WE'VE MOVED!

WAIT, NO. HIDE SOMEWHERE ELSE!

Starting February 2014 this blog will be out of action.

But DO NOT DESPAIR. We've just moved, and you can still find the same riveting and informative posts that you have come to expect on our new blog:

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Lovecraft Show: Oil Underpainting

This is still wet (hence the pencils protecting the scanner glass). The underpainting was done in Holbien Duo water miscible oils with Raw Umber and Ceramic White on panel.

12 comments:

  1. So an underpainting basically gives you your values, light and dark, and then allows you to layer color on top of those, right? I've never used oils before, so it's kind of a mystery to me.

    As a side note: the face in the jar resembles Chris Martin of Coldplay.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Will,

    That is correct. I have a much easier time working through each aspect of a piece in sequence. I prefer to nail down my values first, before moving onto color and final detail. This is why I am so flabbergasted by artists like Meseldzija and Manchess and Giancola. They can work value and color at the same time and still control it. My brain isn't like their brains and it only lets me focus on one thing at a time.

    As for the medium, this is actually the same process I use wether I am working in oil or digitally or in transparent media. When I learned to paint this way in oil, I found that I could not go back to working any other way, even with other mediums.

    If you haven't yet, you should try oils out. There are some great downloadable tutorials out there for anyone looking to get started in it today. Massive Black has demos by Manchess and Giancola. Also Schoolism.com offers some really tremendous courses that I thoroughly recommend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I totally agree about Manchess and Giancola. Very amazing work (and they can work so fast too!). Thanks for the references, I would really like to get into this sometime. The process you're describing makes a lot of sense because it would allow you to be much more dynamic with color and highlights since you've already dealt with your shadows, etc. It's kind of like working from biggest to smallest, so to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can't wait to see the next step.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I also look forward to the next step. Keep up the awesome posts!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is quite the beauty, as is. I'm really stoked to see where you take it from here, man!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great character representation.

    You know, your making me want to go back to value studies as my under layer. It does give my mind a stronger sense of clarity as I move through the process of making art.

    Thanks for sharing. I look forward to the final.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's a great tecnique! Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Why the water miscible oils? Do they give you a quicker dry time for the value undercoat?

    As always great work!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes, plus there isn't the hassle of solvents, which is the main reason I was interested in giving them a shot here. As for speed, they are somewhere in between the drying time of alkyd oils and traditional oils.

    ReplyDelete
  11. A very creepy and twisted painting. An intriguing and awesome artwork.

    ReplyDelete