Felix D'Eon

Diary ~ Oil Painting Demonstration with James #2

February, 2006

 

I continued working on the painting of James sleeping tonight; this page is continued from the previous. Below you can see me at work.

I started to concentrate on details and refining the figure today; the image below shows how it looked at about the halfway point for the evening. I reinforced the shadows on his face, and threw in highlights near his nose and mouth, I worked on his hand, and largely finished his chest and neck. At this stage in the painting I use a full pallate, introducing yellow ochres to his arms and legs, and warm brushes of red to give warmth over the previously dried paint. I would normally paint his hair at this stage, with highlights and some carefully chosen individual strands, but he shaved it since last week, so I am waiting until next week when it grows back in a little to touch it up.

In the reproduction above, you can see the painting as it appeared at the end of the evening. I worked on his stomach and legs, and at the end worked out the fabric he is laying on. I also reinforced his other hand. His torso is largely finished; in fact, only his thighs and feet really need much work anymore. Next week I will finish those parts, and set to work on the background.

Above you can see the model stretching during a break.

Almost a week later, I started working on the painting again. The model is due to come tomorrow, so I thought I would start on the landscape before he gets here. I also decided that I would place him in a pastoral setting rather than the beach after all. The first thing I knew was that there was too much visual weight to the left hand side of the canvasl his head, shulders, and the white blanket drag the eye too strongly to that side. To alleviate the problem, I decided to paint a tree closely hugging the right hand side of the canvas, and to throw a dark area into the bottom right corner. These two devices will draw the eye to that side of the canvas, and keep it from becoming side-heavy. These first washes are just exploratory, as I work out solutions.

At this point, I've decided taht I like where it is going, and am reinforcing my early sketchy ideas. I darkened the bottom corner, reinforced the tree, and threw in a suggestion of a distant landscape, all with just a little blue, yellow, white and brown. I started painting the bushes with a pale yellow and green which will serve as the underpainting; the yellows will shine through when I go over them with darker green leaves and foliage.

Finally, I've completed the entire undercoat, with strong greens thrown in for the grassy floor. I will later brush over the strident greens of the grass with glazes in brown and red to mute its strength. This is the most raw undercoat; over this I will paint in detailes of foliage, flowers and grasses when the paint dries.

Above you can see me at work, contemplating the painting. At this point I took a break and let the painting sit for a couple of weeks, while the paint dried and I thought about directions to take it.

Above, I came back to the painting. I painted some leaves and branches over the yellow ground, which serves as an undercoat for highlights. Over the light parts I painted dark leaves and branches.

I then added bright highlights to the dark leaves, and added bright leaves in small clusters to the area in shadow above his pillow. I also started painting the background, with a distand landscape and factories, all in a very limited pallate of just a few colors.

Finally, I feel finished for this session. The landscape is largely finished - I am going to work on the stream running in the corner, and will add bright highlights and leaves to the vegetation to the upper right when the paint dries. Unfortunately, the model just got a full time job, and doesn't have as much time to come in - hopefully soon he will make some time for me for a final session, and I will finish up his feet. This painting is tantalizingly close to being finished - check back for updates!