Monday, December 15, 2008

Oil sketch



This little 3" x 5" sketch in oils took a hefty 2 hours to do. I haven't painted in quite a while, and want to develop more control in the medium. I am far from it, as you can see by the muddy colors and heavy purples in the sketch. I worked from a photo of Otter Creek PA my wife took last time we were up there.

I was having a hard time painting wet on wet and with only one brush (I dislike having to clean tons of brushes!). My friend Steven Geer told me I should be using multiple brushes and paint shadows thinly at first, building up to thicker opaque lighter values, so that's what I'll be working on next time. Wish me luck!

3 comments:

enosh said...

Yesssss! That's great matt! I just ordered some gouache so I’ll be doing similar studies with that! I'm pretty excited myself!

Thanks for the comment on my conceptual sketches for my comic. Have you ever seen the book, The Skillful Huntsman? They do silhouette sketches like you were talking about. It is very helpful, you are right. I think in my case I was a little impatient! Nevertheless, there will be more sketches! Everything's subject to change at this stage.

Becky said...

Oils are hard, you did a good job. I took an oils class back in the day and I had a hard time planning ahead with my color values- Which = a lot of wasted paint. lol

Becky Sharp said...

That's a great painting for being out of practice, Matt! I have a love/hate relationship with oils. I always love the finished product, but the process is sometimes painful! Keep on painting. You have inspired me to get my paints and brushes out...one of these days. :)