Art-Devine-Slasher

Step by step painting demonstrations, FREE painting tips and tutorials.

Posts Tagged oil painting

Oil painting of an Elephant: Step 2

Jul 29

Posted by Nkolika in Oil paintings | 1 Comment

I started off previously in Step 1 by making an initial sketch on canvas using a charcoal pencil and fixing with a fixative. After the sketch I made a monochrome under-painting with Prussian blue and left it to dry. Now I   am going to use the glaze technique to finish the painting.
Oil painting of an Elephant: Step 2

Glazing is an Oil painting technique that involves the application of several thin washes of transparent colours on each other. The previous layer has to be dry before you apply the next. The colours qualify each other and mix in the eye thus producing a richness that one colour or mixture of colours cannot produce. I am using liquin as my diluent.

After making the monochrome under painting, I applied a thin glaze mixture of raw sienna + burnt sienna + cadmium yellow pale hue. Mixing my paints with liquin in a ratio of 1:3.

Sorry about the poor picture quality. At least I hope you can see what I have achieved so far. The monochrome under painting has given the painting a solid structure and all I’ll be doing is to apply thin layers of paint to keep enhancing the painting. Like I pointed out in Step 1; this is the first time I am painting an elephant, so I am also learning as I go on.

What do you think?

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Oil painting of an Elephant: Step 1

Jul 26

Posted by Nkolika in Oil paintings | 10 Comments

I love trying out new things and projects. I always love a new challenge and I am not so much interested in what the end result would be……good or bad it does not matter (though I aim for the best always).

Reference photo

What matters is starting off. I decided to attempt painting an Elephant and will be showing you how I would be doing it.

I am using a reference photo of an Elephant and her baby which I got from a magazine. Magazines and publications make excellent sources of reference photos for painting. They come in handy especially when one is learning to paint and ideas seem to run dry.

To make the sketch I used the grid format. Though it is tedious drawing the lines over and over again, it gives a very good approximation as to the right magnification while maintaining the proportion.I used a charcoal pencil. Though you can use a lead or graphite pencil.

There are several ways you can use to make a sketch or draft of the subject of your painting. Aside from the using the grid method, you can use tracing paper to trace the picture and then transfer it onto your canvas. Or you can make a free hand sketch. Whichever method you use depends on what you are comfortable with

Oil painting of an Elephant: Step 1

After laying down the sketch, I erased the lines with a rubber eraser and sprayed a thin layer of fixative on it. This is to make sure the charcoal does not stain my paint.

The drawing is then left to dry, after which it would be ready for the 2nd stage and the application of the first layer of paint. The work is on primed canvas and I would be executing it with oil paint.

I then used Prussian blue to redraw the whole picture, bringing out the dark parts, the creases and shadows. This serves as a monochrome under painting. Monochrome meaning one colour.

I scanned the picture and blew it up on my laptop in order to see the wrinkles and fine details well. Otherwise you can use a hand held magnifying lens.

I have split the work into several steps and would be posting the follow up steps regularly.

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Oil painting: Pink Landscape

Dec 26

Posted by Nkolika in Oil paintings | No Comments

Monochrome landscape painting by artist Nkolika Anyabolu (MD)

Pink landscape

Oil on Canvas

Date painted: 2003

copyright Nkolika Anyabolu (MD)

This is a monochrome oil on canvas painting I did in 2003 that always reminds me of what life could be when we choose to see nothing but peace and tranquility around us. I painted it while listening to Bach’s ‘where sheep may safely graze‘…….a classical piece that takes me to an open field in the middle of nowhere where the sounds I hear are the gentle murmurings of my sheep and the singing of birds!!!!

Don’t know why I used scarlet lake!!!! But it sure did turn out nice. Before I painted it I was never the type to move away from the conventional way of painting. When I finished it and hung it on my wall in front of me………….I finally understood that grounds can never be broken and happiness can never be gotten if one never breaks the rules.

Have you ever broken any rules and discovered joy at the end?

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.
Paul Cezanne

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