Friday was slow on work as i had cleared my tasks earlier, so got to have some studio time instead. I've been sticking to my selfmade paints for now as it is quite pleasing work with, however I realized i am missing some key colors like alizarin crimson and good yellows so i am little bit limited in my choices. Of couse i have some in tubes, if i choose to do so, but for these i am going with what i can mix from pigments.
I opened my two greens i had ordered(why i order two greens but only yellow ochre...i know) chromium oxide and the Brentonico green earth.
The chromium oxide is just incredible in it's powder form
and you can tell it is pretty intense stuff
_the Brentonico on the other hand was pretty light in powder but as it get mixed in the linseed oil it became very dark and rich _
I made a video from the first phase to see how it paints. I put all of my paint in a little jar and poured my turpentine and some oil in the bottom, i think this works pretty good for me. I normally jus pour my liquids on my palette and there is some waste.
I started with the the wonderful Brentonico green, i was quite liberal with the use
and make big beautiful clumps and soon ran out of the paint
Then i took on the chromium, and as soon as i made the first stroke i felt i had made a mistake, but i decide to carry on see how it goes - I had a so much of the paint ready. The diffrent pigments behave very differently and this one i'm going to be more careful with in the future.
Next i had some burned sienna stashed from before conveniently to a freezer bag. I poured my turps straight in there and painted from there. I think i can not fully recommend this solutioon, so i think i will get some real aluminum tubes in the
future; meanwhile i keep exploring options.
I pick a spot and the painting grows from there
organic and impulsively without clear direction, spreading like a disease :P
The painting is getting some what dull at this point and i need to introduce my yellow ochre. So maybe you remember i have ambition to use some of the pigment as raw in the process, but there isn't quite a good way to make it stick. First i tried applying it with brush and smearing some in but in addition this time is i use my spatula that has some leftover paint on it to dab the pigment and then press that hard on the wet canvas. It seems to stick pretty ok, though some of it will fall off. I might be in trouble when i remove the canvas from the wall.
scraping paint on and off with the spatula
Bringit it back a little with the chromium green and then dabbing some more yellow ochre pigment on, making some layers and trying to make the painting work.
I'm very much into these little events that happen on the canvas
Finally i use some thin, very oily burned umber paint to make these little streaks to break the surface. I Sometimes it is hard to say if a work is finished or not, there is that little tension that stays and not sure if i can do anything to improve it. Anyway, need to stretch it and see what happens with the pigment. Check out these details how it looks while it's still on:
I think the yellow ochre pigment is at it's best in powder form - if you mix it with oil it makes a little sad yellow in comparison, though the ochre has it's places
On a good day i remember to wash my brushes after i finish.
Thanks for reading, i hope you enjoyed.