River and Bridge (Oil Bar Painting Day 1)

River and Bridge (Oil Bar Painting Day 1) Originally posted by randubnick

This is an oil bar painting (in progress) that I started this morning at Red Brick. It will be a view of the Merrimac River seen from a bridge in Manchester, New Hampshire (part of a series of six paintings for a show in January.) First, I blocked in the composition, working from photos that I took in Manchester a few months ago. To block in the composition, I use the oil bars like huge crayons, and "draw" with them right on the canvas. This makes for strong colors as I get started, but that makes it easier to see what I am doing as I establish the basic shapes. I use a T-square to create straight lines. Today I had the basic composition down very quickly, so I had time to blend colors with a brush and even tone the colors down just a bit, but they are still pretty strong, and not the final colors for this painting. I am happy with the composition so far, although I can see that I forgot to check my vertical lines with a T-square. I will have to adjust them next time. To be continued. . .