"A Walk in the Woods"
Oil on canvas board
copyright 2020
Hello friends, I thought I'd post a few process photos of this recent commission painting, "A Walk in the Woods." The photo above is of the finished piece, 24"x24" on oil-primed linen mounted on a rigid board. I'm finding I like this surface better than a stretched canvas. It can take a lot more pressure from my brushes and painting knives. It is also more resilient to damage when finished. The oil primed surface for me gives a better "glide" to the paint than acrylic gesso priming.
When I begin, I do a thin wash over the white surface, usually with burnt sienna thinned with mineral spirits. Once brushed on, I wipe with a cloth, usually an old T-shirt. Cloth is better than paper towels for this because it deposits fewer small fibers than paper towels. This toned surface will successfully kill the white spaces as I paint. Since this painting is primarily a cool green, I can leave a little of the warmer under-layer for accents if I choose to.
At this point I start my sketch and placement with a dark tone, usually a "chromatic" black made with a mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. This is also thinned with mineral spirits. I place gridlines to help me place the focal point (the dog) where I want it. I have then blocked in the darkest darks in the painting. The following two photos show a little more progress on the blocking-in phase. The lightest areas are left without paint at all, and the grey-toned spaces will be the mid-tones.
Once these phases are finished I can then bring in some "local" color. What this means is the the black area is going to be green primarily, so I mix the major green I want there accordingly. This green is the local color for the woods in the upper part of the painting, mostly a cool, blue-green, muted a little with some red and black. The green I mixed was a combination of the following colors: pthalo blue, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium lemon yellow, alizarin and some ivory black. This mixture gets adjusted warmer/cooler, darker/lighter as I slowly work this area with more and more detail.
I don't have any more process photos to share (once momentum gets going I forget to stop and take more pics....sorry!) But here are a few detail shots of the piece.
I'll try to post more painting-progressions in this blog in the future. Thanks for reading and following my blog. If you want a head's up on future posts, please sign up for my newsletter on my website.
Stay well and healthy.
Best to all,
Shelley
