When I paint in oil, I rely on a limited number of hog and synthetic brushes. Once in a while, I am in a situation where a special tool is required.
For the painting “Respect the beach”, I wanted to achieve the following effects with the background:
- Convey the weathered look of the paint on the car bodywork.
- Obtain a greyish colour so that the yellow numbers on the plate and the chrome would shine by contrast.
- Achieve a smooth rendering, without any obvious brush marks, to let the number plate and the chromed handle become the centre of attention.
I would normally let the initial layer of paint to dry and then apply successive glazes on top until I obtain the level of smoothness required. In this case, I painted this work alla prima (in one go), so I had to find another way.
I proceeded in two stages. First, I blocked-in the background by mixing some greys with three different blue colours as the main ingredient:
- Manganese blue (from Bloockx)
- Cerulean Blue (Winsor & Newton)
- French Ultramarine (Winsor & Newton)
For the finishing stage, I applied a glaze of Ivory black with a hog fan. Ivory black is a semi-transparent colour and therefore suitable for glazing. I poured a puddle of painting medium on my palette and added some Ivory black to it. There was also some grey I had mixed earlier that get into the mix.
I applied the mixture with the hog fan. The bristles on the fan are spread out and did not remove the fresh underpainting. The glaze formed a grey film that tuned down the initial blue colour. At the same time, it created a smooth transition between the different shades and removed brush marks.
1 comment:
Thanks so much for your progressive steps on this piece. Very helpful. Also, really do like this painting.
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