Near Glendalough – Oil Painting
Near Glendalough
Near Glendalough Photo
I was a dull, damp day when I took this photo, this time last year. I didn’t have a subject in my head to paint so I had a look in my photo collection for something to do. Although the photo looks OK as a photo, the ruins would have dominated the scene in a painting. If it was possible to move much further back and use a telephoto lens, the ruins would have appeared smaller, relative to the background. In reality this was not possible so in the composition of the painting I did this and also elevated the viewpoint to include more detail in the middle distance and see more of the lake.
Glendalough is in County Wicklow, a few miles east of where I live. It was the site of a monastic settlement founded in the 6th century. Its a magical place with ruins everywhere. Saint Laurence O’Toole, born a mile from where I live, in 1128 ad, was Abbot of Glendalough until 1162 ad. Coincidently, he died in Eu in Normandy in 1180 ad, as the Normans (recent invaders) were building Kilkea Castle (mentioned in previous post), almost on top of his ancestral birthplace in the fortress of Mullacreelan.
The colours used were: Burnt Sienna & Raw Umber (red), Yellow Ochre (yellow) and Cobalt Blue (blue). I also used Viridian Green, black and white. I needed the ‘tube’ green to get the colour of the spring grass in the foreground. I never liked Viridian. Its a very strong ‘unnatural’ colour. The grass colour was got by adding the green, a little at a time, to Yellow Ochre. The under colour of Burnt Sienna mixed a little with this green to neutralise it and make it more natural.
I will have the video of the painting process for the next post. See you then.
Edge of the Wood – Time Lapse Painting
Edge of the Woods
There is a lot of ‘scratching’ going on in this painting. Alla prima is to blame. It is practicably impossible to paint a fine line on top of a wet layer of paint. Short strokes are OK, but long unbroken lines, as in the Ash trees on the right in this painting, are a problem.
In a previous post (here), I was talking about brushes. Small brushes can force a painter into tedious details too early in the process at the expense of the overall picture. Using a knife will produce details quickly so the painter does not become bogged down. These ‘scratch’ lines also remove the under layer of wet paint into which the fine lines can be painted. In this painting, I also scratched off larger parts of the under-painting which allowed me to apply the dark colour of the evergreen trees without interference from the light coloured sky paint.
At the other end of the scale is the very large brush, as in house painter’s 2 or 3 inch brush. I don’t like the practise of using these types of brushes to ‘stamp’ a shape into the painting which can produce a monotony of ‘clichés’ which are the mark of the brush and not the ‘mark of the hand’ of the artist.
In painting the foliage of the evergreen trees I used a round brush (No. 4 or about 5mm diameter). Even with most of the wet under-painting removed the brush will still pick up some unwanted colour from the surface. If the brush is rotated as the paint is applied, several ‘dabs’ of clean colour can be applied before the brush needs to be wiped to pick up fresh paint. I’m not advocating painting every single leaf, but clumps of leaves to create a ‘profile’ of the particular tree type.
Here is the video of the painting process. There is more info. on this painting in the previous post. The video is 720 HD and can be watched at a large size by changing the Quality settings on the YouTube bottom panel (see here).
Edge of the Woods – Oil Painting
Edge of the Woods
I was in the woods again on Saturday. It was bitterly cold despite the sunshine. I had my camera with me this time and took a few photos. This scene I photographed and I have included the photo here to show the translation from photo to painting. The 2 evergreen trees were the centre of my interest, but the trackway disappearing into the distance and providing an exit from the scene was where I placed the centre of interest in the painting. The sky was a boring gradient of blue. I created a ‘Constable’ sky. Not so much the Constable of the ‘finished’ paintings like The Hay Wain, but the oil sketches he completed before he started to paint the official version for the Royal Academy. These sketches were painted quickly and are very like the later Impressionist paintings.
