Home Forums Explore Media Oil Painting Oil Painting – Hall of Fame Oil-from-life challenge, Oct. 2017: any subject, but especially autumn colors!

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  • #448668
    Grotius
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        Let’s paint from life! Please feel free to post any oil painting of any subject — landscapes, portraits, figures, still lifes, whatever — so long as it was painted primarily from life. This month we’re especially encouraging paintings with autumn colors, but any painting from life qualifies for this thread. Four guidelines:

        1. Please paint primarily from life — not from photographs or imagination. I would like to see your direct impressions of your subject, unmediated by cameras. (It’s okay to post finished studio works based on studies from life; in that case, please post the original study as well as the finished work.)

        2. Please submit something created new, this month, not something you’ve done in the past. (Optionally, you may post a photo of your work on the easel, with the subject in front of you, but this is not a requirement.)

        3. Please paint in oils. That said, please feel free to post studies in any other medium, (e.g., pencil, charcoal, pastel, watercolor, gouache, casein, acrylic) so long as you also post your oil painting(s).

        4. Please list the size of your painting and support. E.g., ‘”8×10″, oil on panel.’ All sizes and supports welcome. (Moscatel regularly submits paintings on Elephant Dung Paper!)

        Optional: Tell us the title of your painting! I think it helps us grow as artists to think about what we’re trying to say in our work, and titles are a part of that.

        —————–

        Unfinished works, studies, and outright failures are all welcome. There’s no requirement that you paint as well as the Old Masters. I certainly don’t! Likewise, there’s no requirement that you invite comment & critique. If you’d rather post without being critiqued, just say so; that’s fine by me!

        At the end of the month, I will sum up the proceedings with a written awards ceremony in which every artist will receive at least one written commendation from me, in the form of a post here in this forum. If you’d rather opt out of receiving such a commendation, just let me know. (Incidentally, you can find the September oil-from-life thread, including its award ceremony, in the “hall of fame” subforum of the Oil Painting forum.)

        I hope you’ll all consider posting something! Thanks.

        - Geoff.
        My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

        #534139
        Grotius
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            It’s time for the awards ceremony for the September oil-from-life thread! In September, we kept up our productivity, with roughly 24 plein air, 11 still lifes, and 5 or 6 portraits, for a total of around 40 paintings. That’s lots of new artwork in the universe! Here are some highlights. (Everyone should get at least one award: if I somehow left you out, please PM me and I’ll fix it!)

            The theme last month was nocturnes, so I’ll begin with those. The nights were chilly, but a few of us did get outside in the moonlight.

            Nocturnes :

            Best nocturnal moon – KarenDArt, “Full Moon over Carbondale.”
            Best nocturne in the style of the French impressionists: Moscatel, with her nocturne of a charming building that looks like something Monet might have painted.
            Fuzziest moon – me, wherein I discovered that cataracts and moons don’t mix well.
            Best nocturnal digital study – DMA’s candle. A charming picture!
            Best use of a limited palette – Moscatel, who brought no paint tubes at all! She painted with leftover paint on her palette. Now THAT’s dedication.

            Coincidence awards:

            Two guys who posted paintings of bridges on the same page of the thread: T1, “Over the Hocking” me, “Bridge over Massachusetts Avenue.”
            Two guys who posted paintings of fountains less than three hours apart: DaveCrow, Fountain at the Farmer’s Market; me, “Bronze Girl.”
            Three women who posted paintings of garden vegetables on the same page: DMA , “Colorful Garden Tomatoes”; KarenDArt, “Pinch Pot and Peppers”; AnnieA, “Carrot Seed Packet and Garden Fork.”

            Cityscapes :

            Best skyline – AnnieA, with her striking color study of smoke over Lake Union.
            Best use of one-point perspective – me, at last getting it right, in “Newark Street.”

            Landscapes :

            Best abstract – SoftRoses, with her abstract landscape. I hope she posts more!
            Best fog – DMA, “Foggy Afternoon.”
            Best architectureT1barkode’s impressively-drawn “Front porch.”
            Most charming fountain – DaveCrow, with his fountain at the farmer’s market.
            Best figure in the landscape – me, with “Angler’s Footbridge.”
            Straightest line of the month – T1, “Over the Hocking.” T1, master of the knife.

