Oil Painting demonstration
John Oil on linen board
Step by step demonstration By Graham Longworth http://grahamlongworth.carbonmade.com/
Oil painting demonstration
John
Graham Longworth
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I paint portraits, landscapes and still life in oil on a variety of surfaces. For this painting, I chose to use a 10 inch by 12 inch linen panel. The linen is supplied with a clear primer so you can see the colour of the raw linen. This surface is challenging because any paint that goes on the area you want bare will not come off. It is worth trying because the bare linen makes a very effective background for a vignette like this. For this painting my palette was: Zinc White Titanium White Burnt Sienna Raw Umber Light Red Cadmium Yellow Ultramarine Blue I used Liquin Light Gel for helping the flow of the paint and also in the glazes in the later stages. I started by making pencil drawings of John and on my third iteration I was happy that I had a good likeness. This drawing on A4 sized paper was the exact size of my intended painting.
Oil painting demonstration
John
On a photocopy of my drawing, I put in a few grid lines. I ruled corresponding grid lines with pastel pencil on the linen panel. With very careful measuring, I ensured those lines were only on the part of the linen that would be covered by paint. I then re-drew the drawing onto the panel with a thinned down mixture of raw umber.
Graham Longworth
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It is not quite right but it was good enough to work from. Notice how the tilt of the head is different. I had to leave the top edge of the head and shoulders out so I could finish them into bare linen at a later stage. From here I blocked in an underpainting, starting with the darks and then moving into the lighter tones. This gave me the chance to work out where the darkest shadows and tones should sit.
At this stage the face ended up too wide but the tilt of the head started to re-emerge. There were other minor placement errors but now I had more to work with. The next stage was to work on getting the exact tones I wanted across the face and head. Again, I started with the darks and moved on to the lighter tones. Wet on wet techniques were used to blend the edges of the shadows into the lighter areas.
I could not resist putting in highlights in the eyes, even though they would be covered with more layers. Oil painting demonstration
John
Graham Longworth
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head. The Burnt Sienna glaze was used in varying degrees across most of the face. Very thin layers of Zinc White restored the lighter areas of the brow, tip of the nose and the chin.
By now it was starting to look like John but the face was still too wide and there were other areas to fix. I brought the lower part of the face in by repositioning the ears and moving in the jacket and the shirt collar. It was now time to develop the shadows down the side of the face and to make the lower lip fuller. Multiple glazes were used to selectively darken and enrich the surface. These were made with Liquin Light Gel and Burnt Sienna and tiny amounts of Raw Umber. To maintain an even shine, the entire face, except for the glasses, received a glaze. Raw umber was only used around the top of the Oil painting demonstration
John
This is getting closer to looking like John. Closer examination showed that the irises of the eyes were a fraction too small and that the top teeth were too short. These corrections needed a couple of painting sessions to allow each colour to dry before the adjoining area was painted. More glazes were selectively added where needed and the light and dark areas of the lower lip were carefully blended. Graham Longworth
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The highlights in the eyes were restored and enhanced and I then signed the painting. Here is the finished painting.
I hope you have enjoyed following the progression of this painting. This painting was developed from many layers that had up to a week of drying time between layers. It was safe to give it a protective layer of varnish sooner than my other paintings that have thicker layers.
I would be happy to talk to you about creating your special portrait in this style or with different backgrounds. You can see more examples at grahamlongworth.carbonmade.com/
A fine painting deserves a good quality frame. A timber frame with a narrow white slip seems just right. This is what it looks like on the wall.
Oil painting demonstration
John
Graham Longworth
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