Day Fifty Two: A Torrent in Romagna by Camille Corot
Hello and welcome to day 52 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'A Torrent in Romagna' by Camille Corot.
Camille Corot was not actually a Tonalist painter, he was a painter of the Barbizon school. However, I consider it his style to be so influential on the movement of Tonalism that I've included quite a few of his paintings in this series. I will be reading some information about Camille Corot in today's video narration so please check that out.
Getting back to our current assay of my painting process; today I'd like to discuss texturing of my substrates. As I wrote in our last blog post, I paint exclusively on wood panels. At the 5x7 size that I do my studies, I have been texturizing my panels for many years. For the larger sizes that I paint I have been predominantly using a sanding sealer tinted with burnt sienna to coat my boards, sanding in between each coat. I've been preparing my boards for my larger paintings in this way for quite a while.
Recently, I began texturizing the boards I use for my larger works as well. This is one of the changes in my working approach that came about because of my doing this series. The reason that I decided to texturize the substrate of my larger paintings is that I really enjoyed using the texture to pull off small bits of paint in the second color pass stages, while doing the studies for this series. So, it occurred to me that it would give me another arrow in my quiver in regards to painting my larger work.
I have experimented with different types of texturing applied in different ways to my boards, especially early on in my painting journey. For quite a while now I have settled on an approach whereby I use transparent acrylic gesso that has burnt sienna acrylic paint added to it. This mixture is fairly thick yet still viscous. After selecting and sanding my boards for a new series of works I will then apply this gesso mixture.
My preferred method for application is as follows: I place the board on a piece of newsprint, flat on my work surface. I then dip the tip of a 2 inch house painting type brush into my gesso mixture. Depending on the size of the board I will generally get about a half-inch of gesso on to the brush. I then began applying the gesso to my board covering it quickly with even strokes. Because I do not wish to have brush strokes in my texture, what I do next, is wipe the excess gesso off of the brush.
I then pick up the board and while holding it, I start using the flat side of the brush to smack the surface of the board. Working quickly in a circular motions I cover the entire board with this texture. I take great care at this stage to avoid any obvious directional patterns that may adversely affect my later painting. The point of applying texture is to give me a surface that is subtle, yet uniform that I can use to pull paint off the brush, generally at the later stages of my painting.
I learned a long time ago not to leave the little peaks of the gesso/paint mixture too high. I've tried many different approaches to even out these peaks. What I have settled on recently, is to let the board dry a little bit and then I will go over it again with the same brush that has been mostly wiped off. This breaks up the larger peaks into a far smaller and more manageable texture.
I will repeat this process with all 14 or 15 boards in the series that I am doing and then I will let them dry overnight. Acrylic gesso dries fairly rapidly, I'm sure that if I needed to I could probably begin painting right away, however I prefer to make sure that the gesso texture is 100% dry before working over the top of it in oils.
Generally before I do my drawings with oil paints on the freshly prepared boards, I will give them a very light sanding with sandpaper, to knock back the pointiest parts of the texture.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'A Torrent in Romagna' by Camille Corot; I quite like the composition of this painting by Camille. I did have to work a bit harder on this one, than on some of the others, because there is some very subtle areas in the painting especially around the the river and horizon.
Overall I'm very happy with the way the study turned out and I really appreciate getting the chance to absorb more of Camille Corot's amazing style. Hopefully I can incorporate the best aspects of what he did into my own work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - A Torrent in Romagna by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'A Torrent in Romagna' by Camille Corot.
Camille Corot was not actually a Tonalist painter, he was a painter of the Barbizon school. However, I consider it his style to be so influential on the movement of Tonalism that I've included quite a few of his paintings in this series. I will be reading some information about Camille Corot in today's video narration so please check that out.
Getting back to our current assay of my painting process; today I'd like to discuss texturing of my substrates. As I wrote in our last blog post, I paint exclusively on wood panels. At the 5x7 size that I do my studies, I have been texturizing my panels for many years. For the larger sizes that I paint I have been predominantly using a sanding sealer tinted with burnt sienna to coat my boards, sanding in between each coat. I've been preparing my boards for my larger paintings in this way for quite a while.
Recently, I began texturizing the boards I use for my larger works as well. This is one of the changes in my working approach that came about because of my doing this series. The reason that I decided to texturize the substrate of my larger paintings is that I really enjoyed using the texture to pull off small bits of paint in the second color pass stages, while doing the studies for this series. So, it occurred to me that it would give me another arrow in my quiver in regards to painting my larger work.
I have experimented with different types of texturing applied in different ways to my boards, especially early on in my painting journey. For quite a while now I have settled on an approach whereby I use transparent acrylic gesso that has burnt sienna acrylic paint added to it. This mixture is fairly thick yet still viscous. After selecting and sanding my boards for a new series of works I will then apply this gesso mixture.
My preferred method for application is as follows: I place the board on a piece of newsprint, flat on my work surface. I then dip the tip of a 2 inch house painting type brush into my gesso mixture. Depending on the size of the board I will generally get about a half-inch of gesso on to the brush. I then began applying the gesso to my board covering it quickly with even strokes. Because I do not wish to have brush strokes in my texture, what I do next, is wipe the excess gesso off of the brush.
I then pick up the board and while holding it, I start using the flat side of the brush to smack the surface of the board. Working quickly in a circular motions I cover the entire board with this texture. I take great care at this stage to avoid any obvious directional patterns that may adversely affect my later painting. The point of applying texture is to give me a surface that is subtle, yet uniform that I can use to pull paint off the brush, generally at the later stages of my painting.
I learned a long time ago not to leave the little peaks of the gesso/paint mixture too high. I've tried many different approaches to even out these peaks. What I have settled on recently, is to let the board dry a little bit and then I will go over it again with the same brush that has been mostly wiped off. This breaks up the larger peaks into a far smaller and more manageable texture.
I will repeat this process with all 14 or 15 boards in the series that I am doing and then I will let them dry overnight. Acrylic gesso dries fairly rapidly, I'm sure that if I needed to I could probably begin painting right away, however I prefer to make sure that the gesso texture is 100% dry before working over the top of it in oils.
Generally before I do my drawings with oil paints on the freshly prepared boards, I will give them a very light sanding with sandpaper, to knock back the pointiest parts of the texture.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'A Torrent in Romagna' by Camille Corot; I quite like the composition of this painting by Camille. I did have to work a bit harder on this one, than on some of the others, because there is some very subtle areas in the painting especially around the the river and horizon.
Overall I'm very happy with the way the study turned out and I really appreciate getting the chance to absorb more of Camille Corot's amazing style. Hopefully I can incorporate the best aspects of what he did into my own work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, A Torrent in Romagna by Camille Corot |