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).
PictureS 
I love that you do these videos. You make it look easy…it’s not. Great work and thanks for sharing.
You are very welcome Wulfie. Thank you.
Enjoyed the video, as always. Love the choice of music, too. I’ve used a palette knife and liked it quite a bit, especially as it enhances the textural feel of oil paints like soft butter.
Glad you enjoyed. Generally I find knife painting too slow and tedious and takes ages to dry. Thanks for the comment.
It does take ages to dry, true. Your posts encourage me to get my oils out again and first, finish an unfinished painting, and then begin a new one. Am enjoying your blog very much!
Amazing…loved the use of the wood dowel. Do you use it to prevent smudging of the work already laid down. I often have waited for the work to dry a little and then laid a sheet of clear plastic over it …I’m thinking I’ll try the dowel though. I really love watching these! Looks so effortless. About how long does it take to create this work in real time? Looking forward to seeing more.
Thank you for you interest and comment. I use the stick to support my hand over the wet painting. I usually finish the painting in under 2 hours so I’m always working on wet paint. The ‘Still Life with White Rose’ took nearly 5 hours in 2 sessions. I prefer to start and finish in one session as all the other paintings were. Thanks again.
Aaaah…it’s so good to watch you paint! Beautiful.
Great to have you back, I missed your encouraging comments.
I have started an oil painting course. Your videos are very awesome. They will help me a lot. Thank you very much!
Thank you.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
I would like to look at this work in real time very much. Can you compress video by MPEG4 codec with good quality and upload to somewhere. I can give you access to my ftp server if it help. I think this be very helpful not only for me.
Sorry, I do not know your name, please write me to sastravel2008 (#) gmail.com and i give your account to upload your full video and then I write a link to this video in the web.