Edge of the Woods Photo
The painting is a compression of the scene, the distance and the foreground are brought closer together. The large shadow in the foreground had to be ‘explained’ in the painting by creating the edge of a tree which would have created this shadow. To help create a ‘raw’ feeling to the scene I used a knife to scratch sharp suggested details especially in the leafless Ash trees. This scratching effect then had to be carried to other areas of the painting for uniformity of texture (click on the painting to see the ‘scratch’ marks of the knife). To help carry the eye into the distance and follow the track, I changed the shape of the evergreen trees. Their right hand side form a line which points towards the end point of the trackway. Also, the trees on the extreme left, point towards this end point, connecting foreground and distance.
The colours used are: Burnt Umber & Burnt Sienna (red), Yellow Ochre (yellow) and Cobalt Blue. Also used are Sap Green, black and white. Sap Green has a distinctive colour, so in the interests of colour harmony I included it in the sky colours. The Cobalt Blue and white mix, for the blue of the sky, has a definite ‘Sap Green’ tinge about it. I find greens from the ‘tube’ to be a bit unnatural. Small amounts of red added to these greens helps a little. I made the red end of the mixes a little stronger by the inclusion of Burnt Umber instead of my usual Raw Umber.
The painting took about an hour and a half to complete. I will have a video of the process for the next post. See you then.
Dollardstown Wood – Time Lapse Painting
Dollardstown Wood
As any blogger who tries to upload photos or home made videos knows, what you finally see on your blog page never quite looks like what you intended. I constantly have trouble trying to get exposure and colour balance right on the photos and the video. I use the same lights, camera and computer software and still the difference between still photos and video can be enormous.
The exposure is simple, or should be. If the viewfinder is filled with an image of the blank white canvas, automatic exposure will underexpose the image. This is because the camera is programmed to find the average light reading and record it as an average. But the white is not the average. To find correct exposure I take a manual reading from a mid grey card, this is an average. When the white canvas is then placed in front of the camera, with this setting, it will show an overexposed image, that is, a pure white canvas. By the time the painting is finished, if there are equal amounts of darks and lights in the painting, the exposure is indicating correct exposure. If it’s a dark painting it will appear to be underexposed and if a bright painting it appears to be overexposed. This is OK, as dark paintings are supposed to be dark and light coloured paintings light. When viewed on a computer screen, in Photoshop or web browsers, the brightness of the screen or the room lighting where the screen is viewed will affect the apparent brightness of the picture.
Alexander made a comment, on the ‘Dollardstown Wood’ post, about the darkness of the photo. He was right. I had edited the photo in Photoshop in a darkish room. It looked OK to me at the time but when I read Alexander’s comment, I had a look at the post and the photo was, indeed, too dark. He adjusted the exposure and included a link to the photo (here). This brings me to the other problem with photos – colour balance. Although the exposure was correct the colour balance was too red.
I use iMovie to edit the video because its fast and simple to use. I set the colour balance using the white blank canvas. But still the video always looks a little too red. The still photo (at the start and end of the video), has the same colour balance and is close to the actual colour of the painting. But when placed into the video the colour is altered towards green. There are video editing facilities in iMovie but these are too crude to make the fine adjustments needed. To add further to the mess, YouTube compresses and causes further colour changes which are totally beyond my control. I archive the original video until the technology improves to allow a more accurate representation of the painting. Some day in the near future, hopefully, I will be able to make available the full 1 to 2 hour video. For a beginner in painting this might be useful.
Here’s the video. There is more info on this painting in the previous post.
Dollardstown Wood – Oil Painting
Dollardstown Wood
“The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable” is how Oscar Wilde described fox hunting. As a few small blobs of paint is how I described fox hunting in this painting. As usual I like to have the activities of men incidental in a landscape and not the subject of the painting. This is the entrance to the woods. A scene I’ve passed several times without noticing the unusual design of the old iron gate. Because the angle of the light was low, it was reflecting off the wet trackway. It looked as if the morning light was invading the woods and the dark places where night hides.
