Oil Painting For Beginners - Painting Drips and Drops By Karin Wells

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I have a wonderful oil painting tutorial to share with you today by artist Karin Wells. Hopefully you remember Karin. I conducted an interview with her not long ago. If you did not have a chance to read that interview, I recommend you take some time to read it by clicking here and become better acquainted with Karin. She is a very talented artist and I am delighted to be featuring her work here again.

The following oil painting lesson will demonstrate Karin’s oil painting technique for creating water drips on a vertical surface. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. The second part, “How to paint water drops on a horizontal surface in four easy steps”, will be published next week.

Enjoy!

Painting Drips and Drops By Karin Wells

How to paint water drips on a vertical surface in four easy steps.

This little 8" x 10" painting has a lot of water drops. I add these details to a dry painting surface at the end.

I posted the largest file allowed for this so you could see better detail if you click on the above picture.

Here’s how to do it when the light source comes from the upper left:

DRIP STEP 1

I use a dark color - raw umber works for me but any transparent dark will do. You are making the shape of a drip. A drip will occur on a vertical or slanted surface. A cast shadow will be on the lower right (i.e., Darker).

DRIP STEP 2

You will be looking through the water and it creates a soft shadow on the top left and the harder, sharper cast shadow on the lower right side of the drip.

Detail (above)

DRIP STEP 3

Light will be reflected on the top right and will define the top of the drop. I use Zinc White so the original color shows through. The light does NOT touch the shadow and we want to see the untouched color of the surface between light and shadow.

DRIP STEP 4

Lastly, add a highlight in the shadow area. I use Titanium White for this as I want it to be clearly defined and opaque.

Detail (above) from Apples Still Life (below).

Apples Still Life, 8" x 10" Oil on Linen

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Grab a cup of virtual coffee and stop by my Painting Studio to see what’s happening. Also come visit my Portrait & Landscape Galleries.

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Cedar Crossing - A Step-by-step Oil Painting Demonstration By Aaron Holland

About Aaron:

My formal training has been in the “Boston School” tradition, at the Studio of Peter Bougie and Brian Lewis (an Atelier), in the lineage of Richard Lack. While there, I was trained in portraiture, figurative, and still life painting methods, as well as a thorough study of academic drawing approaches. I studied with Mr Bougie and Mr. Lewis every day for five days a week, approximently 7-8 hours a day, for three and a half years. Ironically, it was while I was there that I came to love the landscape.

Both of my teachers are ardent “Plein Air” ( outside, on location) landscape painters, and would often bring in their paintings for our appreciation. After much time spent in the studio their paintings were like a breath of fresh air, and the saturated colors of outdoor light seemed beyond comprehension. I was further impressed by the notion that the paintings were done without the aid of photographic references! It was their belief that, although sometimes necessary, it can often be counter-productive to the aims of a true artist.

I have been painting “on my own” since 1998, and have tried to maintain the same integrity and faithfulness towards landscape painting that I saw demonstrated there. Although there are some differences in how I see and paint the landscape, I think that is an important aspect to growing and developing as an artist. I have made an effort to dedicate several days each week to paint direct from nature. During these painting sessions I have been seeking to capture both the essence of a scene, and how it speaks to me on a personal level. Currently I am concentrating on smaller en plein air compositional studies with a focus on light and color, painted “en premiere coup” (or, in one sitting).

There is still so much to learn, and I am often overwhelmed by the challenges of landscape painting. Sometimes it seems that the more I learn, the more I realize I have a lot more to learn…but, that keeps it interesting!

Click here to visit Aaron’s Website and See More of His Beautiful Work!

Cedar Crossing - Step By Step Painting Demonstration

STEP#1. The Drawing

Winter has come and is gone for another year.

This winter I decided to tackle a painting I have thought about for a number of years. I am just finishing up on it, and I thought I would share it with you.

I was inspired by a scene I saw once upon a time. ..The town I live in has many buildings that date back over a hundred years, on a quaint main street with vintage lamp posts. The lights hanging in the trees and the freshly fallen snow gave the town a timeless christmas feel. When I saw the horse and carriage trotting slowly down the street knew I had to paint it someday!

The next few steps show the progression from start (drawing, above) to a finished painting.

STEP #2. The Transfer

I traced the finished drawing (shown step 1) onto a piece of Acetate with a fine-point Sharpie, and now I am shown transfering it onto a linen canvas (toned golden).

This is a little time consuming, but I can save all the work I did in the drawing and concentrate more on the painting…

STEP #3- Imprimatura

I start by painting in the darks with a wash of Brown paint thinned with mineral spirits. I do this rather quickly to give me an idea of where the darks and lights will be (the values) throughout the picture.

