Original Oil Painting

Raphael Belgian Linen Panel, 16″ x 20″

Always in Style was given two weeks for the under painting to dry. During that time, we had typical weather, which is to say warm and dry. Perfect drying weather for oil paintings.

Even so, I checked it at one week to see how it was doing. That’s standard operating procedure, though I rarely work on anything after only a single week of drying.

Color work began much the same way the under painting began; in the background.

I used about a 50/50 mixture of Manganese Blue and Viridian mixed with lots of Titanium White to create the blue. The blue is a little bit darker at the top than at the bottom to simulate the look of a clear blue sky.

Color was applied dry brush, which means I used only the walnut oil that is naturally in the mix of paint. No additional walnut oil was added to the paint and the canvas was not rubbed with oil before I began painting.

The purpose for this is two-fold. First, the less oil in the paint, the more opaque the resulting color layer. Since I didn’t intend to repaint the background any more times than necessary, a more opaque color layer was preferred.

Secondly, this layer of color dried more quickly with less oil in it. Once the background was in place, the paint had to dry completely before additional work could be done. Working without added oils either on the canvas or in the paint resulted in a shorter drying time.

Even so, it took a week before this work was dry enough for work to continue.

©Copyright 2010 by Carrie Lewis. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.