These woods were part of the Kilkea Estate, owned by the Fitzgeralds, who came to Ireland in 1169 ad. They were Earls of Kildare and in the 18th century the title ‘Dukes of Leinster’ was created and applied to the family. Less than a mile away, stands Kilkea Castle. This was the oldest inhabited castle in Ireland until recently. The current owners, who ran a hotel business in the castle, are bankrupt. So the castle is now unoccupied for the first time since 1180 ad, when it was built.
A limited number of colours used again. Indian Red & Raw Umber (red), Raw Sienna (yellow) and French Ultramarine (blue). Also black and white. ‘There is no light without darkness” certainly applies to this scene. Without a lot of bright colours I think I’ve succeeded in suggesting early morning brightness. It’s a difficult time of the day to paint. Like a sunset without the orange glow.
The video shows again how dark the entire painting must become before the light is introduced. It will look disastrous. But remember, it will be disastrous if you are trying to make the painting look ‘finished’ at every construction stage. It should only look good at the end. This is a problem if you allow onlookers to comment on your work as you are painting. They are commenting on how ‘unfinished’ it looks and can’t know the reason why you are painting everything dark or doing some other inexplicable process.
The video will be ready in a few days. The painting time was about 2 and a half hours and this requires a bit of time to get it ready. See you then.
Woodland – Time Lapse Painting
Woodland
The scene within the painting is a gradual movement from the details at our feet to the distant sunlit trees at the edge of the woods. Realist landscape painting relies heavily on the effect of 3D space within the scene. The tricks of perspective and the weakening of colour intensity with distance, help the process, but a path for the eye to follow, consciously or subconsciously, also reinforces the 3D effect.
For a beginner this must seem an impossible and daunting task. As usual the way forward is to subdivide the task into definite stages, moving from one to the next, to get to the stage where there is a semblance of a painting which just needs to be finished (great for morale). After the solvent underpainting, which is the scene ‘sketched out’, I split the scene into a series of ‘slices’ from the almost obscured distance, to the foreground, each one placed in front of the other. Of course if the ‘layers’ are obvious the painting doesn’t work and will look like theatrical scenery. It is a good plan to work out these layers before you start to paint.
If we take this painting for example, there are 4 distinct layers. The first is the sky down to the horizon, the second is the row of distant trees, next is the bridge and trees each side, and finally the big tree on the left and the stream on the right. The stream is the path for the eye to follow, and also cuts through the layers, disguising the transitions. Layer 1 and 2 were painted as one element, with shadows and lights. I treated these the way I paint a sky, from top of canvas to horizon line. This is not difficult and (hurrah) the painting is started. Some of the dark shadows from layers 3 and 4 are added before layer 2, to help get the tone right in the trees of layer 2. As mentioned previously, disguising the different layers is important, so some trees are almost the same colour as the first layer and some are nearer, and bigger, and darker in colour and these will disguise the transition to the 3rd layer. Stopping to allow the paint to dry at this stage is worth considering, as mentioned earlier, at this point in the painting, its like having the sky completed in a standard landscape.
3 and 4 are ground layers, and absolutely no white is allowed into any of the heavy shadows or rich mid tones until everything is in place and the ‘lights are turned on’. The final stages, which contain white, define the details. Moss covered rocks, leaves, plants, all emerge from the gloom. This is the difficult part, and there is no way around it. A certain amount of talent, practice, experience and perseverance is required.
Hopefully the following video will be of assistance. Watch for the layers, the first 2 ‘sky’ like, the final 2 ground layers with their dark stage. Also check out previous post regarding colours etc used.
Woodland – Oil Painting
Woodland
Back in the claustrophobic chaos of the woods. This is a scene from memory and imagination. I was always fascinated by these tall bridges. Old, stone built and much taller than was necessary to transverse the miserable little streams. Usually found in areas of former industrial activity, like coal mines or quarries. Of course the reason is obvious when you think about it. Horse drawn wagons bearing heavy loads have to have level roads. A winding road down to a little bridge and back up the hill on the other side would not be safe for a horse drawn wagon with 10 tons of coal or slate. So the bridges were built up to road level. Obvious, really!
This painting took about 2 and a half hours to complete. I like the intensity and complexity of detail in woodlands. I try and reflect this by building up layers of random brushstrokes. Continually passing over the surface placing bits of colour and trying not to loose the items in the scene. Even the shadows are a range of different dark colours from almost pure black to brown and green. I try and achieve a consistency of chaotic brushstrokes, a bit like harmony of texture, over the entire surface of the painting. By the way, when you see the video (next post), notice how dark the painting becomes and for how long. The lighter colours are really only added at the end of the painting session.
On the subject of harmony, colour harmony this time, the colours used were: Burnt Sienna & Raw Umber (red), Yellow Ochre (yellow) and French Ultramarine (blue). Also in the mix was Chrome Green Light, plus of course, black and white. A minor problem caused by the 2 hours + of painting time was the dark colours begin to get lighter as the solvent evaporates. (See here about ‘oiling out’ an oil painting to restore the correct colour tones). I was using Liquin only and this is not as good as oil at retaining the deep oily dark colours. But using Linseed Oil would have made this painting a nightmare. As you will see in the video, even Liquin had difficulty dealing with the layers of wet paint on which I was overpainting. The trees on the right were refusing to be painted. The brush with the dark paint was picking up the light green of the background and no dark colour was going down. I just continued to ‘paint’ the shapes of these trees, which was in effect, removing the under paint leaving a ‘phantom’ tree shape. The second attempt at placing the tree colour was then more successful.
Near the end of the painting time, I was worried about he shadow areas not been deep enough in colour. As I was saying previously, the evaporation of the solvent was raising the tone of these dark shadows, especially any of the mixes which contained black, so I added a fresh dark brown colour into the areas which should have been the deepest shadows, just to be sure to be sure.
Until the next post, adieu.
Duck Pond – Oil Painting
Duck Pond
Last post I was discussing the difficulty I have using Linseed Oil. This may be a problem of my own making relating to the method I employ in painting. Firstly, I am an Alla Prima painter. Secondly, I spend a lot of time manipulating the paint on the canvas. I put a layer of solvent only paint on the canvas and allow the solvent to evaporate, sometimes with the help of a hair dryer. This can be a little dangerous as the solvent is flammable and electrical equipment can cause sparks. Subsequent layers of wet paint mix with this under layer and later layers of paint. The whole process depends on the compatibility of colours and especially the flow characteristics of the medium. This is why I avoid Oils as a medium while I continue to use this technique.
The last painting had 50/50 Stand Linseed Oil and Liquin. I felt the handling was more difficult because of the oil in the medium. This painting has Liquin only and there are several heavy layers of paint, wet on wet. I pushed the technique to the limit and the handling was OK. A consequence of using Liquin is faster painting and a bonus is faster drying time. The down side of Liquin is discussed here.
The scene is partial memory and mostly imagination. Duck ponds were part of every farm yard in former times. A deep pond was a safe place for farmyard ducks especially at night when the fox was doing his rounds. The colours are: Burnt Sienna & Raw Umber (red), Yellow Ochre (yellow) and French Ultramarine (blue). Also Viridian Green, black and white. Check previous post on colours, which are almost the same as these, especially concerning Viridian.
Here is the video of the painting process. Remember its 720HD and can be viewed as a larger picture (see here about YouTube settings).
Snowdrops – Time Lapse Painting
Snowdrops
In the last post I mentioned that the painting took 2 hours to complete, which was longer than it should have. I used Stand Linseed Oil mixed about 50/50 with Liquin. As I said at that time, the oil made ‘handling’ a little more difficult. This difficult ‘handling’, I think, contributed to the extra time required to finish the painting. It is difficult to describe what difficult handling is. If a layer of paint is put down and left untouched, or allowed to dry before overpainted or glazed, handling is not going to be an issue. Alla prima, or wet on wet painting will be a different matter completely. I complicate the process further by mixing many of the colours on the canvas.
