Oil painting

[Penitent]

Andross!!

Just thought i'd do an update seeing as it looks terrible up above. Still not finished though, three months on...oh dear.

Not really feeling this one. Seems like such a bad idea painting well-knowns from well-known photos! I'd love to do something completely different... possibly with whole torsos or bodies involved, but i'm lost for ideas at the moment. Inspiration needed!

Paint me, paint me!

All this picture lacks is life, but you pictures always come to life in the later stages. keep at it.

[Sabreman]

Been working on this for the past few weeks, just finished:

First 'proper' oil painting I've done for a few years, so I'm quite happy with it.

Bigger version on my DA: http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs50/f/2009/291...abbleflange.jpg

[Andross]

Amazing. The detail.

The talent in this thread is ridiculous.

[Number 28]

Well that's me blown out the water. Very good job Sabreman.

[moosegrinder]

That's fucking awesome

[Timbuktu]

Lurked on these forums for a while, just got accepted to post and I need to you guys for some opinions.

Did this portrait for a fairly friend, but ended up putting her in big empty space and adding a rabbit (partly to hide her feet, which I messed up) and partly due to the recent Alice in wonderland stuff I see everywhere. Now it seems a bit distant and vague, but also maybe somewhat accidently heavy in symbolism and I'm not sure if she might see it as suggestive of things I haven't thought of.

[Number 28]

I think you're fine on the symbolism front. I like your creative thinking...you can't manage the feet, so stick in...a rabbit! Awesome Looks great though considering you plonked it in later on. I like how it blends into the white...ghostly.

I never posted the finished Bowie as I wasn't that pleased with it.

It looks better IRL i think...kinda striking. Not my best tho'...a difficult one.

[Kandy]

anyone have any starter books, equipment to buy?.

Really want to start oil painting.

[Number 28]

I can recommend a few things and tell you what *I* use, but a bit of personal experimentation is always good, especially with brushes.

Paint-wise I use these Daler-Rowney Georgian oils -

Not sure how they compare to the more expensive paints, but they seem like a good start. I tried some Windsor & Newton, and it was dreadful...although that was just the black.

and as a medium/wash brushes I use sansodor because it doesn't smell much.

As for brushes, I mostly use watercolour brushes. They die pretty fast, but I find oil brushes are too stiff for my liking. More suited for slapping it on thick I think.

I'd like to hear what the other painters in the thread use, as I could probably do with trying other goods out.

[Timbuktu]

Not sure how they compare to the more expensive paints, but they seem like a good start. I tried some Windsor & Newton, and it was dreadful...although that was just the black.

I am exactly the same, pretty much got used to the basic set and hardly felt the need to experiment with paint except the odd occasion when I more a specific vibrant colour straight from the tube.

Haven't tried too much with medium either, just winsor & newton stuff that they stock at the local store mixing turpentine with linseed oil. and white spirit to wash.

I use watercolour brushes for details and small pieces, but oil brushes for larger areas and when i'm doing pieces larger than A1 kind of size.

these are the only other two oil paintings i have images of online.

I am going to leave that portrait above as is. I tend to overwork things... and really, it's for free so she's not going to complain. if she doesn't like it I will do another one at some point in the future, it would be interesting to paint the same people over the years in any case.

Working on anything new Number 28? It's so great that you started and maintained this thread, really enjoyed your work.

[larrydavidsanger]

Fucking hell! These new pieces are great, I was going to post a blurry photo of my latest but I think i'll wait for a while now

[Number 28]

Loving those, very atmospheric. I'm always into bright colours, interesting light and shadow i.e. contrast. I like the aspect ratio too. I was trying to find canvases with similar proportions myself but didn't have much luck in the shops.

Thanks for the comments Timbuktu. I actually started on a scene with Toshiro Mifune from Yojimbo, but i'm lacking in any motivation whatsoever lately.

[larrydavidsanger]

[Number 28]

Nice work. That's almost black and white, but with the tinest hint of flesh tone right? Interesting. I actually thought it was Phil Silvers at first, but you've got him down as 'unkown soldier' on Flickr. What's the story? Anyway, good to see you back in the saddle, so to speak.

Btw, I might be exploiting the recession, and putting my work in the window of a deserted shop in Derby sometime soon. I have a meeting next week, I just need to write a small proposal. "Put paintings in window" oughta do it.

[Calashnikov]

Anyone ever tried applying oil paint to a spray painted surface? I plan on creating a diffused/gradient sort of abstract colourfield ground using Montana Gold spraypaints, and then painting on top of that using oils. Just wondering how the oil paint will take to that kind of surface. I'll be painting on boards of MDF, primed with Gesso.

Loving your portrait there, larrydavidsanger. It really strongly reminds me of a certain artist who's name I can't quite place at the moment...

