The start of something new

I thought I'd start painting in oils again after a long absence from the art worlds. Having spent a few early years oil painting it seemed the easiest thing to get back into for a hobby. Many of you probably had a hobby or some skill you abandoned to join life and all its gestures and time consuming adventures. I too left behind that skill only to appreciate it all the more once I began again. One thing about art that I find it is physically relaxing yet mentally stimulating in ways that would make almost anyone with any cleverness want this as a career. I too wouldn't mind an income in something less grueling than the physical trade I am in now.

As you can see my first oil in over 20 years has some possibilities and certainly encourages me to do more. Anyone starting out for the first time in oils i suggest you keep your pallet of colors simple and straight forward without more than a half dozen colors. Manly because of the expense but also too many colors spoils and complicates a picture if you do not have a full grasp of their uses. The colors here were modest. Titanium white, cad yellow, burnt sienna, raw umber, ultramarine blue, sap green and vermillion. I also used a touch of yellow ochre. That is eight colors and old left over paints that I had to boil the tops off of as they were firmly stuck in place from many years of no use. By the way that is a good trick if you have any stuck tops on your paint tubes. Place them upside down in boiling water until the plastic cap softens along with the paint and they will come off with ease. My second picture was a practice, or should I say a discovery on how to make brick and mortar. Still going with the China theme I selected the great wall as an image. The previous picture was inspired by my own photography in china where as this was from an internet source. I modified the season and the size and cropped it to what I wanted to see. This is the result.

I'm a rather prolific painter once a get motivated so it doesn't stop here. I usually work a few canvasses at once because of dry times and I am impatient when in the mood to paint. So don't be afraid to paint a sky for one painting then move to preliminary blocking out of areas with background colors or shadows and outlines. I am not classically trained though I do have an understanding of under painting and glazing and such. Like the Old Masters it is correct to apply paint to your canvas in what is called dead colors and work toward the surface of what the final color may be. More about that later. Basically I may have two or more ideas going at once so I can keep busy while each layer dries . I wasn't happy with this image as some how I felt I didn't capture the brightness and darkness of an overcast fog and sun peering through the clouds and shadows of the mountains.

As you can see this has a very limited pallet of colors but still achieves a decent image. Basically Titanium white, burnt sienna, raw umber, black and a dab of ultramarine and vermillion again. Might have used a little yellow ochre also. Well got to go, there is canvas waiting for me.