old master oilpainting still life finished, overview of all the stages

Finally I finished a still life. 20x30cm.
It took a long time to paint this in the style of the old masters.
Monique Eysink, my very skillfull and patient teacher have learned me a lot about the proces of fine art painting.

This is the result of 30 lessons I had for 1 year and Oh boy! I learned so much in this year.
Often I had the feeling that it was too difficult to master this old master technique.
And I still have so much to learn about colour and putting layers of (transparant) colour on top of each other.
I will concentrate on that for the next year.

But for the first time I feel I finally can paint!
Not smearing oilpaint on the surface but handling the oilpaint and the brushes the right way.
I started already 2 other paintings, look at my next posts and I start another one tomorrow at my last lesson of the season.
Thanks very much!!! Monique Eysink. Till after the summer holidays. I already look forward to it.

Hydreanga, oilpaint, old master technique, next stage

This is the second layer of umber and white oilpaint.
The underlayer must be painted in very light tones, so when the transparant color layers will be painted on top of the underlayer the light will shine through.
And it looks like the painting is glowing from the inside.
The second photo looks more crispier and not so flat anymore.
Not easy to take a picture of though.
The different tones are so subtile and the photo looks on the screen a bit too harsh.
I have particulary problems with painting leaves so they are still in an early stage.

next stage still life oilpainting

I worked at the background, I think it works well.
And I painted the first pear.
Still many layers of paint all over is needed.
Some of the colors need to be deepened, some to be lighter, some to be toned dow, some to be brighter, etc, etc.
And of course I need to paint the two other pears first.

little oilpainting of 2 cherries

After I have been busy of learning the slow process of fine art oilpainting I want to paint also wet in wet.
I tried before many times but I got so frustrated.
I could not handle the oilpaint and after a while it became a mess.
Yesterday I started again and this time it did not became a mess but I succeeded in painting this little painting of 2 cherries.
At last..... sigh.
I think I have learned a lot the last couple of months about working with oilpaint and I am so delighted.
I always wanted to paint like this and now, at the age of almost 67............... What a joy!

I painted these cherries on MDF, size 25x25cm, underground grey acryl.
I did use the paint right out of the tube, so no medium at all.

second layer on the lemon painting

This lemon is big, a lot more than lifesize and therefor it is sooo hard to paint the large parts. The little indentions are very difficult to achieve. I started with painting on to the flat surface and give it some structure. It gives me a base to go further. But like the other paintings I am working on, I wait till the my next lesson and ask my tutor how to do the next layer.
So at the first photo you can see the first layer and at the second photo I made the flesh of the lemon a bit lighter and I covered the smooth surface of the lemon with some structure. Still ...... a lot of working to do for sure before I can add some transparant layers of color to it.

second layer grapes

 This is the first layer of this small excercise. My tutor recommended me to start with grapes. I did not erased the drawing enough so I have soo much difficulties to get rid of these lines. So lesson learned:-)  As you can see at the second photo I added more white and soften the whole painting. It is a great excercise for sure.

This is the second layer of paint. I have to wait till the next lesson to ask my tutor how to progress.

first step of classical realistism painting

I really enjoy painting this!! Not easy though. It is my first attempt in using this technique.
This is a real Work in Progress. This is the first layer of the underpainting in raw umber and titanium white.
 I am working at the slice of the zitron and starting to paint the dark background.
Untill now, I think I painted for 12 to 14 hours. Long way to go.

New adventure: oilpainting course fine art, classical realism

At last I found someone who teaches classical realism and........... she lives nearby. What a treat. Her name is Monique Eysink.
For the last couple of years, I took several online courses but I miss personal contact.
Next thursday, 2th of October 2014, is the first real lesson.
So I started to search for suitable subjects. Not easy to do, there are so many beautiful licence free photos on the internet. But it will be my first painting so the subject must not be too difficult to start with.

I downloaded several photos and I think I found the one I will use.
A citron, sliced.
Then I made a beautiful print of the photo to paint from, in the size of the painting. I do not want to start too small but also not too big, so I choose A4 size, 20x30cm.

Then I made a linedrawing to transfer to the piece MDF. I covered the MDF with a medium Grey colour several times.

With the help of my computer I made a image with 7 tones and painted a little study in a smaller size on a piece of MDF to practise these grey tones.

And last, today I took the photo of the citron and took from a lot of places colorswaps to see what colours are present on the photo.

What I always do with painting bontanical subjects with watercolor is to make studypages with colorsamples and I will do the same with these photos. So I will make a page with colorsamples with watercolor.

I already made 7 pages with all the colors of oilpaint I own. I glued on each page 7 pieces with 1vwhite and 5 different grades of grey  and painted on them with each oil paint color.
So I can see what the different colors do when they are painted over these greys.
Are they transparant, or opaque. Does the color change by the underpainting.
For the classical realism it is important to know if the color is transparant or opaque because colors are glazed over a grey toned underlayer.
These pages are with the colors red, blue and yellow. I did the same with all the other colors.