Iss 9 Pete On Art - Painting Techniques and Materials
Table of Contents:
1. Painting Techniques and Materials – What I am using in creation!
2. Oil Painting Methods and Techniques List
3. Inspired Thoughts – What is it all for?
4. The Glorious Void.
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1.0 Title Painting Techniques and Materials – What I am using in creation!
There are hundreds of methods and techniques both modern and antiquated. Today we have the luxury to mix both the new and old and create endless possibilities. With the autumn scene and dragonfly painting below, I began en-plein air with the idea of just simply trying something different, I had no true plan just a few ideas to try that would create hopefully interesting marks and textures.
For in the field mark making I decided to take a small selection of water based spray cans, some oil bars, and with the help of natures provisions I hoped to let loose and see what can be achieved.
We were meeting at Cockington Manor, we had met there before and there is a wonderful old elm tree which I was thinking to include in the painting in some way, beyond that vague idea of a plan it was all down to inspiration on the day.
We all met for coffee, had a chat and then dispersed around the Manor grounds. It had rained the night before so the ground was damp, however having canvas as opposed to paper it did not hamper or alter my intention.
I set myself up under the old elm tree and began by collecting fallen leaves, interesting-looking twigs and other fallen flower heads. I arranged these on the canvas sheets in an interesting combination and then used the spray paints to create some interesting shapes and colour passages.
I allowed these to dry.
I then attempted to attach the canvas panel to the tree with masking tape and using oil bars tried to get some degree of texture and bark pattern. As
the canvas was so thick and the tree bark very course this was not very successful so I accepted that limitation and returned to the plant material and spray paint. I also used the concrete path for texture. This completed the en-plein air excursion and the first stage of the painting.
Back in the studio I moved onto using oil colour paint, adding a Walnut Oil and Alkyd medium to both speed up the drying time and enhance the paints fluidity. Using fallen leaves of various shapes and sizes from the garden I applied oil paint to a leaf and pressed it to the canvas to create a stencil effect, each leaf can be used a number of times, but care needs to be taken to avoid too
much repetition. The painting layers were slowly built up and enhanced in this way until I was satisfied with the result.
A final stage was to add more tonal depth and balance, some more foreground grasses a hint of background water and the dragon fly near
the naturally derived focal point. I am now at a point where I think the painting may be complete, however I am putting it to one side and will review it again after a few days or even a week.
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2.0 Oil Painting Methods and Techniques
Here are some oil painting methods and techniques: Please select up to three that interest you most and I will be glad to explain and demonstrate in a future Newsletter.
- Alla prima (wet-on-wet)
- Chiaroscuro
- Dry brushing
- Glazing
- Impasto
- Knife painting
- Layering
- Marbling
- Mixing colours on the palettePainting with a palette knife
- Palette knife blending
- Palette knife impasto
- Palette knife painting
- Pointillism
- Scumbling
- Sfumato
- Sgraffito
- Sponging
- Stippling
- Stippling and blending
- Thick and thin paint application
- Tinted underpainting
- Titanium white highlights
- Transparent glazing
- Underpainting
- Rag rolling
- Blotting
- Feathering
- Hatching
- Cross-hatching
These techniques involve various methods of applying, mixing, and manipulating oil paint on the canvas to achieve different visual effects, textures, and styles in oil painting.
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3.0 What is It All For - Inspired Thoughts
Questions about our life such as What is it all for? And What is it all about? Are fundamentally the wrong questions we should ask. What we are really looking for is a state of being, and the question we may then ask is how do I achieve that state in my own life?
We know this state when, we don’t want to change, we don’t get bored and we are content.
It is like playing a record that you really love, you play it over and over. The state of being is like being in the groove of the record, if you relax there is no effort to remain in the groove, and you have no desire to come out of it.
Time often appears suspended. We are satisfied to the core. We feel like we belong. We are joyful and happy in a way we have rarely if ever experienced before.
Even when things are tough, difficult and challenging we are still content and joyful.
Life is for and about being in that state.
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4.0 The Glorious Void
4.0 The Glorious Void
When I paint I quickly enter an internal space where there is no “To Do List”, time slips away.
It is like being in a state of not needing.
It is as if you know you know everything you wanted to know, but when you know everything there is no need to know anything.
All cares and worries are suspended just for a time. You are in the glorious void.
You are in The Glorious Void
Physically you are doing, mentally you know you are thinking but you are not thinking about it.
It is as if you are watching from the sidelines, a spectator.
Step by step a baby is created, your artwork, almost ready to be released to the world. And then there is a deep breath, a sense of accomplishment, tiredness, satisfaction, joy and inner peace.
I imagine this is what it is like being home in spirit, individually perfect and yet connected to all that is.
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Hi! I am Pete, my goal is to bring Joy. Peace and Harmony to the world and beyond.
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