The Ultimate Oil Painting Solution – for Landscape Art, Portraiture and Still Life (Three Books in One)
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About this ebook
Ever had trouble with ellipses, perspectives, colour theory, skin tones, painting skies, reflections, water, eyes, fruit, glass, flowers and more? This bumper oil painting ebook problem-solver tackles 78 such painting ‘peeves’ with suggested solutions.
The Ultimate Oil Painting Solution comprise three full-length art books: “Why do my Clouds Look Like Cotton Wool?” a problem-solver for landscape painting; “Why do my Skin Tones Look Lifeless?” a problem-solver for portrait painting, and “Why do my Ellipses Look Like Doughnuts?” a problem-solver for still life painting. Each book can be purchased singly if interested in just one subject area. However, purchasing the three in this bundle ebook will work out a little cheaper than buying the three ebooks individually.
Each book comprises 26 common ‘peeves’ (in the form of chapters) associated with the oil painting area concerned, and therefore you will find 78 such peeves and suggested solutions collectively within.
The book has 80,000 words, 78 chapters and around 400 images.
Each book also possesses a step by step painting demonstration associated with the subjet area. These are Castlerigg Stone Circle (for landscape art); David’s Oath of the Horatii (for portraiture) and painting strawberries (for still life).
The ‘peeves’ selected represent common problem areas that students have experienced in my art classes. Such peeves include the rendering of foreshortenings, darkening skin colours, suggesting ripples in water, painting clouds, mixing greens, suggesting soft hair, painting noses, reflections in eyes, moisture on fruit, portrait photography, measuring tones, darkening snow colours and a myriad of other peeves.
As each book are in themselves separate entities, where applicable, similar information is presented in context of landscape art, portraiture and still life painting, although the information is presented differently. Examples of this are the art materials needed for painting and the nature of pigments. However, such occurences are mostly confined to the introductory chapters of each book and occur seldom elsewhere.
Key chapters in this book cover the colour theory, perspectives, drawing ellipses, the golden section, tonal values, underglazing, art techniques, the nature of pigments, essential art materials, drawing methods, monochromatic painting, composing an arrangement, negative shapes, painting en plein air, drawing foreshortenings, creating mood, making a viewfinder, colour temperatures, drawing methods, the rules of reflections, painting on a budget, types of gessoes, skin colours and much, much more.
The aim of this book is to find a ‘cure’ for a given issue and enable the developing artist to improve in the future. Most of all, to encourage creativity and growing confidence.
The author has a BA Hons Degree in Fine Art from Kingston University, London and a PCET teaching qualification from Warwick. She has written numerous articles and books on oil painting and has also been involved in countless commissions and projects.
Rachel Shirley
I have practiced oil painting from the age of six and have since been involved in countless projects and commissions. A graduate from Kingston University, Surrey and with a PCET teaching qualification from Warwick University, I have won competitions, taught life drawing and have written several books and many articles on oil painting and teaching art.
Read more from Rachel Shirley
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The Ultimate Oil Painting Solution – for Landscape Art, Portraiture and Still Life (Three Books in One) - Rachel Shirley
Introduction
This bumper oil painting ebook comprises three books: Why do my Clouds Look Like Cotton Wool? a problem-solver for landscape painting; Why do my Skin Tones Look Lifeless? a problem-solver for portrait painting, and Why do my Ellipses Look Like Doughnuts? a problem-solver for still life painting. Each book can be purchased singly if interested in only one subject area.
Each book comprises 26 common ‘peeves’ (in the form of chapters) associated with the oil painting area concerned, and therefore you will find 78 such peeves and suggested solutions collectively within.
Each book also possesses a step by step painting demonstration associated with the subject area. These are Castlerigg Stone Circle (for landscape art); David’s Oath of the Horatii (for portraiture) and painting strawberries (for still life).
