Well I thought it about time that I did the first post relating to the Oil painting that I'll be doing as a demo, so here we go. I'll take you through the various stages, and post pic's in here both to illustrate the progress made, and to help those that have never done any painting better understand the process.
I'll start by explaining that there are many different ways of painting, and just like getting dressed in a morning there isn't really a right way, or a wrong way, so long as the end result is what was desired. The subject matter can often dictate the approach taken by the artist, for example the 'loose' impressionistic paintings that are done in one session are excellent for landscapes, but not so good for highly detailed work.
As I tend to paint subjects that are instantly recognisable, (such as 2cv's
) I tend to use a more methodical technique, which allows for the inclusion of greater detail.
The first stage of any painting is simply the idea, which is the moment when a subject occurs to the artist, and as this happens in the imagination, or the minds eye I have no way of showing you that bit.
Following on from the idea, are usually a series of small sketches known as 'thumbnail' sketches. Roughly drawn scribbles in pencil on paper, these small sketches allow us to experiment with different compositions, or to vary the intended light effects to see how they look before committing them to paint on canvas. Think of them as the artists equivalent of shorthand.
Composition means simply how the subject is placed on the canvas in relation to everything else, it also takes into consideration the direction of light, and such things the shapes formed by the shadows falling from the objects to be painted. As this painting is to be of a '
barn find 2cv' I already have the
idea, and I decide to look at typical examples of them by using pictures found on the net.
The one above I like, but I want 'our' painting to concentrate more on the car than its surroundings, so I discount that one. The one below is more like it, but the car isn't old enough to get me excited, I need something older. The aim of this work is to portray an old 2cv which is sat in a barn where it has lain for several years. When looking at the finished painting the viewer must be made to feel that he is the first person to see it, discovering it as if he has just opened the door of the barn.
The next photo has a good feeling about it, it also has some of the junk that is often thrown in on top of the cars too, but what it doesn't have is a 2cv!
By this time I have already fixed in my mind what I want to do, which will be a combination of some of the elements shown in these photo's. I want the darkened barn, the use of clutter, and dramatic fall of light for atmosphere, all combined with an earlier model 2cv as the subject.
I select a canvas of 40 x 50 cm which is to be the size of the painting. Canvas which is sold ready primed is always white, but for the techniques that I'm going to use I need to tone it down a little, so to prepare the canvas I mix a warm grey base coat in a mid tone and I apply it over the white ground.
The reason for this mid tone will become clear in the next stages, I have applied it in a loose fashion which intentionally does not cover the white ground evenly.
This will be left overnight to dry before, by using photographs as a guide I begin to draw in a suitable 2cv as the subject matter. Once I have found the correct placement on the canvas and the car is drawn in, I will then add the barn interior around the car by drawing them in last.
The technique of using a toned ground and a monochrome underpainting is very old, it was developed and used by the old masters several hundred years ago and yet it still holds good today. In the next session I'll begin the actual drawing in and the underpainting, then hopefully by the end of the that session you will be able to see how quickly the painting will begin to take shape.
I think we all have a tale or two to tell, with regards to that little trick the car performs 
