Trying again in oils

[MindCandyMan]

Trying again in oils hehe...I have no idea what I am doing hehehehehe...it's so fun to learn though.

I was charting values again for Indian Red and for prussian blue and so I had them on my palette.

http://www.mindcandyfilms.com/jons_uploads/Value Set 3.jpg


The paints were on my palette so I had to paint something hehehhehe

http://www.mindcandyfilms.com/jons_uploads/Wanderer.jpg

[DragonGX]

Looking better. Oils are harder than you tink arent they? Soemtimes I want them to just break and have a nice separation of color and they jsut smear together, or the complete opposite... But after some time and practice you can get to where you can really control them.

Did you do any of that with a pallette knife? some of it looks very rigid, like you used one. Pallette knives are oen of my favorite tools!

[MindCandyMan]

Yeah I did part of it with a palette knife. I think I will like using a palette knife...it's easy to clean and you can move the paint quickly. Oils are definitely harder than I thought...you are right...they smear sometimes...sometimes they don't...sheesh...it's tough. I will put on a bright white and it will mix with the dark layer underneath and only become a mid tone...I guess those are things that have to be learned in time. I am having a blast doing it though...it's great.

I started to try to make mountain type things in the top of the painting with my palette knife...yeah...that didn't work out hehehe. Gotta experiment though right?

[Nekokaiju]

Hey MindCandy,

I found when painting in oils it is a lot easier to start if you have a solid foundation. I usually do an acrylic wash right over my primed canvas or masonite. Just to get a nice underpainting and then paint my oils over that. (usually monochromatic)
Also when first starting out with oils, I made the paint really, really lean and just kept building up layers...Really easy to correct mistakes. This way it allows you to build up values and it doesn't get all clumpy...but it does take time.

This glazing technique is similiar to what Maxfield Parrish used.

Oh I also let the layers dry.Since they are so thin that doesn't take too long, I just keep my lights on them. The colour will be a little different. A little varnish should do the trick to bring them back to life.

Of course there is a lot of ways to approach this, many people like to get right in there and paint wet on wet ...But I found this worked for me.

hope that helps...

[MindCandyMan]

That definitely helps especially since I really have only tried wet on wet up to this point. Any advice is good advice at this point cause I am clueless hehe. I do put down a layer of gesso first but I will have to try that wash technique. What brand of varnish is good?....I have no idea what brand or what to get when considering that.

[Nekokaiju]

Well I use Grumbacher varnish,...it's fairly cheap.
It's probably a student grade...but does the job for what I want it to.

I'm sure there are better varnishes out there. sorry not much help there.


the first wash I do is almost like a colouring book. I just fill in the lines with barely any pigment. just to get the values down.

Its funny I just started doing this in Photoshop and it works really well. So just imagine when your actually painting your just doing new layers of low opacity.

Just remember acrylics do weird things when painted over oils, cracking etc...so always do the acrylics first.

I'm curious how Targete approaches this...It looks to me he does a mixed pigment technique and then glazes over that...not sure though.