            Still lifes:

            Best centerpiece floral arrangement: SidBledsoe, whose lovely flowers drew well-deserved praise from several contributors to the thread.
            Best fine china – SoftRoses, with her finely-detailed “Lilies with Green Teacup.”
            Best use of light – T1‘s amazing “Wino’s Delight,” one of my favorite paintings of the month. Honorable mention to his “Grocery Flowers,” not to mention his well-lit workshop painting, which surpassed that of the workshop instructor.
            Best fall colors – DMA, “Autumn is Coming.” DMA also gets a commendation for anticipating this month’s “fall colors” theme. :)
            Best sunflowers – two award-winners here: SoftRoses for her lovely “Sunflowers in Blue Vase,” and DMA , for her equally lovely “The Last Trace of Sunflowers.”
            Best frameSoftRoses, who put “Lilies with Green Teacup” in a frame that suits it perfectly.

            Portraits :

            Best self-portrait: T1barkode, with two self portraits — one completed, one still in progress. Both really good. Finishing even one is really impressive. Self-portraits from life are hard.
            Runner-up for best self-portrait: Rembrandt van Rijn, “Self-portrait.” (The challenge rules clearly state the painting must have been painted this month; sorry, Rembrandt!)
            Best use of an old master – DMA for including Rembrandt in the thread. Let’s see some more Old Master paintings for inspiration!
            Best adviceDMA’s advice to T1 on his ongoing self-portrait. It was great to see one artist helping another.

            If I forgot anyone, please PM me and I will scurry around the awards room to find your award! Thank you ALL for participating in the thread. I get a lot out of this thread, and it’s all thanks to your contributions. Now, let’s do some more paintings from life!

            - Geoff.
            My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

            #534226
            DMArtist7
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                Hahahaha oh you Geoff on Rembrandt’s award! I bet he’s tossing around in his grave right now! :lol:

                I get a lot out of this thread, and it’s all thanks to your contributions.

                Me too! It helps me a lot! And thank you so much for hosting this awesome thread Geoff, to show you my appreciation, I’m going to do awards for you too!

                Amazing awards for Grotius also known as Geoff,

                Plein air awards:
                Best Story: “Lake Needwood” – still have to laugh about you saving your beloved umbrella!
                Best Brick Texture (fence or so?): “Pennyfield Lock” – congrats on your sale! And the composition is quite lovely, just that I found the way you did the bricks here are awesome, sorta modern and abstract, yet believable so that’s why I’m awarding you to this one. :)
                Bravest of All: “Bridge over Massachusetts Avenue” – you’re brave to stand in the middle of noisy action here!
                Most Relaxing Scene: “Bronze girl in Hubert Humphrey Park” – I find it very relaxing, the brushstrokes enhance that effect. Love it!
                Simple, but still awesome: “The Potomac River, from Swain’s Campsite” – it’s simple composition wise yes, but that’s a good thing. Overcomplicating things can kill the composition too so you’re on a good path.
                Most Authentic: “Nocturne” – For me, it’s always interesting to see through artist’s eyes and this piece speaks a lot to me.
                Best Open Landscape: “Church and Temple” – It’s just so nice to see what the landscape is like locally!
                Best Bridge: “Angler’s Footbridge” – I really like how you did this one, the warms in particular!
                Best Autumn Scene: “Woodacres” – This scene just gets me excited for Autumn Plein Air! Woohoo!
                Best Watercolors: all 3 pieces – always nice to see you doing studies in other mediums. I think we should do the same to get out of our comfort zones. I actually believe it’ll help to speed up our learning process since we’re forced to understand it in other ways. Thanks for sharing!
                Best Reflection: “Potomac Reflections” – I don’t really need to say more. It is awesome like that! Also reminds me of France, same vibe!
                Best Urban Scene: “Stop” – love the gold glow!
                Most Pink: “Georgetown Pink” – I think that was the easiest award to choose. :lol: So pink! :heart:
                Mystery of Nature Cracked: “Towpath” – Well, it looks like you got nature’s mystery figured out. Heh.
                Best Action: “Standup Paddle Boarding” – yup!
                Best Perspective: “Newark Street” – it is totally believable! I feel I could just step in it and keep on walking! Great job!

                Portrait award:
                Best Woman Portrait: “Giselle” – yup!

                ——-

                It’s 1st Oct here right now so I’ll go ahead and post my first piece, 24x18cm canvas panel, “First Breath Of October.” Beat ya guys! :angel: :lol: Anyways, it was difficult to pull it off since the lighting kept on changing every 5 min. Despite that, I think I did all right. I got some new brushes to play with and I think that helps a lot. I got myself 3 egbert (ivory) brushes and 1 fan brush for blending to supplement my main long flat brushes. Love them so far!

