Felix D'Eon

Diary ~ A large oil painting of the male nude with J. #1

March, 2006

 

I started a large painting today, of a new model named Josh whom I met last week at a party (I will be calling him J. to distinguish him from the other Josh who models for me). He is a great model, very handsome, and unfortunately unwilling to model for photographs in the nude, although he told me its possible he could be convinced. So I'm holding out. In the meantime, the process for this new painting is outlined below. It will be the largest painting I will have done is some time; three feet by four feet.

Above is a photo of myself preparing the canvas for painting. I was wearing my favorite pair of pants, so I took them off to avoid staining them while I painted (I do that a lot - Salvador Dali once said that a real artist can't truly create unless he is nude, in order to express the nakedness of his soul. I haven't tried that yet, but I'll have to see if it works. I will be sure to report to you the results). Anyway, I am using a pre-prepared mixture of orange oil as the base coat; this color will shine through all subsequent layers and hold the painting together, in addition to provided a base tone to work off of. I did this right after the model left this morning, to give it time to dry by the time he comes back a week from now.

Above is the preliminary study I did of J. this morning. I think the figure will be painted against a dark, almost black, neutral ground, perhaps with a red cloth underneith him. He is dramatically lit, and I think the paintings future stark contrasts of dark and light will create a beautiful and dramatic composition.

Next week I will continue with the first undercoat, and transfering the drawing to canvas. Be sure and check back!