Category: Oil Painting

Getting Wiggy

My social media feeds kept showing me wigs (how do they know my formerly boisterously curly hair was getting thin, grey and wimpy?) The influencers looked so cute in their (probably very expensive) wigs that I decided to try one.

A dog park acquaintance who always wears a wig recommended I order one from Temu. It was cheap, hideous, huge, hanging over my eyes and shedding. It quickly went back to Temu, a store I’m not a fan of.

Then a friend pointed me to some higher-quality inexpensive wigs on Amazon. I bought the one I’m wearing in the picture because it reminded me of what my hair looked like in my 20s: long, thick, wavy, chestnut color.

Unfortunately, not being anywhere close to my 20s anymore, I looked ridiculous in it close up. But it was fun to take a selfie wearing it and then paint a self-portrait before returning the wig.

About Painting: I recently watched an online painting video with Carol Peebles. Her guidance about comparative measuring in portrait drawing clarified so many things I’d been confused about. It helped me to get a likeness with much less struggling.

Painting is so much more fun when starting with a good drawing! I’m really happy with how this turned out. I think it’s my favorite self-portrait ever and I’ve done at least 50 of them over the years.

Tags Art, Faces, Oil Painting, People, Portrait, Portrait drawing, self-portrait

Art Oil Painting

Have a Cow

This calf was in a photo on my Vermont friend Ruth’s Strava page and I thought it was so cute I took a break from the people portraits I’ve been working on to do a quick oil sketch of it.

Ruth told me about the photo: “It’s the dairy farm next door. Run by Sebastian Von Trapp, who is the great grandson of Captain Von Trapp. Sebastian’s grandfather was one of the Von Trapp singers!”

Tags Animals, calf, Cow, Oil Painting

Art Drawing Faces Oil Painting Painting People Portrait

Back from Burnout

Oil painting portrait of Fiona’s Friend — Portrait of Fiona’s Friend with the Mona Lisa Smile, oil 10x8”

Oil painting of Fiona’s friend 10”x8” on gessoed Arches Oil Paper — Portrait of Fiona’s Friend with the Mona Lisa Smile, oil 10×8”

I’m finally back to painting and drawing again after a very long break. For nearly a year I had illustrated my dreams and the daily Wordle and had posted about half of them. Then I burned out.

For the first time in my life I went for months without drawing or painting and for the first time since I started my blog in 2006, I stopped posting to0. I was afraid my passion for painting was gone for good and wondered who I would be without it.

Finally my desire to paint and draw came back (hooray!!!) BUT I was so rusty! Before the burnout I was able to quickly sketch a decent likeness. That was gone (as you can see in some of the failed attempts below!)

Some of the preliminary sketch starts (that didn’t end up in the trash)

It took more than seven sketch-starts before I kind of remembered how I draw (above).

Final painting and 2 of the failed painting starts

Then it took 5 painting starts before I felt I had a good enough beginning structure to keep going and complete the portrait.

My goal was to capture her Mona Lisa-like smile and I wouldn’t stop until I did.

Tags Art, artist, burnout, Holbein Duo Water Soluble Oil Paints, Oil Painting, Painting, Portrait, portrait painting

Art Oil Painting Painting People Portrait Watercolor

Sadie and the Swim Trophy

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date October 1, 2022
13 Comments on Sadie and the Swim Trophy

Sadie and the swim trophy, watercolor — Sadie and the 2021 Swim Trophy, watercolor, 10”x7.5”

My granddaughter Sadie loves to swim (and play soccer, basketball and read books, too). At the end of the season, after winning many races and awards, to fundraise for her team she swims lap after lap and people pledge $ per lap.

Trying to paint Sadie from this photo led to me giving up on oils and going back to watercolor. As was my way with oils, I tried repeatedly, persistently (obsessively?) but couldn’t make it work. This watercolor isn’t perfect, but it captures the joy of the moment and that makes me happy.

Failed oil paintings — Abandoned Oil Paintings, 9×12”
L-R: Start of painting #2; unfinished painting #2; unfinished painting #1

With watercolor I’m able to paint to a certain point and then happily call it done. Watercolor doesn’t allow you to keep fiddling forever like oil does.