The toned canvas helps me see the values more accurately (a white canvas is too bright and throws the values off when comparing them next to it), and I find the gold is a nice color because it shows through and adds warmth.

#4. The Underpainting

At this point you can start to see the picture develop! I find it
helpful to get a feel for how the finished picture will look, and to
begin to see the overall placement of objects as well as the values.

#5. Building up the Lights

I now begin building up the lights with white paint. Of course there are several methods of painting. I could have continued developing the transparent washes and that way brough it to a finish, but rather this is just the imprimatura (or initial start before the actual painting begins)

#6. Venetian Method

I am creating an “underpainting” that is monochromatic (one color). This is called a Grisaille (pronounced Griz-eye’ ).

When you create an underpainting and then glaze color over it, that approach is called an “indirect method”. Instead of black and white, however, (which is the traditional colors for a Venetian Approach underpainting) I am using brownish umber and white.

There are various styles of “Indirect Painting” the two most notable styles are the “Venetian” and the “Flemish”, and every conceivable variation between the two. As I understand them, the main difference between them (keeping it simplified) is that the “Flemish” approach keeps transparent darks throughout, and the Venetians created opaque underpaintings and then glaze colors in the darks for depth and luminosity. There are other notable differences, but that will suffice for now.

Technically, the most important consideration for Indirect Painting is not the specific approach or even the finished result, but rather the oil content and the application. It is very important that the “Fat-over-Lean” rule be applied correctly; or, more oil over less oil.

One way to do that is to start with a “Lean” paint in the Imprimatura (thinned with Odorless Mineral Spirits), and as you begin to paint opaquelly to switch from a thinned paint to a mixture of oil that has gradually more oil and less thinner in it- the oil increasing in proprtion in each successive layer).

STEP #8. Working The Whole

I start to add some details such as lights, and definition to the horse and carriage, yet it is more important at this stage to maintain unity. I am looking to make sure that the “big picture” reads well. Notice how I am adjusting the values. I am trying to keep the lightest lights and darkest darks in the foreground to help create a sense of depth.

The paintings success will be determined by how well I paint the underpainting.

One very important aspect to indirect painting, is creating a solid foundation. I have taken this as far as I intend to, without over-working it. Now it is time to let the paint dry. In order for it to be a solid foundation to recieve layers of glaze it is necessary that this part of the painting dry thoroughly.

STEP #9. Starting to add glazes

Although this is not a very “colorful” picture, I will be adding some “glazes (transparent washes of color) that will add depth and luminosity. Notice the lights and some of the awnings, for example.

It is important in the Venetian approach to avoid texture in the brush strokes until the end of the painting, and they should then be applied at the same time as the glazes and NOT glazed over. A safe approach would be to glaze the color as you want it to be, then to add thick paint right on top of the glaze- this is a safe method that is in keeping with the Fat-over-Lean approach.

The ridges in textured paint will make the glazes look uneven and the color will settle in the ridges. In most cases this is to be avoided.

Step #10. The Finished Painting

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Step By Step Oil Painting Tutorial By Dan Schultz

About Dan

Dan Schultz was born in New Mexico in 1975 and soon began to take an interest in art. He enjoyed art classes through his primary and high school years, and studied commercial art at Pensacola Christian College in Florida. He received his degree with a focus on illustration and graphic design, but he never felt driven to pursue either as a career. After college, he continued to sharpen his drawing and painting skills by attending Cottonwood Artists’ School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and it was there that he realized for the first time his desire for a career in fine art.

He chooses to work in a classical style because he deeply connects with traditional works which aptly express reality. “Art should bring about a respect for life and God’s creation around us,” he says. “I want to do my best to faithfully render what is beautiful to me and hopefully others will find that beauty reflected in my work.”

Please do take a moment to visit Dan’s Website by following the link below. Much of the artwork on his website (beside what is in his current galleries) is available for purchase directly from his studio. I know Dan worked real hard on this oil painting tutorial. I am sure he would appreciate your visit. If you have time, why not drop him a line as well.

Follow this link to visit Dan’s Website.

West Wind - An Oil Painting Demonstration by Dan Schultz

For this studio painting I used Claessens double oil primed linen canvas, #15 (my usual painting surface). This painting, as with most of my larger paintings, was completed using a photograph as my reference. (My wife, Sarah, is the lovely lady in the photo. Somehow I doubt she would have been very excited to pose in the middle of a field long enough for me to do the painting from life.)