[larrydavidsanger]

I have been "heavily inspired" by Luc Tuymans of late. Not sure about the spraypaint but if you lay it on without any thinners it should probably be ok

[Calashnikov]

I actually saw a Tuymans link as well (Googled him to post some pictures and everything, before ultimately not posting any), but it's another artist along the same sort of lines that I'm thinking of. I wish I could remember the name. This guy is a lot more painterly, while Tuymans to me is more about thinner application.

As for my spraypaint thing, I think Montana Gold spraypaint is acryllic based, so it ought to hopefully work out pretty similar to oil on Gesso primer (which is also acryllic based). Fuck knows. Experimentation is half "the fun" though, right? I've primed my boards with black Gesso, and will just be spraying the Montana Gold colours here and there, just for a ground. I think oil works alright on acryllic, while the reverse doesn't work at all (acryllic doesn't take to an oil painted surface). I just need to make sure the acryllic stuff (primer and spraypaint and all) is completely dry before I apply oils. They don't mix wet. I might also have to apply a transparent white glaze (probably in oils) just to desaturate the spraypaint a bit (that's only if the spraypainted colourfield comes out too vibrant).

[Sabreman]

I sometimes undercoat and do base layers in acrylic (for drying time advantage) before the main layer of oils, and it's never been a problem.

[larrydavidsanger]

Another new one

[GODSTEETH]

Nice! I only just realised that Father Ted one is the actual painting in Father Stone's possession. Proper lolz!

[Asura]

Thought I'd try my hand at this, so started off this week with oils.

The end result is a little difficult to see right now. I was inspired by Hendrix's performances of Purple Haze and All Along the Watchtower, so I'm trying to produce an image that expresses the way I feel about those two songs. There's going to be a rock outcrop on the right side of the image with a watchtower on top, with a flaming brazier on top of that - then in the distance, another tower with a lighted brazier. In the bottom left, as the last bit, I'm going to paint an image of Hendrix.

The original plan was to have, from bottom left to top-right, a heavily distorted perspective electric guitar neck, with the head at the top right of the image, but now I'm not so certain - I'm worried it'll break up the rest of the image too much and the composition would be off.

I don't know a great deal about this sort of thing though - I'm just painting it as it comes to me.

[larrydavidsanger]

The image looks very over compressed to me so it's hard to really see whats going on in it. Any better photos?

A new one of mine. I've sort of decided to "sell out" in that I'm trying to paint things that people in N.Ireland would actually want to buy, obviously George Best is first

[Orchid]

Haha really like that My cousin is the exhibitions officer at a gallery in Belfast, if you're looking for a show I could probably put you in contact.

[Dude Ranch]

George Best is nice, it has character, warmth and charm.

He does look like he's had a comedy 'ink on binoculars' moment though.

[Calashnikov]

The oil paint on spray paint worked out pretty decent:

I've kinda fucked that first one, though. I glazed over her face ( ) before the underpainting had completely dried. I lost a lot of details A lesson learned, though. I'm gonna try and do one more tomorrow. Got an exhibition opening on Thursday, so the initial idea was a triptych. We'll see how it goes. Got fuck all done today

[Quest]

Those are really fucking good, man.

[Calashnikov]

Thanks dude. It's funny, but the top one has been worked on (and worked on) for several days, almost to the point where it feels kinda like I've killed it (as in the classic sense of the word, not hip-hop slang for "nailed it"). This was an earlier stage of it (I actually thought it was finished at this stage originally):

But then I went on to the second painting, which I finished within a matter of hours, with a few light touches of paint, and a bit of palette knife application. I thought it had a lot more bounce and vitality to it (and certainly spontaneity) compared to the hooded woman, so that's kinda why I went back and retroactively added a few more gestural, primitive marks to her. One thing that bothers me with this approach, however, is that the marks are for purely cosmetic, contrived reasons. They're not true marks. They're affectation in a way. The second painting is a lot more pure and true for me. Whatever, though. The retroactive mark-making was an attempt to inject a bit more life and a bit more stylistic consistency (which seems pretty important to me when developing a triptych). I think I managed that to an extent, but my problem with the work is that it really has been over-worked, certainly compared to the second painting, which I almost shat out without breaking a sweat. Hopefully I can manage something similar with a third piece tomorrow (and hopefully it'll really tie the triptych together). We'll see how it goes.

[divine visitor]

Those are fantastic. Even though the extra marks you made on the woman were purely cosmetic I think it still makes the overall piece look better, seems to pop out a bit more, the light contrast picks her features out a bit more strongly.

[Timbuktu]

Very cool. Inspried by Bacon by any chance (with the triptych format and all that?) I would agree that those marks do make the piece look better, but I understand why you aren't comfortable with them. Those marks aren't going to be what your style is about and perhaps being honest about inconsistencies might be better when you look back at things.

[Timbuktu]

Very cool. Inspried by Bacon by any chance (with the triptych format and all that?) I would agree that those marks do make the piece look better, but I understand why you aren't comfortable with them. Those marks aren't going to be what your style is about and perhaps being honest about inconsistencies might be better when you look back at things.

A couple more from me: