Peppers

Peppers oil painting. I wanted to try and stay with some items that were simple in shape and color. Looking back on this I shouldn't have selected perishables. Of course I had to take photographs.
I don't have all the stages here but did take photos the basic stages.

1. The Burnt Umber under layer.

2. The "dead layer" is monochromatic and used to model the shadows without the complexity of color.

3. First color layer. I started to bring in the color slowly. 

4. Additional layers of color really brings it out.

11" X 13" Oil on Canvas

Marcus Brutus - Bargue Copy

Here is a Bargue copy of Marcus Brutus.

11" X 17" Charcoal

Sketch Book

Here is some sketch book work and a few Bargue copies. All these are done in graphite.

Bargue Copy Work

After reading from a few sites, I found that if I want to learn to render like the masters I should start from the flat and do some basic copy work and Charles Bargue was what everyone seemed to be using. I found the book and ordered it from Dahesh Museum of Art www.daheshmuseum.org. Its now available on Amazon and is an excellent book to start your copy work from. I highly recommend it!

I had never used charcoal before and I found the General's pencils to work the best from 2H (Ext Hard) to 6B (Ext Soft). Get some blenders and a few Kneaded erasers too. Vine charcoal, which although may allow you to get very rich darks, I found to be very messy. So if you do get some, use it sparingly. 

Here is a copy Plate 60 I did 2009. Looking at it now I can see plenty of errors. This is all part of the process. I started with plates 1 through 10 and then skipped around and copied what I thought was interesting. 

First Oil Painting - The Apple

I started oil painting a few years ago and wanted something simple to start with so I choose an apple. I later learned that I should have started with something even simpler. I'm trying to learn the techniques of the old masters and wanted to experiment with the process. I should have took more photos of the first phases but I didn't think about it till later. In later posts I'll explain some of the process. But for now, here is The Apple.

12" X12" Oil on Canvas