Today, Elaine and I started to work with oil paint and between us we managed to use lots of it. The process is fairly simple but requires two people when working on this scale otherwise you end up entangled in large oil paint smothered sheets of thin polythene more or less monoprinting yourself which some might say could be more interesting. However I prefer to travel down the conventional route and apply the paint to the panel and not my head, I'm just boring that way.
We stretched the polythene on the wall, rollered on a base colour and then drew into it with other colours using rollers and rags. The actual thickness and consistency of the paint is important as unlike printing ink which is made to work as a fine film, oil paint needs a little coaxing. It's actually quite a delicate process in some ways, the amount and thickness of the paint has to be right, the pressure you apply when transfering the image can make or break the image and the tackiness of the paint you're printing onto can determine if the image is crisp or smudged. As a process it's not for the faint hearted but rather appeals to those of a swashbuckling bent. In my experience success and failure are just about equally balanced but unpredictable as to how and when they will strike.
By the end of today we made progress on both paintings and now it's the dangerous bit where you can't seem to help but get precious about certain areas so it might be other strategies will have to be employed including stealth and stupidity - we shall see - watch this space..........
Nina Johansson has a great blog full of lovely drawings and sketchbooks, her strapline is, 'Because drawing is good for you', how can you argue with that - it certainly is and so is her blog, I really like it, so fresh and somehow Swedish. Good links as well including Urban Sketchers, more sketchbooks, more drawings and more to enjoy!
And finally the finest website ever on life drawing books old and new, it really is amazing.Figure Drawing
