Discussion of current works on the easel.
For today’s session with Lunch Alone, in addition to my usual medium, I used ‘flavored’ turpentine for my solvent: turpentine with some homemade drying oil, plus drops of Courtrai siccative. Readers of my blog know I post a lot about mediums and other arcane elements of art making. If you want to start experimenting with mediums,…
I am keeping everything simple and direct with The Woman in the Red Pants. Overworking can be death to a painting. On the other hand, I have a horror of the blast, fire, shoot, throw, and fling army of ala prima painters who’ve taken over the Art World, at least the ‘figurative’ part of it. …
Here is my first session with Keep Talking. Today, I just threw paint onto the canvas without worrying overmuch about details, although I was–as always–careful to preserve the drawing. It’s risky to share such raw, unfinished paintings but I think there’s enough that you can get the gist of it. Keep Talking is 36″ x…
How do you know when a painting is finished?Many artists have trouble determining when a painting is finished. It can be excruciatingly painful to let a painting go, especially after you worked on it for a long time. If like me, you focus on problems as you work, it can be easy to fixate on…
I used my homemade drying oil in recent sessions with Down on Prospect Avenue. I substitute the oil for black oil in my medium recipe. Large paintings (Down on Prospect Avenue is 44″ x 60″) have issues that smaller ones don’t have. Matching tones previously used, to name just one. Anyway, it’s getting there. It’s…
The thing about this Fabriano drawing pad is I can work-up drawings with pencil or pen–my two favorite materials–without mess or fuss. The really good paper I save for charcoal or pastel, but this paper is terrific for pencil drawing. This photo shows two recent pencil drawings on Fabriano bristol. This morning, I finished a…
I got Along 4th Street on the easel yesterday and had some good sessions. I used walnut oil instead of linseed. I find myself reaching for the walnut oil instead of the linseed more often. I picked up several drawing pads. I have a pile of good, loose paper but ran out of pads. Strathmore…
The Woman in Red Pants is not over-large so I finished the underpainting, shown here, in 2 sessions. The Woman in Red Pants is 36″ x 48.” We live in a great time when information about nearly every subject is at-hand, right? Create a battery? Create an electric motor? Build a house? There is also…