First attempt at oil

[Garth Herrick]

Jimmie,

If you have another two hour session, or more, available with this model, and you feel like working further into this portrait, you may have a light bulb moment (like: "ah-ha, so that's how they do it!").

Now that the surface of your painting is dry, painting value and drawing corrections on to this foundation may prove to be easier and more automatic than you realize. The battle of the first day is done, and fixed under a dry skin. This paint will not churn up and bleed into any over-painting. Now you can paint into this, and this modifying over-paint can be transparent or opaque as needed. It does not always have to be as thick and opaque as your beginning (nothing wrong if it is, though).

A transparent or translucent modifying layer of paint can rapidly unify, clean up, refine, and better define all the myriad of surfaces and planes, as well as add more depth in the shadows, and cleaner luminosity in the highlights. Your first day painting provides a foundational support, and still shows through, much like a leg dressed in a modifying stocking. As you hone in on all the forms, reintroducing carefully tuned thicker opacities will clarify and solidify your focus of all the planes.

You can always work farther into the painting, without limit. Don't be afraid of messing up, because these mess-ups can always be reworked and corrected again. The more time you can allot to this process, then automatically the more focused and corrected your painting can become, much like your drawings (and I know you focus long stretches of hours on your drawings, with great success).

To me, painting is just a process of corrective decision making. Starts can be rough! With more time input, you get to make more and better decisions, and soon, before you know it, they rapidly and cumulatively cascade toward an informed and focused completion. Do more, look more. In just a few hours you will surprise yourself, and expand your ability!

Happy painting,

Garth