Making an Oil Study
Added 2025-04-03 13:30:00 +0000 UTCCaption:
“So anytime I begin a painting, my process is pretty standard. I begin with some kind of oil sketch, of course I have a photo reference, most times , I don’t generally just make up everything out of my head, some things I do, some things are from memory, embellishments in the background or brushstrokes that are abstracted, but generally speaking I have a photographic reference. And when I begin, I start with the oil pastel, the oil pastel sticks. They look like little crayons, when I use these tools I feel like I’m drawing, and I’m not feeling obligated to jump into the masses, the value masses, and the color right away. I wanna be in a “curvy - linear” compositional headspace when I begin my paintings, so that I have my rectangle, or my square, or whatever the size of the canvas is, and I’m thinking of all the arrangements of parts within this set boundary. The “curvy-linear” headspace reminds me of when I’m doodling, and thinking of composition, it connects me to that side of my brain so I can arrange things accordingly, and it’s very abstract. The oil pastel is too thick of a medium to apply detail, so it forces you again to think of the broadest grandest strokes and that helps my compositional.
My ground is always some kind of color. Predominantly my grounds are warm yellow. Sometimes they vary for a surprise but in this case it’s warm yellow. So I have a nice warmth coming through those shadows, which in the first layer are quite transparent because the lead won’t allow me to apply paint in the shadows very thick and opaque. The lead is a more transparent white. Even for these small studies two passes are required to achieve the full effect of the color and the full effect of the value and the richness of the paint, which also requires some glazing and scumbling at the end. These small oil sketches are meant to just be a kind of rumination or searching for a picture but sometimes I get lucky and they’re good enough to be hung on the wall as a finished work”
