Bearded young man oil sketch 24x30"
A good medium is important to control the look and feel of the oil surface. After decades of experimenting, I returned to an early technique used by a few great illustrators and some of the best portrait artists who preferred a 'painterly' look. Basically, if you like a surface that has pull, use a thicker canvas weave, add a rough gessoed surface or use thinned stand oil, as I did here. This coats the surface with a viscous, tacky layer that helps pull paint off of each brushstroke.
For portraits, I rough out the shapes in charcoal or use a black or brown line directly into the clear stand oil surface. Drawing into thinned stand oil (or sun thickened linseed oil) with a thin line allows me to adjust the line a bit, fade it, or brush it out, as in the collar here.
Once the drawing is sound, I block in the base middle-tones - these are the middle values of each section. Then add darker mid tones, shadows and finally highlights, if needed. No real details yet.
About 90 minutes in and the stand oil is pulling at each stroke now, which tells me I can drop in cleaner lines without the paint feeling slippery. The big advantage to this technique is that the paint will not shift much when one area is pulled into another. I can even use old round bristle brushes to scratch the paint for some nice blends, rather than use soft brushes, which can look artificial and overworked. I did that often for book cover or advertising work, not for my fine art.
Pulling the strokes together is easy at this stage and gives a greater sense of realism. Compare this to the previous stage and you can see the face is a bit smoother and more realistic, however the bravura brushwork is gone. I'm not sure what stage I like better, but I know I have control of the edges because of the medium, so I feel confident moving toward the final result.
Closeup shot of the final, photographed with my 35 mm camera under controlled tungsten lights and a polarized setup. The color is more accurate than the phone camera I used in the early stages, but the phone camera is much easier to use for demos. Monitor color can also vary.
I like a combination of refined brushwork and soft edges. I have a better shot at painting a good face if I draw accurately and control the surface - meaning move the oil paint easily to adjust for soft and sharp edges.
Creating landscape elements
Living in the NorthWest, we've hiked quite a bit. Plush green landscapes caught in rich sunlight or overcast grays are abundent. I've shot thousands of photos for possible backgrounds but primarily use any reference as a starting point and then change it by making up areas that will be more interesting and fit the mood I want. This piece is a good example - my intentions were to use the reference as a loose guide, then veer off into inventive territory, which helps keep painting fun.
It's helpful to paint the far background first, like clouds, mountains, then move progressively foward the foreground.
Here I have blocked in most of the background, including a rough tree, and begin laying in base middle values for the lower right bush. You can see where I attempted to do some thinner leaves first, but this looked boring so I tried a softer edge on the bush, which I changed again later. This is the downside of making up areas, but in the end it comes together.
Now that I see this quick shot at this early stage, I prefer it over the final as it has more life. However, it won't match the finished degree of the rest of the painting. For larger work, this one is 5-6', I finish them beyond this sketch stage to add more believable realism.
Now I overdid the leaves and the base seems to lack depth. Again, making up areas is fun but also can be tedious. By trying different approaches, I learn what works and why something feels incomplete. Don't be afraid to experiment, especially with landscapes. I know artists who move trees around, add or remove boulders, change the atmospheric color, and nearly always make the skys more dramatic. Their landscapes are much more interesting than those who simply try to copy photos.
The final bush, now cut back with a deeper earth tone that I feel brings the lower right section of the painting together.
Another section of the painting, the upper left, showing my initial wide brush strokes. I used a little stand oil to thicken the Liquin medium in a semi-opaque wash. Because the alkyd medium will dry much faster, I work quickly to smear edges together here and there, always thinking of how I will bring the figure forward.
Woman in robes study Oil on canvas 20x28"
Another quick study for a full painting I did. A lot of people have told me they think these studies are my best work. It's always good to get opinions by other artists as their comments can be helpful.
I started this with a pencil drawing projected from a sketch onto the canvas.
I hired this excellent model for a book cover but used the extra time to pose her in a few costumes I have. She said she was from Argentina and had tawny skin color which, for portraits, is ideal to paint.
Over the oil wash, thinned just with Mineral Spirits, I blocked in the head and cloth. I try not to use heavy paint, in case I want to glaze color over the dry surface. If the paint is impasto, the glaze will settle in the lower texture, giving a cracked appearance, or rough color that I don't find appealing. Whislter used this method to create moody backgrounds, but for figures he scraped the paint back, leaving interesting lines and a slight, luminous texture beneath the glazing.
Blocking in a loose background.
I can see at this stage that the face is too light, which appeared darker when there was white canvas around the woman's head. A final glaze will help warm the flesh tone and darken her skin a bit.
Final with details
The pre-final head before I added a glaze (a thin layer over a base layer using a medium). The glaze will add depth in the shadows and warm her skin as long as I keep the glaze translucent. Adding opaque color, like white or ocher, will lighten areas but leave a foggy effect. This is great for landscapes when you want to gray out the distance by using a touch of white with a dull blue, or gray, then smooth this over with a mop brush.
Compared to the previous image, this has a warmer overall tone, as if sunlight is falling on her skin. This gives the painting more of a finished look.
Hand detail. Hands can be simple strokes if you use a brush that fits the cylinder shapes of the fingers. This is one reason why I feel its easier to work on larger figure paintings than smaller ones.