Arcadian Twilight 18x24
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Arcadian Twilight' 18x24.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about oil paint. After having recently read the book "American Painters on Technique: 1860 - 1945". I have been making attempts to adjust the thickness of my initial paint layer. The reason for this is that it is a scientific fact that oil paint becomes more translucent with age and for that reason if painted too thinly, bottom layers will make themselves increasingly present with the passage of time.
I was not exactly painting in a super thin manner previous to reading this book but I was basically just using enough paint to cover the burnt sienna ground color of my wood panel. I think I'm probably okay with the paintings I've done, but I am making an attempt to lay down a thicker overall paint film now in the interests of my work appearing fresh and opaque for hundreds of years into the future.
This definitely affects my painting technique in many large and subtle ways. So far, on the three or four paintings I've done last week where I have endeavored to lay down a thicker initial paint layer, I've been pleased with the effect and I am enjoying using more paint.
I've been reading that it's good for a painter to use a lot of paint ever since I started painting back in 2008,but generally speaking I have been more minimal in my approach. Also, as my work has become more and more Tonalist in nature, I would often apply many layers of thin paint over my initial color pass, not really worrying too much about how the color may become more translucent over time.
It will be interesting in the following weeks to see how this thicker initial paint layer responds to glazes and dry brushing. In general, I'm excited about it and I feel that I'm having some good success moving in this direction.
I've never been a fan of impasto painting. Where I have overly thick brush marks or globs of paint on my painting surface I prefer to scrape them off rather than leave them and have these ridges create unsightly and distracting glares. My plan is to continue doing this and I think these paintings are going to turn out looking pretty great.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Arcadian Twilight' 18x24; this is a good one to watch the video for because I ended up changing direction extensively with the foreground elements. Initially, I had a road that actually looked pretty good in the 5x7 study, but as I proceeded to scale the scene up, it seemed to take over a huge amount of the surface area of my larger painting to the point where I felt it was distracting and not really working.
This was aggravated by the fact that on this road were some strong horizontal shadows from bushes and trees off to the right-hand side. I wanted them to appear transparent, but ran into a lot of trouble and difficulty as I attempted to pull off the effect. In the end, the painting had crashed and burned. Rather than just stick it in the pile of failed paintings that I keep handy in my studio to paint over, I decided to composite a waterfall into my reference and proceeded to paint over the road. The overall effect of the waterfall is pleasing and the painting is fairly successful now, though I would prefer to have had a fresher approach throughout.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Arcadian Twilight by M Francis McCarthy, 18x24 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about oil paint. After having recently read the book "American Painters on Technique: 1860 - 1945". I have been making attempts to adjust the thickness of my initial paint layer. The reason for this is that it is a scientific fact that oil paint becomes more translucent with age and for that reason if painted too thinly, bottom layers will make themselves increasingly present with the passage of time.
I was not exactly painting in a super thin manner previous to reading this book but I was basically just using enough paint to cover the burnt sienna ground color of my wood panel. I think I'm probably okay with the paintings I've done, but I am making an attempt to lay down a thicker overall paint film now in the interests of my work appearing fresh and opaque for hundreds of years into the future.
This definitely affects my painting technique in many large and subtle ways. So far, on the three or four paintings I've done last week where I have endeavored to lay down a thicker initial paint layer, I've been pleased with the effect and I am enjoying using more paint.
I've been reading that it's good for a painter to use a lot of paint ever since I started painting back in 2008,but generally speaking I have been more minimal in my approach. Also, as my work has become more and more Tonalist in nature, I would often apply many layers of thin paint over my initial color pass, not really worrying too much about how the color may become more translucent over time.
It will be interesting in the following weeks to see how this thicker initial paint layer responds to glazes and dry brushing. In general, I'm excited about it and I feel that I'm having some good success moving in this direction.
I've never been a fan of impasto painting. Where I have overly thick brush marks or globs of paint on my painting surface I prefer to scrape them off rather than leave them and have these ridges create unsightly and distracting glares. My plan is to continue doing this and I think these paintings are going to turn out looking pretty great.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Arcadian Twilight' 18x24; this is a good one to watch the video for because I ended up changing direction extensively with the foreground elements. Initially, I had a road that actually looked pretty good in the 5x7 study, but as I proceeded to scale the scene up, it seemed to take over a huge amount of the surface area of my larger painting to the point where I felt it was distracting and not really working.
This was aggravated by the fact that on this road were some strong horizontal shadows from bushes and trees off to the right-hand side. I wanted them to appear transparent, but ran into a lot of trouble and difficulty as I attempted to pull off the effect. In the end, the painting had crashed and burned. Rather than just stick it in the pile of failed paintings that I keep handy in my studio to paint over, I decided to composite a waterfall into my reference and proceeded to paint over the road. The overall effect of the waterfall is pleasing and the painting is fairly successful now, though I would prefer to have had a fresher approach throughout.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Arcadian Twilight 18x24 (Detail) |
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| Arcadian Twilight 18x24 (Detail 2) |