Step 1:

When doing a painting of this size (or larger), I am most comfortable starting with a fairly detailed drawing of my composition. In this case, I use vine charcoal directly on the canvas. I make sure to take as much time as necessary on this step since it will provide me with the direction I will follow for the rest of the painting. As I draw, I take careful measurements using my reference photo to make sure everything ends up the right size and in the right place. (On a side note, I carefully measure when painting smaller sizes too. I just don’t necessarily do a charcoal drawing first.) I always double-check my drawing by looking at it in a mirror. Somehow seeing the image in reverse makes it easier to see my mistakes.

Step 2:

Now that I am ready to paint, I take a few moments to think about how I will proceed. When doing smaller paintings, I will often work on the whole painting at once. But, because this painting is a little larger, I decide to start in one area and work outwards. This way I have the freedom to stop if I need to, and when I return it won’t matter if the paint has started to dry because I (hopefully) won’t have to work on areas that I’ve already painted. (I always prefer to work wet-into-wet so I can easily handle my edges without having to repaint over dry paint.) Of course, this requires some planning as I begin, but it’s also a fun way to work because I can see the painting begin to take shape fairly quickly. So now all I have to do is decide where to start! I’ve found that the easiest way for me to establish my value range for a painting is to start in an area with strong, dark values and some good contrast. For this painting, some of my darkest values are in the focal point (Sarah), so it makes sense for me to start there.

Step 3:

I do a lot of squinting at my photo and at my painting to compare the value relationships between shapes. If I get the relationships right, I will be able to continue through the painting without having to go back to change any of the values.

Step 4:

As I continue, I also pay attention the edges between shapes so that they won’t all end up looking the same. In order to lead the viewer’s eye to the focal point, I make sure to keep my sharpest edges there, while softening other surrounding edges in comparison. One of the keys to good edges is variety.

Step 5:

As I work on Sarah’s white coat in the picture, I keep in mind that photographs have a tendency to incorrectly portray color information, especially in extremely light and dark areas. As a result, I must think about the sunlight from the day I took the photo and remember the effect its color temperature had on the entire scene. (This is where all of that continued practice painting from life pays off too, because I have information in my mind from experiences painting in these very conditions.) Since I remember that the color temperature of direct sunlight is warm, I make sure to add warm colors to all the areas of the coat that are in the direct light. As a result, the shadows are relatively cooler when compared to the light areas.

Step 6:

Sarah is now mostly finished (along with the most critical part of the painting.) The farther along I get in the painting, the more comparisons are taking place. Every shape I paint has to be correct in drawing accuracy, value, color, and edges when compared to what I have already painted. This is why it is so important for me to be accurate as I begin. If I get to this point and notice that one of those main components is incorrect, I will either have a lot of repainting to do, or it will be time to decide to just start over. (And yes, unfortunately this has happened.)

Step 7:

Fortunately, I don’t see any glaring errors at this point, so I am free to start working on the background. The challenge of a background filled with trees is to keep from adding too much detail and distracting from the focal point. Yet another benefit of starting with the focal point is that now I can compare the rest of my painting with it and make sure that it still predominates. So I try to discern the major shapes in the trees and only put in what is necessary to give the impression of many trees and branches.

Step 8:

As I block in more of the background trees and foreground grasses, I keep the paint fairly thin. This allows me to apply thicker paint on top when I get into more detail, and I can also let some of this initial wash show through in the finished painting. Again, this gives me some variety of texture which is pleasing in the same way as variety in my edgework (which I mentioned in Step 4).

Step 9:

Now that I have the background all blocked in, the time has come to start working on the foreground trees. As I mentioned when I was ready to begin painting back in Step 2, I took a few moments to think about how to proceed. One of the things I took note of was that my darkest values in the scene were actually in these foreground trees. Therefore, I had to hold back a bit on how dark I made the shadows in Sarah’s skirt so that when the time came to paint the foreground trees, they would be the darkest elements. This helps increase the illusion of depth in the painting since it “pushes” Sarah farther into the background because the darkest values on her aren’t quite as dark as the foreground trees which should appear closest to the viewer. I also had to remember that my camera saw the shadows on Sarah’s skirt and the value of the foreground trees to be about the same, which gave me another reason to be careful about how dark I made the shadows on Sarah’s skirt.

Step 10:

I start adding details to the trees and grasses, taking care that they don’t become too interesting in comparison with Sarah. After all, she’s most important!

Step 11:

It looks like the whole right side of the painting is pretty much finished now. Painting the values correctly in the grasses at the bottom is somewhat tricky. I have to squint and make more comparisons between the grasses and other values in the painting so that the shadows and lights on the grasses will be correct. Just like painting the trees and branches, I try to look at the big shapes in the grasses so I don’t get them too detailed.

