Did this little experiment on vellum the other night. I had never painted on paper with oils, and always assumed I’d need some super high quality treated surface that would be expensive and a pain to deal with. Then I remembered vellum. although I usually have a harder time with smooth surfaces, I decided to give it a try. This is maybe a 3 or 4 hour study, which I painted mounted to a piece of cardboard tacked on the wall. the cardboard texture that came through was entirely unintentional, but I like it. maybe something to play around with in the future.

portrait study, "Amanda", oil on vellum, ~24" x ~24", 2012

Now that I have some time to play around a little bit, I’ve been doing a lot of blog reading. I’m always looking for oil painters willing to talk about their process, especially those who have been classically (or otherwise) trained. It’s a great resource to pick up tips and discover things I may not have stumbled upon on my own, and to hear what other artists are going through, who they’re influenced by, etc.  there are a ton I read on a regular basis, and it’s really been invaluable (it’s the main reason I feel obligated to write about my own process so much, kind of a ‘pay it forward’ type situation, for lack of another stupid phrase). I’ll do an entry on the blogs that I read sometime in the near future if you care to check them out (and you should), but for the time being, I told that story so I could tell this one:

A lot of the blogs I follow are written by realist artists, and during a particularly long trip down the internets, I came across some really fantastic still-life paintings. i’m not huge on the still-life genre in general (is it a genre?), mainly because regardless of the execution, I need something interesting to look at. I can certainly appreciate the artistry of a painting of a bowl, and I admire the simplicity…but I tend to also get bored with it before any of that appreciation actually kicks in. so anyway, I found some nice ones…very well painted and of interesting subject matter that held my attention. It was then that it occurred to me that I have another glaring hole in my self-education, and a rather embarrassing one actually; I’ve never painted a still-life. not even for practice.  It seems totally neglectful of me, and while I know i’m being critical, and that I am a figurative painter,  I also know that I probably should have been experimenting with them for years. not because all oil painters need to paint still-life’s, but because I’m fairly certain that most probably do at some point (and probably very early in their learning to boot). there has to be some reason for that right?.

so, given all that rambling you just suffered through, and the fact that painting anything outside of my comfort zone is generally a good idea, I started on my first still-life — and you know what? totally fun. here is the final product (excuse the glare). I’m going to title this “Still Life #1″, because I am the most creative guy on earth.

"Still Life #1", 12" x 12", oil on panel. 2012 (click to enlarge)

"Brittany", 16" x 20", oil on panel, 2011

Another portrait study, this time of a model i’ve been wanting to work with for years. She’s got a fantastic spooky look, and I’ll definitely be doing some larger pieces with her in the future. This study took about 8 hours, and while I generally don’t glaze these quick portrait studies, there were a few spots that I wasn’t able to get dark enough during that first sitting, so I did maybe 5 minutes of glazing once things had dried. Below you can see the pre/post glazing shots. very subtle difference I know, but necessary this time around to get those shadows to sit right.

* as usual, I’m having a bitch of a time getting these shots to be color-accurate. you’ll have to take my word for it that they are a lot cooler and less saturated than they appear here.

"Juliana" study, 16" x 20", oil on panel

did this quick study the other day of Juliana, a young model I shot a few months ago. this sitting was only a little over 4 hours, mostly due to the angle of her face in this shot. I’ve found that painting a face posed past that 3/4 view and closer to profile generally goes much quicker than a more head-on pose. weird.