Coming out of the Glade 5x7
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Coming out of the Glade' 5x7.
I painted this study about a year ago in October 2014. In today's video narration I philosophize about time, art, the reasons why I create, and how time and consciousness are encapsulated within an oil painting. If that sounds interesting to you please check out today's video.
In the midst of my general rambling on today's video, I mention how when I make a mark with my brush it is sometimes modulated or modified afterwards. There are four different ways that I might go about doing this:
I utilize all of these approaches. Often there is not a lot of conscious thought before deciding which approach would be most effective, it is more interactive and intuitive than thought out.
I have seen different painters do different things to modify their brushstrokes. Some of them put a piece of paper over the top the painting and lightly rub it, or they use the side of a large clean brush to gently soften their brushwork.
The point of doing any of these techniques is to make sure that all of your brushstrokes are working together to create the desired effect in your painting. If every brushstroke has a sharp defined edge the painting can be quite uncomfortable to look at. Some of the brushwork has to be softened, this is very important to the overall success of the painting.
I mentioned several ways that I like to effect changes on my initial brushwork above. One of the common mistakes that amateurs make, is to over blend their brushstrokes to the point that their paintings have a extremely soft, almost greasy appearance. It's this sort of painting that gives oil paint a bad name. It is so easy to do this with oil paint because it stays wet for longer than most other mediums.
If I feel areas of a painting are over blended, I am most likely going to do some repainting to reintroduce character to those areas. What is ideal is to have all of your brushstrokes creating a cohesive lattice that is not too tight or too loose. Blending is best accomplished by mixing intermediate colors as opposed to feathering two colors together. Not to say that there are not times when working wet into wet gives you good results by moving wet paint into wet paint.
On the video I specifically mentioned the use of paper towel, You will notice while watching the videos I've made of my painting processes that I do this quite a lot and, in the finishing stages of my painting many of the strokes that I'm laying down are daubed with a paper towel before I move on to the next passage. I don't know what I would do without paper towels! I sometimes wonder what the Masters in the past used instead, I guess it would've had to have been rags of some type.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Coming out of the Glade' 5 x 7; I'm quite happy with this study and I'm also happy with the larger version of the motif that we will be discussing on Saturday. I'm always interested in transitions from light into dark or vice a versa and I think that 'Coming out of the Glade' is effective because we are naturally drawn along the path to the well lit area that is in the distance.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Coming out of the Glade by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
I painted this study about a year ago in October 2014. In today's video narration I philosophize about time, art, the reasons why I create, and how time and consciousness are encapsulated within an oil painting. If that sounds interesting to you please check out today's video.
In the midst of my general rambling on today's video, I mention how when I make a mark with my brush it is sometimes modulated or modified afterwards. There are four different ways that I might go about doing this:
- After making my initial mark, I can hit it a second time with a brush that has less paint.
- After making my initial mark ,I can lightly touch it with my finger.
- I can put down my brush and use a pallet knife to gently scratch or squiggle at the brushwork I've just painted.
- After doing several brushstrokes I can use a paper towel to daub at the painting.
I utilize all of these approaches. Often there is not a lot of conscious thought before deciding which approach would be most effective, it is more interactive and intuitive than thought out.
I have seen different painters do different things to modify their brushstrokes. Some of them put a piece of paper over the top the painting and lightly rub it, or they use the side of a large clean brush to gently soften their brushwork.
The point of doing any of these techniques is to make sure that all of your brushstrokes are working together to create the desired effect in your painting. If every brushstroke has a sharp defined edge the painting can be quite uncomfortable to look at. Some of the brushwork has to be softened, this is very important to the overall success of the painting.
I mentioned several ways that I like to effect changes on my initial brushwork above. One of the common mistakes that amateurs make, is to over blend their brushstrokes to the point that their paintings have a extremely soft, almost greasy appearance. It's this sort of painting that gives oil paint a bad name. It is so easy to do this with oil paint because it stays wet for longer than most other mediums.
If I feel areas of a painting are over blended, I am most likely going to do some repainting to reintroduce character to those areas. What is ideal is to have all of your brushstrokes creating a cohesive lattice that is not too tight or too loose. Blending is best accomplished by mixing intermediate colors as opposed to feathering two colors together. Not to say that there are not times when working wet into wet gives you good results by moving wet paint into wet paint.
On the video I specifically mentioned the use of paper towel, You will notice while watching the videos I've made of my painting processes that I do this quite a lot and, in the finishing stages of my painting many of the strokes that I'm laying down are daubed with a paper towel before I move on to the next passage. I don't know what I would do without paper towels! I sometimes wonder what the Masters in the past used instead, I guess it would've had to have been rags of some type.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Coming out of the Glade' 5 x 7; I'm quite happy with this study and I'm also happy with the larger version of the motif that we will be discussing on Saturday. I'm always interested in transitions from light into dark or vice a versa and I think that 'Coming out of the Glade' is effective because we are naturally drawn along the path to the well lit area that is in the distance.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Coming out of the Glade by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 (Detail) |