The ‘peeves’ selected represent common problem areas that students have experienced in my art classes. Such peeves include the rendering of ellipses, darkening skin colours, suggesting rippled effects in water, painting clouds, mixing greens, suggesting soft hair, painting noses, reflections in eyes, moisture on fruit, portrait photography, measuring tones, darkening snow colours and the rendering of long objects in foreshortening. Many other peeves are examined.
As each book are in themselves separate entities, where applicable, similar information is presented in context of landscape art, portraiture and still life painting, although the information is presented differently. Examples of this are the art materials needed for painting and the nature of pigments. However, such occurrences are mostly confined to the introductory chapters of each book and occur seldom elsewhere.
Key chapters in this book cover the colour theory, perspectives, drawing ellipses, the golden section, tonal values, underglazing, art techniques, the nature of pigments, essential art materials, monochromatic painting, composing an arrangement, negative shapes, painting en plein air, drawing foreshortenings, creating mood, making a viewfinder, colour temperatures, drawing methods, the rules of reflections, painting on a budget, types of gessoes, skin colours and much, much more.
The aim of this book is to find a ‘cure’ for a given issue and enable the developing artist to improve in the future. Most of all, to encourage creativity and growing confidence.
Briefly, I have attained an Hons Degree in Fine Art from Kingston University, London and a PCET teaching qualification from Warwick. I have written numerous articles and books on oil painting, as I have painted since the age of six and have been involved in countless commissions and projects.
Oil Painting Medic
Why Do My Clouds Look like Cotton Wool?
Plus 25 Solutions to Other Landscape Painting Peeves
Rachel Shirley
Contents for Why do My Clouds Look Like Cotton Wool? Plus 25 Solutions to Other Landscape Painting Peeves
Introduction to Why do my Clouds Look Like Cotton Wool?
Solutions for Starting Out in Landscape Painting
Chapter 1 I haven’t the room or funds to pursue oil painting
Chapter 2 Oil painting techniques for landscape art seems complicated
Chapter 3 I don’t have the confidence to begin landscape painting
Solutions for Oil Painting Techniques
Chapter 4 My landscape painting looks childish
Chapter 5 How do I loosen my style for expressive landscapes?
Chapter 6 How do I get smooth effects for water and skies?
Chapter 7 What do I do about background to my landscape paintings?
Chapter 8 How do I erase a mistake from my painting?
Chapter 9 Painting impasto uses too much pigment
Solutions for Colour Mixing
Chapter 10 Why do my landscape paintings look dull?
Chapter 11 Why are my colour mixes dirty?
Chapter 12 Why do my greens look artificial?
Chapter 13 My landscape paintings look insipid
Solutions for Painting Sky Elements
Chapter 14 My skies are bland and empty
Chapter 15 My clouds look like cotton wool
Chapter 16 My moonlit landscapes look dingy
Chapter 17 My sunset paintings look tarnished
Solutions for Painting Landscape Elements
Chapter 18 My landscape scenes lack depth and drama
Chapter 19 My trees look like lollypops
Chapter 20 How do I make water look like water?
Chapter 21 The ripples in my lake painting look harsh
Chapter 22 My flower studies are garish
Chapter 23 My shadows look like black splodges
Chapter 24 How do I darken the colour of snow?
Chapter 25 The perspectives of my buildings look crooked
Chapter 26 My mountains resemble pointed cones
Oil painting demonstration on painting Castlerigg
Introduction to Why do My Clouds Look Like Cotton Wool?
Indeed why do clouds sometimes look like cotton wool in landscape paintings? And why do mountains sometimes end up resembling pointed cones topped with cream?
Such frustrations and many others are occasionally encountered by professional landscape artists and novices alike, whether it is to capture a bright sunset or the greens of foliage. It is all part of learning to paint.
If the issue persists, however, the problem is likely to become a creative block. This is where this book comes in.
With no-nonsense and at times blunt advice, each issue is tackled in-depth: a diagnostic of the problem, suggested solutions in the form of recommended art materials and remedial painting exercises, as well as an oil painting demonstration.
