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…
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…
The morning session with Agamemnon and Orestes was slow and easy. With a large painting like this (44″ x 60″), I use hog bristle brushes for most of the work. Today I used 5s and 6s. You can see some of them on the easel table. I always dip my brushes in oil when I…
The Cleveland Museums of Art’s Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe is the best show I’ve seen at the museum since I started my near-weekly visits six years ago. As good as the show is, however, the theme–artists as eyewitnesses to history–is a stretch. The paintings are souvenirs of public events in (equally important)…
This photo shows Crossing after my 4th session. Nothing is close to being finished except the blue of the sky, ultramarine blue + cobalt blue + flake white. The broad range of scale among the figures is fun to paint. As an exercise, try changing-up the scale in your paintings.
I thought it would be fun to compare Agamemnon and Orestes after the second day to the first day–bottom photo. After the second day, the underpainting is finished. The underpainting is about getting paint on the canvas and not worrying overmuch about details. At 44″ x 60,” the painting’s large size (for me) dictates the…
This is a companion to my canvas stretching post. After you stretch a perfectly taut and square canvas, you’re ready to prepare the surface. Our goal is threefold: protect the canvas protect the paint create a perfect surface Why do we have to protect the canvas? Oil is acidic, so if you paint directly on…
Snow in NE Ohio on April 17! OK, just a dusting but I cannot remember snow this late before.