It’s a long haul this oil painting lark. Today was a 4 hour block in session. I’m working larger today on a 16″x20″ panel which was a lesson in itself. More paint, bigger brushes, and trying to keep the shapes interesting at a bigger scale.
First the drawing.
All the main colors were pre-mixed as we’d already done a color study.
The main rose colors went in along with some of the dark greens to check values.
Starting the block-in with light and shadow colors
More colors on the background flowers.
The final block in with all hard edges
Final Block-In with Softened Edges
And the final block in with all edges softened. Next will be refining the drawing, sharpening up some edges and putting in detail. Phew!
Dear Michelle
Through following Paul Foxton i came across your beautiful roses. I love your shadow colours.
I am in the middle of trying to make shadow colours. Was used to do that by mixing with complementing colours but Paul’s teaching munsell opens a whole new shaddow world. Still having to get used to mixing grey/black for warm/cold shadows.
I would like to ask you if you would tell me the name of the easel you are working on. I need to sit in front of my panel and yours seems to function as a table. I would really appreciate it if you could help me out find a good adjustable aesel.
Thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely from the Netherlands
Pia
Hi Pia,
So nice to hear from you!
The easel I use is this one
Richeson Lobo easel
I like it for watercolor as I can angle it flat as well as having it upright. I put a large drawing board on it so I can have my painting surface and also my palette on the same level. The drawing board is a lightweight wood one in the largest size (24″x36″)I could get (ultralite drawing board). The setup works well. I put loops of masking tape on the back of my canvas panels to stop them moving about. I also do this with the value scale as I’m always losing it. I can stick it to the board and it won’t go walkabout.