In total, twenty-six common peeves
associated with landscape painting are tackled within this book, including why shadows look like black splodges, trees like lollypops and why flowers look garish. In five clear sections, a myriad of other matters relating to landscape painting are explained, such as the colour theory, the rules of perspectives and introductory chapters on the essentials of oil painting, in total, with over 100 full colour illustrations and several diagrams.
Some of the paintings within this book have been featured in my Landscape Painting in Oils, Twenty Step by Step Guides for clear instructions on how they were completed. If the problem sought after is not in this book, it might be in one of my other Oil Painting Medic books within this series due to come out in the foreseeable future. A list can be found at the back of this book.
Solutions for Starting Out in Landscape Painting
Chapter 1. I Haven’t the Room or Funds to Pursue Oil Painting
1: Oil painting can be cheap and simple. 2: Types of oil paint. 3: The essential pigments. 4: Types of art brushes and palette knives for landscape painting.
The prospecting artist does not need lots of oil painting materials or a huge budget to enjoy landscape painting, as can be seen in image 1. In fact, great artwork can be produced with minimal funds and oil painting equipment. But what essential art materials should the beginner buy?
Types of Oil Paint
Briefly, traditional oil paint is graded into two types: artist quality and student quality. Artist quality oils possess organic pigments which makes them more costly to produce and to buy. Student oils are cheaper because they are made with synthetic pigments, which have almost the same exacting qualities as its more expensive counterpart. Personally, I have found student quality oils perfectly suited for my requirements and have used them extensively in my oil paintings. Having said this, I always stick to an established and recommended brand such as Winsor & Newton, Daler Rowney or Grumbacher.
Oil Painting Colours
Some artists use numerous oil painting pigments, which is fine, but the beginner can mix any essential colour with just three primary colours and white. Additional colours will come in handy if the artist does not wish to keep mixing colours to obtain a particular hue. Earth colours for example are useful for adding atmosphere, tempering bright colours and for painting in monochrome.
Primary Colours
Primary colours are an essential ingredient to any artist palette, but the true primaries are not any red, yellow and blue, as one might think, but the colours found in scattered light. In terms of printing ink, these are magenta, cyan and yellow.
In reality, a true primary colour cannot exist in pigment terms, as impurities can always be found, even if it is one part per billion. This can never match the purity of scattered light. However, a close approximation can be achieved.
I have found permanent rose, pthalo blue and cadmium yellow (pale) to be close to the mark, and include them within my oil painting palette. More about colour theory can be found in chapter 11.
Essential Oil Painting Pigments
Collectively, the following pigments will produce just about any hue needed for landscape painting:
1. A large tube of titanium white (120ml or so), and 37ml tubes of the following colours:
2. Permanent rose
3. Cadmium red
4. Pthalo blue
5. Ultramarine
6. Cadmium yellow (pale)
7. Lemon yellow
8. Burnt sienna
9. Burnt umber
10. Viridian green: A much-maligned colour for its garishness, but has a strong tinting strength; when mixed with other colours, produces beautiful greens.
Art Brushes for Oils
Oil painting brushes are essentially divided into two types: stiff brushes, most often hog or ox hair for impasto (the application of thick paint) or for covering large areas. And soft brushes, usually sables for blending and detail.
Good quality sable brushes are essential for applying detail and soft blending, such as rendering flower heads or mists over water. Cheap sables that have no springiness to the hairs are not suited to the heavy properties of oil paint and will splay easily.
Brush Shapes
Kolinsky sables are robust and are excellent for controlling the paint. Brushes such as Sceptre Gold offer a cheaper alternative, as the sable hair is blended with synthetic substitutes.
Lots of brushes are not necessary. I use just two or three different shapes and sizes. Rounds are brushes that taper to a point. Sizes 1, 3 and 6 will suit most purposes for detailed work. Flats (or brights) have a blunt end for wider brush marks.