                "Choose only one master – Nature." ~ Rembrandt

                #534140
                Grotius
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                    DMA, that is a stunning first painting for October, and it fits the theme perfectly. Congratulations! It’s one of my favorites of yours. You really described how the light diffuses from its source, and its changed in color and temperature. The composition really supports it well, too – low horizon, lonely ground elements on the side. Makes ya wanna cry! Really a superb picture.

                    Also, I like your signature. How do you do it? I ask because my plein air teacher suggests I make mine less contrasty. She suggest using the sharpened butt end of a brush to carve it out. But I’ve read business/art guides that say from an archival/authentication standpoint, it’s better to paint the signature in the medium used for the work.

                    Also, thank you so much for taking the time to give me awards! I was very touched by that. It must have taken you a while to sift through all 12 pages of the thread. Very sweet of you. Thanks!

                    Anyway, a grand start to the new month and its theme. Congratulations!

                    - Geoff.
                    My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                    #534227
                    DMArtist7
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                        Aw, thank you Geoff! You know what I wish? The ability to freeze time so I can appreciate the sunrise some more and capture it better on the canvas. :lol:

                        Yeah I’ve heard of using the sharpened butt end of a brush to carve it out and tried it once. Never again. It felt so unnatural and the texture on canvas made it look like it was done on low-resolution picture with no anti-alias. Being a long-time digital painter, that turns me off so nah. I try to avoid it whenever I can with few exceptions, but the result so far is more neg than pos so not really worth it. How I did it is using an existing color mix I used on the palette, maybe something close, but not too close and use my solvent as a thinner to get the ink consistency before signing it with my rigger brush. General rule I guess I go by is that if the background I’m signing on is mid-tone or darker, I tend to go lighter. If the background is light, I go a little darker. Choosing a hue is another story though, but I try to choose something that will complement well with the piece without taking too much attention. Sorry I couldn’t be more specific at the moment. :lol: Nevertheless, I hope that helped ya? Feel free to ask though, I’ll try my best to answer!

                        No problem at all, you deserved it Geoff! It also makes me appreciate you doing the awards even more. It’s not easy! :lol:

                        "Choose only one master – Nature." ~ Rembrandt

                        #534115
                        moscatel
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                            DM, excellent autumn plein air! Wow! Thanks for the award ceremony again – enjoyed reading them, both DM & Grotius! I was thinking how long will you be doing these threads, all year long? .. lately have been lazy to do plein air .. there’s been exhibitions and some other obstacles on my way but who knows, maybe in the future and certainly some snow plein air always .. from tomorrow on we will have the rests of the Caribbean hurriganes joined together and blowing heavy winds here so maximum I can think of a plein air from terrace (there is a colorful view).
                            PS. I want to join your plein air meeting :cool::cool: …

                            #534141
                            Grotius
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                                Moscatel, I plan to do these threads forever! And the focus won’t always be plein air. For November, I’m thinking still lifes. As always, you can post any subject (plein air, still life, portrait, figure, interior) as long as it’s from life.

                                DMA, thanks for the thoughts on signatures. I’m very glad I asked! I don’t really like the idea of carving a signature, so I think I’ll stick with the rigger brush, and try your suggestions on hue/value.

                                - Geoff.
                                My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                                #534116
                                moscatel
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                                    Moscatel, I plan to do these threads forever!

                                    :thumbsup:

                                    I need to get that rigger brush too! Thanks DM and thanks Grotius for asking about it!

                                    #534200
                                    t1barkode
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                                        Just wanted to let you guys know that Jerry’s Artarama has some awesome deals right now. I just ordered a 20×24″ Raphael oil primed linen panel for $36.43. Its normal price is $65.79! I have never tried Raphael’s oil primed linen before, but from what I understand, it is some premium stuff. The Raphael panels, they mount their linen on plywood, so it isn’t that cheap cardboard crap either. Jerry’s also sells Raphael oil primed linen stretched canvas and loose oil primed linen rolls. Free shipping on orders over $35.00 too! Anyways, just thought I would let you guys know, seems like some awesome deals to me. They are also selling 5×7″ Raphael oil primed linen panels for $2.00 a piece. Just seems incredibly good deal to me. I’m a huge fan of Raphael brushes too so this made my day :)

                                        #534201
                                        t1barkode
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                                            Almost done with this I think. I just can’t figure out how to make the arms look in proportion for the life of me. To my eyes they look right, but I’m pretty sure they don’t look right to the viewer. Maybe I should put it away for awhile, not look at it, and come back to it at a later time.

