First attempt at oil

[Sharon Knettell]

Jimmie,

I think you are smart to work in monochrome. It is a good way to get used to the brush, which can seem guite awkward after using pencils exclusively for so long. This is an excellent beginning.

The left side of the face seems to be working beautifully, but the right edge is not drawn properly. The neck is confusing. Next time, SQUINT, SQUINT, SQUINT to see the values.

Harold Speed's book on "Oil Painting Techniques and Materials" a bargain at $12, depicts working from a cast first. Linda's suggestion is really a good one. He also lays out a very limited palette, for initial portrait work. Flake white, black, venetian and indian red. Get the forms under control, then worry about the color.

I live in fear that my the first heads I painted in oil after a long hiatus away from the easel, will be unearthed, even though they have been in a landfill tho' these many years.

Don't angst over every painting, learn, learn, learn from each and go on to the next.

[Chuck Yokota]

Hi Jimmie,

This is really good for a very first attempt at oils. It is a learning process. It is like learning to ride a bike - first you learn to keep your balance and to steer, and then you enjoy the ride and don't worry that you're not ready yet for the Tour de France.

One insight I was told helped me to understand the difference in approach between oil painting and some other media. Pencil, watercolor, pen and ink, and particularly tattooing, are additive processes - you are building up from the blank ground, adding and adding more and more as the work progresses. Oil painting, at least in wet-into-wet painting, is much more a process of successive approximations. You begin by putting in large areas of light and shadow in their average values. Then you divide and subdivide into smaller and smaller areas to show the variations in value or color, blending in the transitions. At the beginning you concentrate on getting the proportions right, and the details will emerge as you work into smaller areas. This way you are much less likely to get a finished eye that you decide needs to be moved a quarter inch.

[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

[Marvin Mattelson]

I think for a first time ever you did a tremendous job. The most difficult aspect of painting is getting the right things in the proper place. That will be obviously not be a problem for you based on your drawing skills.

Getting the hang of oil technique is relatively easy, believe me. It's something you have to get used to and I'm certain it wont take you very long. Don't worry about the results now and have fun. before long you'll have us all drooling. I'm just sorry you're not in one of my classes.

[Debra Norton]

Jimmie, I too am new at using oil paint. I'm a student at The Atelier in Minneapolis and thought I'd pass on a few things I've picked up there. I know by your drawing skills that you'll be a great painter, you just have to get used to using it.

I suggest getting a cast of a head and painting it in black and white. By the time you finish you'll be experienced enough with handling paint that going into color will seem like a breeze. For me beginning black and white was agonizing, I would just stand in front of the canvas and groan. But when I finished and went into color it was a breeze in comparison - no groaning! My cast was a bust of Marie Antoinette (I think) so I had the advantage of killing two birds with one stone - learning technique and doing a portrait at the same time.

I haven't graduated to a real portrait yet, that won't come until spring most likely, but I'm working on my second still life and they've come a lot easier than I expected. Plus a cast doesn't move, doesn't need breaks, won't fall asleep, and can be used over and over in different positions, even in a still life. Also it doesn't charge by the hour, you only have to pay for it once!

Hang in there and keep going at it, I know you can do it!
Debra

[Jimmie Arroyo]

I want to thank all of you for the boost of confidence.

Kim, I had planned to make a pencil sketch first this time to hopefully eliminate the extra time it took me to sketch in the likeness the first time. Thanks.

Sharon, I will make sure I squint, squint, squint tomorrow. Thanks for the tip about the limited palette. I'm still going to stick to my two colors for now, but will use the palette in the near future.

Chuck, thanks for the breakdown. I hope to reach the point where it comes naturally.

Garth, thanks for your advice. I just don't feel I'm ready to start thinking about transparent and opaque applications yet. I have no fear of messing up, I expect to, I'd be scared if I did'nt. It's like customers at the tattoo shop panicking that they're worried that they'll bleed. I tell them that I'd be worried if they did'nt. I had decided to work on something new, just to get that 'beginnings' of a painting thing going for me. I should also have a better spot tomorrow, because someone will be out, and I'd like to take the advantage of getting up closer.

Marvin, I'm sorry I can't take your class also. My schedule is REAL tight. It just recently got tighter. My wife is no longer working(going to school for nursing), my daughter is taking a Monday Tai Kwan Do class from 4:45-5:45, my wife gets out of school at 6, and I have to be at the class at 6:30. I work on commission, so missing a day's pay now is harder than ever. Sorry about that, but man, I have to say it aloud to relieve some stress. This Tuesday's the Mega-Millions and your next workshop starts Oct. 1st. Ya never know.

Debra, thanks fo sharing your experience. Good luck.

Thanks again everyone! Hopefully I'll have another to post soon.