Filberts are similar to flats, but have rounded edges. Sizes 10 to 16 of either type will serve essential blending purposes. Some artists include a diversity of brush shapes for different mark-making, such as riggers (long thin brushes) for linear strokes such as branches, or fan brushes, for soft blending. Experimenting with different brushes will develop personal preference.
Image 4 shows the utensils used in oil painting. From the left: large, medium and small bristle, large medium and small round sable and small and medium palette knives.
Brushes for Impasto
Stiff brushes are traditionally made from ox hair and are used for robust artwork such as the application of large amounts of paint for cornfields or impasto for skies. High quality bristle brushes are not so crucial. The artist can save money by purchasing stiff brushes from DIY stores, but cheap ones that moult onto the painting must be avoided. Flats or filberts sizes 6, 9 and 12 are ideal for expressive oil painting.
Long-handled brushes are intended for artists who like to stand back during the painting process, but are difficult to store if space is an issue. Short-handled brushes can be tucked away easily and are cheaper.
1: Preparing your own art surfaces can save lots of money. 2: Suitable surfaces that can be used as an artist’s palette need to be non-porous such as plastic or china. 3: Used bristles and sables brushes can be ideal for applying art techniques. 4: Art mediums showing low odour artist spirits, linseed oil and impasto medium.
Surfaces for Oil Painting
Wood, canvas, card and even paper make suitable surfaces for oil painting so long as they have been sealed with a gesso or similar size (usually glue). A simple option is acrylic polymer primer, a water-based gesso that can be obtained from art stores and hobby shops.
Priming your own art surfaces saves money on purchasing prepared surfaces. A two-coat application via a household brush is all that is required. Because the primer is water-based, is odour free and brushes can be washed in warm soapy water afterwards.
Reasonably-priced stretched, primed canvas, art boards or textured paper can also be obtained with shrewd shopping from certain stationers and supermarkets. Sizes are usually in Imperial. The beginner may try small painting supports for quick oil sketches. Anything from 8X 10
(203mm X 254mm) to 16X 20
(406mm X 508mm) would be ideal for producing landscape paintings that are easy to store.
Oil Painting Mediums
Artist solvents serve the purpose of cleaning the brushes and thinning the paint for washes (or glazes), rather like water to watercolour.
Industrial solvents must never be used for oil painting for their powerful odours and severity to the brushes. Low odour artists’ white spirits or Sansador is preferable. To prolong the life of the brushes, I will lather the bristles afterwards in neat washing up liquid before rinsing them under a hot tap until the water runs clear.
Linseed oil is used for thinning the paint into smooth glazes and for adding lustre to the pigment. It is ideal for applying flat washes for mists or clouds. Liquin is an alkyd medium that offers a quick-drying alternative to linseed oil. Liquin leaves a matt finish if lustre is not desired.
By contrast, Oleopasto is also an alkyd based medium that can be mixed with oil paint to add bulk for impasto techniques. This can save money on using lots of oil paint when trying to emulate the Impressionists or create texture in oil paint. All these mediums are explored in more detail throughout this book.
Handy Palettes
Any non porous material can be used as a palette. A china plate, varnished wood or plastic will do. Cling film stretched over a stiff surface via bulldog clips can be affixed to a drawing board to free up the artist’s hands. When I am finished, the used cling film can easily be disposed of by folding it into a ball without mess.
Mobile Easels
Easels can be dispensed with by resting the painting surface onto a backing board via bulldog clips and propping it against a table edge or lap. Alternatively, a tabletop easel or small sketching easel would be fine.
Most of the art materials mentioned can be stored inside a tool box, a cheaper alternative to an art box. The tool box is sturdy and opens out in tiered drawers, ideal for the landscape artist’s mobile studio.
Simple Materials for Oil Painting
The artist need not purchase everything mentioned to begin oil painting. I have often completed an oil painting by the use of two brushes, a couple of colours, a small canvas and no mediums. The artist may purchase additional materials as to requirement or to achieve a particular effect.
