Sunlight and Solitude

“Solitude and Sunlight,” 9″ x 12″, oil on canvas board, $300

Sometimes you have to push yourself. You have to push your style. So I pushed up to a larger canvas, a 9″ x 12″. I also tried a thin under-painting first. Finally, I went with a really, really dark background that I prepared about a week ago instead of freshly prepared. Oh, wait, one more thing – I wanted to use as little linseed oil as possible and go with turp instead.

Here’s the source image. It’s an older one from the “Different Strokes from Different Folks” biweekly challenge blog. I’m just getting back into painting and I need to explore, so this works great for me.

Here’s my painting (still on the easel, drying):

"Solitude and Sunlight," 9" x 12", oil on canvas board

So how did I do? Well, I did do the larger canvas. I did the under-painting with turp and no linseed oil. I did find that the thicker paint that I like to use to show my brush strokes didn’t work well with thin paint or paint straight out of the tube. So I got out the linseed oil and used it for the thick, top layer.

I don’t know what this man is waiting for, but he was a challenge. I struggled at first until I put away the number 2 brush and whipped out the larger brush and forced myself to stick with it the rest of the painting. I’m getting better at thick-over-thick where I need it. And I’m growing exceedingly fond of an impasto style for the lightest lights.

They say that tomorrow never comes. If it does, I’ll paint another and this time, maybe, just maybe, I’ll take pictures along the way to show my blunders, reworks, sticking points, and breakthroughs.