Step 12:

Almost finished now! All that’s left is to finish the trees on the left in both the foreground and background. So all I have to do is treat them the same way I’ve treated the other trees in the painting.

West Wind • Oil on Linen • 16″ x 28″

Step 13:

I always look at the painting in the mirror one last time to make sure nothing is incorrect or distracting from my focal point. Often an edge that is too sharp or a distracting brush stroke needs to be softened. Once those are corrected to my satisfaction, the painting is finished!

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Oil Painting Demonstration - Painting Horses in Landscape with Figures

“Painting Horses in Landscape with Figures”

By Elin Pendleton

This painting lesson will show you how I move from an original idea, through the entire process as I paint an equine subject in my studio.

The reference photographs:

I liked the sitting position of the groom, but the light and shadow pattern on the standing figure just made me ache to paint him!

First off, I get an idea. Sometimes that comes from a photograph as this piece did, sometimes it comes as an idea in my head. For this painting I took these photographs at a horse event near San Juan Capistrano in the summertime of 2002.

And another thing about the standing figure–he was ‘way too large against the horse’s height. This was no jumping pony, but a huge warmblood. Photography will do that to a subject, and one must always be mindful of the relationships of scale.

The format required a 2:3 ratio (such as a 24 x 36 canvas) but that would be too large to ship easily to shows, so I took the 2:3 ratio down to 16 x 24…and I happen to have two frames already made up in this odd size! Next was to staple a piece of linen canvas to a board and mark out the rectangle. Usually I paint over the entire surface with a wash of oil thinned down, to prevent “holidays” (bits of canvas showing through) but just forgot. After the piece is done, I’ll trim it down and mount it on a pre-cut and primed board–I use 1/4 inch birch plywood right now. At about $18 for a 4 x 8 foot sheet, this is reasonable–more so than stretcher bars!

The colors used for this painting are the usual palette of five colors and white. I use this limited palette on location, because I can get any color I need and am not hauling around a lot of tubes.

The colors are: alizarin crimson, sap green, ultramarine blue, cadmium red light and cadmium yellow light. That plus white equal my palette.

The planning stages:

Normally I don’t do this many little plans, but I wanted you to see how I think through a plan to the finished idea and then begin to paint.

The image above shows five little sketches from a 3 x 5 sketchbook. Sizes are small because one can think and execute a sketch quickly without too much detail. The first one (upper left) is the rectangle (always show the edges of your work so you can design WITHIN the space) and the original idea of the groom and horse grazing. The little ones around the perimeter are less than one inch wide, but tell me a great deal about placement and value issues.

Number 2 in the series is working through the movement of the design–strengthened by the supporting front legs of the horse, and the backward look of the groom. There’s an “X” starting to show up, which is the strong abstract composition of this piece. It’s about design.

Number 3 is sorting through the placement of the figures in the ground, and starting to worry about eye-level lines (aka horison lines) and also the issue of size of the space around the figures.

#4 solves that issue with the placement of tree shapes, and then the brainstorm of an idea of adding something for the groom to be looking at–a girl on a horse maybe?

Then I started looking at my other photos from that day (light was the same, and direction the same) and came up with two possibles for the reason he is looking over his shoulder. I decided that the gal with the pinto and her derrierre would be a great, humorous thing for him to look at! And the title came to me then, “To Each His Own”.

So the fifth sketch lays in the eye-level line (also called a horizon line) and the position of the horse and rider.

Getting started on the canvas:

I’m heading to the canvas, now. Here you see the first drawing laid in with just gestures. No details! That’s about all I do before starting.

Placement is so important for my work, but the connection between the objects, the statement of the story in the painting, and the major shapes to be dealt with are all I’m concerned with at this point.

You can see how important the eye-level line is, as it is low in this painting. However the horses are in scale to each other because if you’ll draw a line through the hocks of these guys, you’ll see they are both in the same plane. The viewer is about at the eye level of the groom’s backside, which was very intentional.

The painting begins with the first applications of color:

I always try to get the big shapes and the important story items laid in first. The horse and his big movement with that cooler, the groom’s head, and the horse and rider behind them.

You can also see how I sketched in the trees behind the figure and the horse, to compliment their placement and not compete with it. No trees yet, just the ouline to give me a “feel” for where they are going to be. These trees are bit players and will only provide a supporting role.

What’s important at this point is the movement of that LEANing horse grazing, that backward glance of the groom, and his mid stride position, and the horse and rider behind them.

I always start with thin darks, and linen canvas (this is primed with gesso) is just sumptuous with that thin paint! Such a feel…

The shadows under the figures are also made as a line, because this is part of the dark pattern of values that strengthens the layout.