As can be seen, landscape oil painting remains a realistic pursuit regardless of the funds or storage capacity available.
Chapter 2. Oil Painting Techniques for Landscape Art Seems Complicated
Oil painting techniques. 1: Alla prima. 2: Glazing. 3: Sgraffito. 4: Impasto. 5: Scumbling and 6: Pointillism
Confronting oil painting techniques for the first time may overwhelm the beginner on the diversity on offer. But the artist may keep the practice as simple or complex to suit. Each art technique is great for achieving a particular effect in landscape painting. For informative purposes, the following describe the main techniques for oil painting.
Alla Prima
Alla prima (image 1) simply describes a painting completed in one session and therefore in one paint layer. Quick oil painting sketches of landscapes or skies, for example, are typically completed in alla prima. Such a technique requires the application of neat oil paint straight onto the painting surface, without the need for mediums.
Glazing
Glazing (image 2) describes the completion of an oil painting by the application of several layers of translucent oil paint and over several sessions.
Each layer or glaze
can be used to modify the colour beneath, to enrich the colour or to alter its tone. The paint will usually be thinned with linseed oil or an alkyd medium such as Liquin. Many old masters practiced glazing, applying as many as ten or more layers before satisfaction with the result. I rarely find the need to apply more than three paint layers to achieve the effects I want.
Sgraffito
Sgraffito (image 3) is an etching technique where mark-making implements such as combs, toothbrushes or pencils may be used to cut into the paint to create a sense of movement and energy. Applying a conflicting colour beneath the paint surface can be used to add contrast when etched into.
Impasto
Oil painting impasto (image 4) complements alla prima, in that a thick paint layer can be used to enhance brisk brush marks or other textures within the paint. Impasto (meaning thick paint) can be manipulated with wide bristle brushes, palette knives or other mark-making instruments to create ridges and troughs in the paint.
Scumbling
Scumbling (image 5) is an oil painting technique that gives a broken finish to the paint, adding atmosphere to clouds or landscapes. Neat paint scuffed over a rough painting surface is the usual practice. Landscape artist John Constable practiced scumbling in his later coastal paintings.
Pointillism
Applying small marks of varying hues in various patterns (image 6) when viewed from afar will come together to create an image. The post impressionists, such as Seurat and Signac used this method to suggest light and atmosphere.
Tonking
Tonking is named after Sir Arthur Tonks who developed the technique for undoing an area of painting the artist is unhappy with. By blotting off the area concerned with newspaper, the paint can be lifted off without affecting the surrounding area. Tonking is explored in more detail in chapter 8.
Wet into Wet
An art technique mostly associated with watercolours, wet-into-wet is the application of runny oil paint onto a wet glaze. Interesting colour-bleeds result, ideal for skies, water and foliage, and which also encourages happy accidents.
Wet into wet is explored in chapter 5.
Which Art Technique?
With different oil painting techniques at one’s disposal, the artist can create a diversity of effects in landscape painting without difficulty.
Several techniques can be combined within one painting to provide contrast in approach. But the beginner may try alla prima or impasto before venturing into more challenging techniques such as wet into wet or glazing.
Chapter 3. I Don’t Have the Confidence to Begin Landscape Painting
1: The under-drawing 2: Mark-making onto a doodleboard. 3: How colours appear different against various backgrounds. 4: A first landscape painting can be simple. 5: Using expressive brush marks in oil painting. 6: Allowing imperfections to remain in the paint layer.
The beginner in landscape painting may find it difficult to pick up a paintbrush and make a mark. A fear of failure fuelled by an inner art critic could cripple all creativity before it has a chance to express itself into a sky sketch or a lake study. How can the novice artist produce satisfactory landscape art for the first time?
