The more preparation we do for our oil paintings, the more successful the outcome. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail, as they say. This exercise, from a photograph I took in Belmont Park with beautiful light peeping through the trees, started as a charcoal study. Charcoal is a lovely, tonal medium which allows us to move tones around by smudging with a cloth, a sponge, our finger or a putty rubber, to give soft gentle nuances of values, in an attempt to create the right atmosphere.
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| Charcoal study by Rose |
The next stage is to do an underpainting in oils on the canvas of choice, beginning with a gentle layer of raw umber, diluted with Sansodor, or odourless mineral spirits. It will look a bit like a water colour. Like the charcoal, the mix can be moved around a bit with paper towel. It is important not to let the dark areas be as dark as you want them in the finished painting. We paint on top of this layer creating a
grisaille, and those subsequent layers can be dark. If we go too dark too soon then all will be too heavy. Err on the light side.
Below we see the beginnings of the grisaille going down - this is Raw Umber, French Ultramarine (which together will make a black) and White. You can see it, in this painting, in the lightest areas and the foreground. The whole painting will get this layer, creating a black and white painting
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| Rose's completed grisaille |
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| Louise's completed grisaille |
Once the
grisaille is dry (in this case, the following week) colour is put on top of the
grisaille.  |
Louise finishing the colour on top of her grisaille
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Why so many layers? It gives you a rich and BRIGHT painting, which looks solid and substantial.
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| Louise's finished painting |
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| Nichola's |
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Christine W's
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Students enjoyed this exercise, though there was much nashing of teeth along the way too!
For info on upcoming workshops please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk
