Kilmoroney

Note the 'blobs' of paint

In a recent post I mentioned oil painting with washes of liquid paint as opposed to solid paint. The above painting was painted with washes of colour – loads of solvent and very little media. Its more like drawing with ink than traditional oil painting.

The cons: Colour is flat. The richness associated with oil paint is not there. The brush strokes are ‘blobs’ and not textured strokes. The picture is drawn with paint, which means your drawing ability must be ‘spot on’.
The pros: Fast painting. The application of the paint is in swift flooding strokes. The technique allows dark and light colours to be applied at all stages of the painting. Normally the shadows are painted first in transparent darks and the mid tones and highlights applied later. This is very much applied in Still Life.

I have a time lapse video of the above painting which I will post soon.

'Flat' colours