Final drawing for the portrait painting — Final drawing for the painting (after many corrections)

I again used a limited palette because it’s fun to see what I can do with only 3 colors. This time it was DS Hansa Yellow Medium, WN Permanent Alizarin and WN Cobalt Blue.

Limited palette color wheel of primary triad — Test of Limited Palette Primary Triad using DS Hansa Yellow Medium, WN Cobalt Blue and Alizarin Permanent

I used to think it was really weird that artists limited their palettes. I thought one needed every possible color in order to capture color exactly. But now I prefer the harmony a limited palette provides and don’t really care about capturing exactly the colors in real life. I’m not trying to be a photocopier.

Tags Art, Drawing, Oil Painting, Painting, People, Portrait, Portrait drawing, watercolor painting, watercolor portrait

Art Oil Painting Watercolor

Farewell Oil Painting; Hello Watercolor, My Old Friend

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date May 10, 2022
30 Comments on Farewell Oil Painting; Hello Watercolor, My Old Friend

Strawberries, Cheerios and Milk, 20×21″, watercolor 2013

The watercolor paintings in this post are from 10-20 years ago. I haven’t been posting new work for several months because I got stuck working on one oil painting portrait. I struggled with it, overworking, reworking, starting over, rinse and repeat. There’s something about being able to endlessly work on an oil painting that triggers my perfectionism, and not in a good way.

Watercolor and gouache have natural stopping points. You have to pause to let the paint and paper dry. You can’t keep painting layer on layer endlessly or you have a muddy mess. You either call it done or you start over.

Sister City Parade, Watercolor, 22×30″, 2001
(An actual parade going down the street in my neighborhood
when I was moving in 22 years ago)

I also became sensitive to solvents. I stopped using Gamsol while painting but even the smell of drying oil paint without solvents made me feel icky. Just using a little Gamsol for brush and palette cleaning left me with the taste of metal in my mouth and a headache, both signs of chemical sensitivity. I already have funky lungs so that was it. Bye-bye oils.

Ruth Bancroft Gardens Old Barn, ink & watercolor, 5x8" — Ruth Bancroft Gardens Old Barn, ink & watercolor, 5×8″ 2013, SOLD

I’ve always preferred the look of watercolors to oil paintings anyway. In fact the only paintings I have hanging in my home are watercolors. I thought I would go through a grieving period but it’s been a couple months and I’ve felt only relief and excitement.

Sleeping Neighbor, Watercolor 30×22″, 2009, SOLD

I have thousands of dollars worth of oil paint, oil brushes, canvases, panels and oil paper that I will sell at some point. In the meantime, I’m finding it thrilling to watch water and color flow on paper again.

Sold. Michelle’s Rose, Watercolor, 2015 (SOLD)
(Painted as a demo in a watercolor class I was teaching)

Tags painting process, sensitivity, Watercolor

Art Faces Oil Painting People Portrait

Emi

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date April 5, 2020
5 Comments on Emi

This commissioned portrait of a darling little girl was really fun to paint but had some challenges, like trying to invent the pajamas hidden by the highchair straps. It took several drawings (including one of a baby skull I found on Google) before I was ready to move ahead with the painting as you can see in the process steps below.

Emi’s face was actually easier to paint than the pajamas, and I was tempted to keep working on them, probably forever, but the friend who commissioned the painting was happy with it as is, so I am too.

Below is some of the work in progress steps. Please note that the lighting changed the colors in some of the photos.

Tags baby, Oil Painting, oil portrait, Portrait

Art Digital art Drawing Faces Oil Painting People Portrait Sktchy

Three Portraits of Dayris

Portrait of Dayris, Oil on Arches Oil Paper, 10"x8.5"

I’ve had so much fun painting and sketching the lovely Dayris from Sktchy in oil (above), and before that, in pencil and then doing a digital sketch in Procreate (below). Also below you’ll find a slide show of the work in progress. Doing the two initial drawings really helped me quickly get a pretty accurate drawing for the oil painting. You can see her reference photo on Sktchy here.