Tag Archives: first color layer

Back to the Lesson Paintings

Now that the portrait of Guienne Hanover is completed and drying, it’s time to turn back to the lesson paintings.

I got back into that mode of painting by starting the color work on two more paintings. Blue Cooler (shown below) and Impulsion. That brings to five the number of paintings that have entered the final phase of the Flemish technique.

I also brought the portrait of the Little Dog down from the drying room. No painting has been done on that as yet but it is back in the pipeline.

So far, I’ve found this phase to be both the most interesting and the most frustrating.

It’s the most interesting because I can wash on a layer of color and see what happens. It’s almost like opening gifts on Christmas morning. If I don’t like the look, I just wipe off that color and try another. What a delight!

It is frustrating because on some paintings, all I can do is put on color, then wait for the paint to dry. In some cases, color is applied only to very small areas.

But the value of all the work that went into the Umber Layer and Dead Layer becomes increasingly more clear with every painting. Most of the work is done in those two phases, leaving the fun stuff for the end.

One thing I’m looking forward to is doing a landscape or two in this method.

©Copyright 2009 by Carrie Lewis. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Finally…Color!

Studies in the Flemish painting technique entered a new phase today: color.

Three paintings were ready to being color work and I worked on all three of them.

Two of them, Contemplation and Joker involved nothing more complicated than rubbing the first color into the backgrounds and the horses themselves. Just a few minutes for each one and they were done for the time being.

I used Magnesium Blue throughout the entire painting (except the white blaze) and Prussian Blue in the dark areas on Joker (shown below).

Contemplation (shown above) was started with Yellow Ochre in the lighter areas and Raw Sienna in the darker ones.

For both paintings, I used a rag to apply the paint and smooth out the paint layer and used no solvents, mediums or oils on either the panels or mixed in with the paints.

Afternoon Graze, which was actually the first one I worked on, had more involved work done on it.

I began with the sky and painted forward and downward from there, painting color over each of the hills in the painting. By the time I finished, only the horse was still in the dead layer stage.

More detailed information on the work done is available on the page for each painting,

©Copyright 2009 by Carrie Lewis. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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