I read about the Daily Painters’ 10 minute exercise (paint the same thing four times, 10 minutes each) and thought it sounded like fun. What I learned from my attempt (below) is that I need more than ten minutes to do a painting, even if it is small. So when I finished doing the exercise below, I gave myself more time, and painted the study above, exploring a way of painting that works better for me.
I think I’ve found a way to approach an oil painting that works for me, and it’s sort of* illustrated in the top study above.
- Sketch in the big shapes and indicate the lines of the planes using *thinned paint (see diagrams in previous post here).
- With the same thin paint (*not thick paint as I did here), fill in the shadows to indicate darks and leave the light areas white.
- Use both dark/light and warm/cool variations of colors to model the form.
- Lastly add light highlights, dark accents, details and make any other necessary adjustments.
*Sort of because originally in the top study each square illustrated those 4 steps, but I played around with the first two, adding white paint between the plane lines, and turning the thinly blocked in value sketch into a value study with black and white paint.
Jana Bouc, Artist 