                                            #534142
                                            Grotius
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                                                The proportions look okay to me, but I’m no expert. I like the shading you’ve added to the eye sockets. Yes, maybe take a break and see how you feel about it in a few days or a couple weeks.

                                                - Geoff.
                                                My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                                                #534228
                                                DMArtist7
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                                                    Moscatel, thank you! :D Ah it sounds like you have a lot going on, but I hope you can join us again soon when you can! I miss seeing your works too! ;) Yes you’re welcome to the plein air meeting! :clap: About rigger, I’m a person who likes long hair brush for some reason and ivory rigger is perfect. The fact it’s longer makes it more stable in a way. Hard to explain. Of course it’s not a miracle, but still… let’s say it’s the best detailing brush I got and I tried quite few brushes until I settled down on that! Got two sizes, 0 and 2 if that helps any. :)

                                                    Geoff, anytime! If you like, I can help you out with your next piece’s signature so you can get a feeling if you’re getting closer or not. Only one tiny issue I have with mine is that I can be a little too subtle. A lot of people overlook my signature…. :rolleyes:

                                                    T1, aww that’s a sweet deal! Since it’s usa based, I don’t think I’ll save more money due to expensive shipping, IF they even ship any to Europe with the risk of custom fee. Still, thanks for sharing, I’m sure others will benefit from this. Speaking of canvases, I’m running out of canvas panels again so gotta order some more soon. In my case, it seems cheaper to get oil-based gesso and add it to the canvas. I wanna get one with alkyd so it will dry faster, but I read that it still takes a week to fully cure. :eek: I barely have enough patient with acrylic gesso to let it dry overnight. :lol:

                                                    Your self portrait is going very very well! You made some changes I see and I think that actually helped. The shading in eyes, bam! PERFECT! Your left arm looks good. Just that your right upper arm is still a bit too short now I see it. Not sure how you can make the change without ruining everything though. Everything else looks great. You can put it aside to let it rest. What I think is that you could just finish it up and use it to improve for next piece. Do researches and see why it doesn’t work. For example, here’s a fast paintover I did with the proportion chart on upper right corner to guide me.

                                                    See if it’s worth the change, if not, just keep it in mind for next piece. :) That’s what I do when I feel my art isn’t right, I’d just go all analyze mode to figure it out, even if I don’t fix it I still learn something for next time that way. I hope that’s not too much for you? :) And yeah, that’s one good thing about digital art, you can experiment around and figure out why it’s not working or is working without going poor. :lol: Anyways back to the point, other than that, I really think it’s a really beautiful self portrait piece! :heart: Let me know if you have any questions or if you don’t want my help. :lol: I don’t mind. Not all wants crits anyways.

                                                    One more thing though, keep in mind, using head as proportion isn’t foolproof. There are exceptions, like foreshortening, it won’t work because it works in 3d form, you gotta fake it on the paper. Same for your body being sorta in 3/4 prolific mode so two heads won’t work for the width of body, but at least it gives you a general feeling of how big/small your body should be. :)

                                                    Whew, long post. Sorry guys! :angel:

                                                    "Choose only one master – Nature." ~ Rembrandt

                                                    #534244
                                                    franflair
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                                                        I’m so impressed with the way you all interact with each other on this thread. I love your paintings, too! But the super-helpful, detailed suggestions and advice are especially awesome :)

                                                        I’m working on a landscape that I started en plein air during a lesson last Thursday. I’m doing some work on it at home based on notes and photos I took, and will hopefully return to the site this Friday to work on it some more. Not sure if this kind of process fits into this thread or not.

                                                        Fran

                                                        Fran

                                                        C & C always much appreciated!

                                                        #534143
                                                        Grotius
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                                                            Fran, that process definitely fits into this thread. You started the work from life — that’s exactly what we’re looking for! I hope you consider posting it. Works in progress are most certainly welcome too!

                                                            - Geoff.
                                                            My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                                                            #534144
                                                            Grotius
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                                                                Speaking of works in progress, I didn’t quite finish this one. It was so dark when I stopped that I could no longer see what I was doing! “Down the slide,” work in progress, oil on panel, 8″ x 10.”

                                                                - Geoff.
                                                                My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

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