Tuesday, December 04, 2007

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. . .

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