Creative Blocks to Landscape Art
Worrying about getting the first mark perfect could cause the artist to continuously false-start the painting in an effort to capture a particular green colour mix or realism in clouds. Unchecked, this inner perfectionist could sap all confidence from the artist, creating a negative learning experience.
However, there are easier ways of overcoming the transition between a non-painter and a landscape artist.
Learning a new skill often entails being lenient and landscape painting is no different. This means learning to accept that mistakes will be made, some of which may turn out to have interesting effects that may enhance a future painting. Alternatively, every mistake is a learning process.
The Doodle Board
One’s first painting need not be ceremonious. Begin with mark-making on a primed piece of card or paper (image 2). Squeeze out a cherry-sized dollop of each colour and about twice as much white onto the palette.
Place a finger’s width of artist solvent into a jar and arrange all art materials to hand.
Use each brush and try out each colour in turn. Aim to cover the painting surface with different marks in a sort of doodle board. Try out different brushes, palette knives, old combs, toothbrushes or sponges. View oil painting as a child learning a new skill. But above all, have fun and experiment.
Use paint neat, dry, runny and thick. Mix two colours, then three. Try blending two colours into one another to create chromatic gradations. Lighten a colour by adding white, then try darkening it by adding the colour’s complementary or opposing colour (in the case of red, this will be green). See chapter 11 to find out more about opposing colours.
Context of Colours
Experiment with how colours look when placed against different backgrounds (image 3).
Spread different colours over the card and allow each to dry over a few days.
Apply thinned paint on top. The upper glaze will modify the colour of the paint beneath like stained glass. This technique is known as glazing and can be used achieve deep, rich colours. Notice the effect is different to simply mixing the colours together.
The artist will further discover that a dark colour will appear pale when painted on a darker colour, and a pale colour will appear dark when placed on a paler colour.
Such lessons on colour behaviour will come in useful when judging colour relationships within a landscape painting, such as clouds on a blue sky, or shadows over water.
Oil Painting Exercise
Keep a first landscape painting simple with manageable goals. Experiment in private if need be and bear in mind that if the painting does not work out, it does not matter for this is all part of the learning process. A step by step guide on painting Castlerigg Stone Circle can be found at the back of this book which may help.
Begin by using a limited palette of three primary colours and white. In the case of oils, pthalo blue, permanent rose and cadmium yellow (pale) can be used. Use a small painting surface of approximately A4 in size. Copy a photograph consisting of simple elements such as a field, a tree and sky. A river and a cottage or a copse would also be ideal. The aim is not perfection, but simply to complete a painting. Set aside ample time for the exercise to ensure the painting will be completed in one go as opposed to going back to it later.
Learning to Paint
Resist the temptation to make comparisons with landscape artists as seen in fine art books, such as the Impressionists or the Surrealists. These comparisons would be unfair and could nurture an inner despair. Artists such as Constable and Monet could only reach the pinnacles they had by intensive practice fuelled by a passion for painting. Even they at some point would have produced an unsatisfactory landscape painting and made mistakes. Of course, fine art books continue to show only their best works.
Textures of Oil Paint
Try not to agonise over every aspect of the painting in an effort to get it right, for this could leave the painting feeling rigid.
Allow imperfections to remain, which might be brush marks, streaks of colour or irregular lines. Oil Painting is often about suggestion rather than illustrating every object in full, although high detail can be achieved. Cloud sketches and forest paintings for example, often contain broken glazes and thick impasto, which adds atmosphere and movement to the painting.
Becoming a Landscape Artist
Completing a first landscape painting is a big first step and may spark the inspiration to embark upon a series of others. A painting that does not go to plan however can be worked over, which is the beauty of the forgiving properties of oil paint. Alternatively, it can be put to one side and another one begun with a different approach which might be suggested in this book.
But learning to paint means learning to accept mistakes will happen, and with the right view, provides the path to improvement, whether it is to capture reflections in water or snow caps on mountains. Either way, it could be the beginning of a long and exciting journey.
Solutions for Oil Painting Techniques
Chapter