Continuing:

Now it is time to start blocking in the middle values, and get this canvas covered, and start to pull some details into the central figures. I already see some need for changing some relationships of size, and this is easy to chisel out with the background paint making those changes… you’ll see in a while.

Here, you see I’ve blocked in the grass aound the horse’s front legs, and painted the blue color of the cooler as the underpainting for the highlights to come later. I mixed the color of the cooler that is in shadow, and painted it in, too. I added some sketchy details of what will be just above the eye-level line as well.

All this painting you see took about 15 mintues.

In the image above, you’ll see that I’ve moved from the grass up to the horse, spending about 20 minutes going from the large shapes I laid in first, to smaller shapes that define and show differences WITHIN those large shapes.

To explain further, the horse is made up of two major shapes–the dark reddish shape, which is a mixture of the alizerin and sap green, touched with cad red to warm it, and the blue cooler shape, made up of ultramarine blue and some of the alizerin on the lower side. Now my process is to go in and thickly lay on smaller shapes to give form to the horse and cooler. This is done with a minimum of fuss, and one brush mark to make the shapes. I put blue/white lighter shapes to define the folds of the cooler, purple/white shapes to define the top sides where the light goes through and bounces off the horse’s hide, and then took that cad red light and mixed it with some of the aliz. and blue to make the neck highlights and facial shapes of the horse.

I added purple white for the blaze, yet the canvas is still showing through on the nose, and on the back legs’ white area. On the near front leg, I used the background green to define the line of the leg and down to the hoof, which is just a grey mark with the brush and will need some further refining.

How do you keep from going to too much detail? My reply is to squint a lot, and stop looking for details. Squinting gives you a “hierarchy of edges” showing you which ones are important in your source material, and which ones you can toss out.

On the back rider, I also started to work on the shapes in the pinto, going from the darks of the brown parts, and laying in the light mid-values of the shadows on the horse.

Remember, I work generally from dark to light, laying in a dark abstract foundation to cement in the design of the piece. Everything is subordinate to that design, which is why (most) of my paintings are pleasant to look at and interesting to live with. I keep reiterating, it is all about design.

Detail of the horse’s cooler:

Here is a close up of the second layer of paint on the cooler.

If you recall that I said the horse was basically two shapes, you’ll then figure out that all that blue and blue-purple was done on top of those two shapes.

Look at the closeure of the cooler at the neck. See that one brush stroke that conveys the closing device? (Velcro) One brush mark. Decisive. I will do a little “edge losing” later on, but this is the “big picture ” of how those marks go down.

I feel strongly that my work is about more than the objects and their story (horse, groom, rider), but just as important is the amount and feel of the brushmarks. A “painterly” painting…

Covering the Canvas:

I quickly cover the canvas from top to bottom with the background. I put in the distant trees, keeping them both warm with some of the cadmium on the left, and blue-green elsewhere, and lighter on top of course! I use my fingers in places to blend the leaf shapes into the sky, which is a greyed mix of blue and white with the rest of the palette mess mixed in to keep the harmony going. I painted the trees first, then the sky, dipping and bouncing the brush back and forth between the two areas.

Note that near the gal getting on the horse, I made a far more interesting pattern of marks. Across the back, the rest of the trees are less contrasty, and less interesting. I want you, the viewer, to look at that lady getting on the horse, framed by the foreground horse and groom. If I made all those trees interesting to that level, you’d wander around… not good.

I also did some more work on the head, shoulder and cooler, front legs and hooves.

This shows how I made the background more interesting and started to seriously work on the distant pinto and rider.

The groom has some serious proportion problems as I didn’t plot his shapes and size relative to the rest of the painting, so I have to take out parts and fix the problem.

He was too long in the torso, so I just took my finger and pushed and lifted the excess paint and wiped it on a paper towel. Now I protect my hands with a barrier cream (Glove Cote, Invisible Glove–like hand lotion, but impermeable to solvents and pigment contamination. At your hardware store.)

Painting the rear end in place properly also allowed me to reshape some of his arm and shirt where it hits the pants. I also worked on his feet, and cropped his skull yet again.

Then I painted in more of his shirt, and gave him a teensy beer belly, using darker tones (always darkening with the alizerin crimson and sap green and/or the ultramarine).

I do change colors of things even when I use my own source material. If it makes the design better, it gets changed…

Ths is the finished painting.

Email Elin about this painting session here.
Order and find out information about Elin’s videos of horses here.

Be sure to check out Elin’s Lessons on Video and DVDs. Elin Pendleton’s instructional videos will show you how her positive attitude takes the”pain” out of “pain”ting!

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