Oil Painting Lesson Step 4

admin — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:15:52 +0000

To start the lesson follow the steps below:

Read Introduction on Landscape Oil Paintings

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 1

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 2

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 3

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 4

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 5

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 6

Step 4
If you look at what we have done so far, you’ll notice that the first three that an extremely talented child of about eleven might do while waiting for recess. You have the trees, the water, the sky, the reflections, the shadows. You can see where the land ends and the water begins. But you don’t have a painting yet. It’s just a picture.

The next step-using toilet paper-will make it a real painting. It’s my piece de resistance, the real trademark of my method of Instant Art. Just as Marconi had his wireless and John Wayne had his horse, I have toilet paper dipped in paint. Here’s how it works.

In the first step, we used toilet paper to add to an abstract schemer of paint. As I have said, toilet paper is not just a joke. Among other advantages it makes it a bit easier to keep a light touch, and that is very important for composing those subtle contrasts and vibrations that make a painting seem truly alive. Even some experienced artists using brushes have a tendency to belabor their canvases with too much paint. That’s less likely with something as thin and wispy as toilet paper, even if it’s folded over a few times.

At this point when we need to make the water sparkle, we must be able to drag a wad of toilet paper dipped in paint across the water to create the illusion of sprightly dancing ripples. The light that plays on water is an exquisite convolution of colors. It is very difficult to capture it with a brush or a palette knife. The tendency is to paint too thickly.

You can coat the thin edge of a palette knife with light blue or even white and crease the surface of the water for a ripply effect. Thin lines of creamy blue will serve to represent the ripples reflecting the sun.

But the far better way is with toilet paper. It will more easily capture the buoyancy of light playing upon water. Dip the edges of your toilet paper wad lightly in white paint and, with a loose wrist movement, swish the paper across the surface of the water just once and then step back and observe what you have done. If you’ve achieved what you ant, make another swipe below the first one. That’s about all you need to give the effect. Practice the wrist movement for it’s the secret to creating a light touch.

Landscape Oil Paintings

admin — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 02:47:10 +0000

There are of course innumerable kinds of landscapes. Indeed, one of the joys in painting them is the freedom to choose this particular topography or that genus of shrub, this sort of weather or that thickness of cloud. Sometimes the mere inclusion of a faintly drawn person or wisp of smoke from an unseen chimney can change the whole character of your work. As your proficiency in landscapes increases, so too will your pleasure in their immense variety.

Of course this variety also presents something of a problem, namely, which sort of a landscape should I choose for this instruction? I decided, first of all, that trees are indispensable, though many of my customers do enjoy seascapes as well. Yet seascapes would involve additional complications that would stretch the scope of this article. I decided that a good compromise would be to do trees along a river bank. That way we can practice all the rudiments of a good landscape: grass, trees, sky and water.

As I have said, your basic tools are a palette knife and toilet paper. Now, you’re going to be giving the knife quite a workout. Just about every color on your palette will be applied, and both the side and top of the knife are important. The toilet paper will add remarkable form and substance. . But it should also be used to clean your knife as you paint, so keep an extra roll or two available. Soon the motion by which your one hand, holding the paper, cleans the knife in four other-almost after every daub-will be automatic.

I realize how eccentric the use of toilet paper might seem. As we shall see, it is a very practical material and using it is not merely a scatological publicity stunt. In my autobiographical remarks I chose to emphasize how in my search to perfect the techniques of Instant Art, I chanced upon the palette knife. Yet anyone who has seen me work will likewise testify to what miracles I can do with a full roll of toilet paper and a good head of steam.

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Oil Painting Lesson Step 4

Landscape Oil Paintings