Oil Painting In Cowboy Boots 101

[jennaboo88]

Everyone's still lifes look so great!

Once I had the freedom of painting whatever I wanted as a still life, it seems as if I froze. I hadn't painted for weeks. I originally had a pretty elaborate still life with several antique items, but I think that's why I didn't paint. It was too much too soon. So recently I looked at my still life again and stripped it down to bare bones. One item. Much simpler and more approachable. I spent some time yesterday and today on the painting and am calling it finished. Here is my still life set up.



As much as I tried, I could not get a photo of the painting that looked at all right. The paint was too wet. I will try again tomorrow.

[jennaboo88]

After struggling to get a good photo of my painting, I finally got one that's fairly close to accurate.

The hat brim gave me a lot of trouble, but there's something about hats and shoes that I struggle to draw and paint. The colors were tricky, but that was half the fun. Next time, I feel it might be smart to use an item that has some color as it was kind of tough trying to get colors in a black bowler hat. Even so, it was good practice, and that's what counts.

I tried to keep the edges in mind and made the background items a little softer than the edges of the subject itself.

8x10 inches on stretched canvas. I stuck with the original three colors with white as I was already feeling out of my comfort zone with the new subject. Maybe next time I'll dare to put in a new color. Jim, I've been learning so much from your class. Even though I am slow with the projects, this information is invaluable. Thank you!



By the way, this photo was taken outside, so the line you see horizontally through the center is the way the light was hitting it.

[Donald_Smith]

Jenna, your hat turned out very nice.

Donald

[jennaboo88]

Thanks very much, Donald!

[jim56]

Jenna, So much of painting is confidence. I think this painting should boost yours. The choices you made in setting up your still life were all good ones. The colors and composition are wonderful.

The painting came out great. You really captured the character of the old hat. I don't think you need more than 3 colors to pull this off anyway.

Everyone, recently I have felt the need to inject something new in my work—like getting better and doing better work. I purchased a Scott Christensen DVD on Ebay. He demonstrates doing a larger painting from a smaller plein-air study. I think he is one of the best landscape painters around—one of the top ten worth listening to.

I found it interesting that he really only uses 3 colors . From those 3 colors he premixes other colors in large batches. Then he adjusts those colors as he paints with the original 3. He said that he did many paintings with more colors on his palette and compared them to the paintings where he just used 3 and they were about the same.

I don't remember the exact colors he uses because they were unique colors from a specific company. I contacted Gamblin because I use their paints and asked what 3 colors would give you the widest range of color possibilities. They gave me 2 combinations of colors but the one I remember is Cad Red Medium, Cad Yellow Medium and Ultramarine Blue. Keep in mind every brand of say Cad Red Medium is not going to be the same exact color.

So you might want to try that palette if you have the paints. Remember the reason I choose the original 3 colors for this class that I did was because they were all transparent (thus the ability to mix very deep transparent shadows) not because they would give you the widest range of color.

[jennaboo88]

Thank you so much, Jim. I tried to keep in mind to squint often so I didn't overdo the highlights again. I appreciate the comments.

I'll check my paints and see if I have those three colors. If not, I'm considering doing another still life painting anyway because the practice can't hurt.

[Donald_Smith]

Jim,

I whipped out my Scott Christenson DVD and checked the colors for you.

Ultra Marine Blue
Cadmium Lemon
Permanent Red Medium
Tit. white

Great class Thanks for hosting!

Donald
PS: I still need to get my still life painted. I'm busy installing a banister on our steps, working in the garden, trying to coon proof the chicken coop, replace some facia and guttering, make a screen door for the back door, and the list goes on.

[webLes]

Donald would that be like the honey do list ? just like the energizer bunny goes on and on and on ?

[jennaboo88]

After a long break from oil painting, I picked up my brushes for a bit yesterday. I wasn't sure what to paint, but then glanced at my heap of junk sculpture supplies and picked out a couple of old, tired wrenches. One is a cold metal color and though it's probably at least fifty years old, would work as good as new. The other used to be shiny silver but is rusting badly. Aside from a bit of silver here and there, it's very rusted. I didn't really set them up as a still life. In fact, I had them set beside my canvas on the easel. So the photo I have of the two wrenches is not completely accurate, but I wanted to include a photo so you all could see what I was working with.



Here is my painting. I did not do a background on this. I also painted the gray colored wrench bigger than the rusty one. I still stuck with the three original colors plus white. The painting is 6x8 inches in size. I may do some more with it, such as brightening the highlights and possibly adding some sort of background. We'll see.



A few close ups.







C&C always welcome. Thanks for looking.

[theBoardLady]

Well I think they turned out rather well, Jenna. I see you got brave with the oil. I have a tendency to not use enough or too little of it. In your painting, the rusty wrench does look rusty. Good job...

[jennaboo88]

Thanks so much, Diane! The rust could not be painted with a smooth stroke, so I ended up doing a sort of stipplng technique to get that mottled look. I'm glad it looks like rust! Thanks again!

Well, there were a few things about this painting that I didn't care for, so I went back and tackled the background. Over all, I made some changes to the wrenches such as adding more lights for a more real look. I also added the nail as a sort of just-for-fun addition. I had fun with this piece.

Sorry for the poor photo quality. The paint is still wet. C&C always welcome. Thanks for looking.

[Donald_Smith]

pretty cool Jenna!

Donald

[Catherine1]

Looks great Jen! You have a great sense of form and value with these!!

[jim56]

Jenna, These came out great. I say just keep doing this type of painting from life.

[jennaboo88]

Thanks very much, Donald, Catherine, and Jim. I appreciate the kind words.