For some reason I was feeling incredibly anxious today. I’m sure, if I spent any time thinking deeply about my situation (the drudgery of job searching, the still-stinging pain of being laid off, upcoming travel) I would understand the reasons behind that anxiety, but I’m not going to dwell too much on it. Instead, I’m going to blog about the beginnings of an oil portrait painting.
Yesterday’s Gesso application had fully dried today. Next up is the burnt sienna underpainting. I use this to get the shapes and proportions of my face just right. I’m using a photo for my reference. I’m getting much more comfortable with not getting too attached with initial proportions and feeling freer to erase and start over when the spacing isn’t correct. For example, in this sketch, my original nose was too close to my top lip and too far from the bottom of my glasses. I could see that the spacing wasn’t correct, so I dipped a paper towel in some water and just scrubbed way the original nose. Now, it doesn’t matter if the details are correct since I’ll be going over everything with my base colors anyway.
Here are a few of the materials I have used to get started:
8x10 Artlicious primed canvas panel board. These were great and came 30 to a pack.
My trusty water container. This one has two wells where I can wash the oil paint off between colors. I also use copious paper towels to wipe off excess water and paint and to scrub off paint from the canvas.
Transom size 3 and 10 filbert brush, Amagic size 6 filbert, and a Dugato size 10 round brush. I probably didn’t need this many brushes for the underpainting, and I especially didn’t need the round brush. A filbert brush has a rounded edge and a round brush comes to a very small point.
Jack Richeson paper palette. I love paper palettes for oil painting because they are so much easier to clean up (you just throw them away), and I don’t have to worry about putting toxic paints down the sink.
Small desktop easel. You can get one for less than 15 dollars. I’ve learned that it’s better to paint upright because if you paint on a flat surface, your perspective can be skewed.
That’s all for tonight. I’m pretty pleased with how much easier my underpainting sketches are becoming for me.
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