For example, the blue of the sky is produced by laying down a mixed layer of blue and white. To this is added, on the canvas, pure blue and pure white, plus every other colour which will be used in the painting. The entire layer is manipulated and added to, until the effect is achieved. If no medium is used, the colours have to be ‘over brushed’ to get them to mix. This will flatten and remove any cloud details. Linseed Oil added to the paint mix will do exactly the same, but after very little brushing. This may be what is needed in some paintings, unfortunately, every sky will look the same if this is the only technique used in every painting. Liquin, in contrast, flows then becomes ‘tacky’ when brushed. The more brushing, the more ‘tacky’ it becomes. The whole process is controllable. Varying the amount of Liquin or solvent adds further control.
To test the benefits of Liquin, I painted another picture today. I used almost the same colours as in this painting, but with no Linseed Oil. I heaped the paint on, loads of wet on wet and it worked out OK. This painting took about an hour and a half. This painting will be the subject of the next post.
In conclusion, Liquin makes my style of painting easier. As mentioned previously, the last layer must be a vegetable oil like Linseed if I intend to varnish the painting. ‘Oiling out’ with pure Linseed Oil will cover the surface with a thin layer of oil which will harden and not be dissolved by later layers of varnish.
Here is the video of the painting process.
Snowdrops – Oil Painting
Snowdrops
While the rest of Europe is suffering the effects Siberian weather, we in Ireland are enjoying the advantages of the Gulf Stream and its moderating influence on our weather. A little snow fell on high ground, the Wicklow Mountains got a light covering which we can see from where we are, about 20 miles to the west. The only snow we have, so far, are snowdrops. The crop this year is not as good as last year, the mild winter has got them all upset. There were even daffodils in bloom before they arrived, that must have been a shock for them, the daffodils normally bloom about a month after the first snowdrops appear. By the way, to replant or break up very large clumps of snowdrops, wait for the flowers to die back and lift them while the leaves are still green. I’ve done this a few times when the clumps get so large they begin to die in the centres. Now there are snowdrops everywhere, a heartwarming sight. Daffodils are transplanted in late summer as bulbs. They also suffer from overcrowding so I mark these places with coloured pegs, as by next Autumn there will be no trace of where they are.
Enough of horticulture, this painting has Viridian Green in its mixes. The colours were: Burnt Sienna & Raw Umber (red), Raw Sienna (yellow) and French Ultramarine (blue). Viridian Green, and black and white. For the damp shady places, beloved by snowdrops, I needed a deep green. The snowdrops themselves are a deep silvery green. If I found a blue and yellow to produce this green I would have to have these colours in all other parts of the painting to maintain colour harmony and this might create more problems than I want. So I use Viridian, which I hate, and deal with its overbearing attitude and unnatural colour. I also added Viridian into the sky, in the blue and the dark clouds, again in the interests of colour harmony.
I always add red to Viridian, in this case Burnt Sienna, to naturalise the colour. This can have the effect of deadening the colour after further mixes of other colours, I had to be careful. To counteract any loss of colour intensity I added a little Stand Linseed Oil to the medium, which of late, has been Liquin alone. One thing I confirmed by this, is how Liquin makes painting a lot easier. The oil is ‘slushy’ and slides around quite a bit. Liquin spreads rapidly and if brushed briskly will become tacky, if brushed gently it stays liquid and if allowed to stand also becomes tacky. Great stuff, but check this post if you are, or are intending to use it.
The painting took about 2 hours to complete. This is a little longer than normal, I don’t know why. The extra hour makes the task of editing the video a time consuming business so I will have it in a few days. See you then.
