 or so hours. In the acrylic world, these differences are not so apparent, although still sort of hold true. When you're dealing with a drying time of about 15 minutes, it is far less apparent. Learning what you're working with in terms of physical tendencies of colors is important in oils.

3. Oils dry as is. With watercolor paint, you can comfortably expect any color you lay down to dry 2 chroma shades lighter, whereas with acrylic, you can expect 1-2 chroma shades darker. With oil, you generally get exactly what you see (although some luster will sink into the surface over the first month of drying, but don't worry- it will return with a coat of high quality varnish).

4. Oils are more expensive. If you are an art buyer, and are looking to buy an oil painting, keep in mind that an artist's cost for paint is just shy of double that which it would be for acrylics. I like the general rule of $75.00-$100.00 per square feet of acrylic surface in paint cost, because I always use professional grade paint. For oil, it's generally closer to $150.00 for me.