Alla Prima challenge

[DarkOwnt]

Hello all:

Did the following to get a better handle on ArtRage Oils...

done in one layer, wet-in-wet as an attempt to simulate Alla Prima. As you can see I have no formal training... also I am not confident with a "loose style" which was the point of the exercise for me.





It's based on the reference and the exercise in the following video:

https://youtu.be/0Gml1xl72qE


Challenge (easy): Make your own version of the pear in the video using the AR oils, wet (no insta-dry) and on one layer ... make it look as natural, wet, and as "loose" as you can... make it look like it was painted naturally with real oil (see video).

(Also looking for comments and any feedback to loosen up my style)

[RedSaucers]

I think I might give this a go!, I haven't really done any still life before and I'm looking to improve on my oil brush skills

[HwyStar]

Hey DarkOwnt!

Great challenge you have given us! Mark Carter's video is a great reference to use when talking about realism versus painterly and his view points on the subject.

Here are some screen prints to use as direct reference with Mark Carder's painting result too:



I won't be able to get to painting my result until this weekend.

By the way... Nice oil work on your pear!

[pat1940]

This is a great painting of the pear, can almost touch and feel it, good work

[DarkOwnt]

I'm so excited! Can't wait to see your pears and discuss techniques!
Thanks for the feedback pat1940 and hwystar!

[pai]

Great realistic oil effect on the pear. I like it.

[RedSaucers]

Here is my effort, I literally had no idea what I was doing, but it was so much fun!

and the video time lapse : https://youtu.be/SiAIALkCxX4

[DarkOwnt]

Awesome RedSaucers!

Very painterly! I must say while watching the time lapse I laughed a few times... I could tell you were experimenting and pushing new ground,, rethinking and well completely redoing a lot of stuff.
The end result is quite loose, with impactful strokes, and nice color and value variations.. It looks messy close up (which is awesome) and passes the squint test (or distance viewing test) for a realistic looking pear. Your brush strokes also are large and natural looking. (mine sometimes look too small and zig-zagged which belong in a pencil sketch not in brushwork)

I really like this.

enough feedback/critique...

What did you think of the process? How was the experience of wet-on-wet single layer painting, what did you like or dislike... what did you have to change compared to your normal process... any other observations?

[RedSaucers]

Yes!, you could certainly see my brain working and trying to figure what worked and didn't work as I went along. There was a point when I could feel my brush gradually reducing in size to detail the skin at which point I felt a bit lost on how to finish it. But I forced myself back up again and simplified some of the strokes, it was only right at the end that I reduced the brush to add in some blemishes, and my usual outlining

I made extensive use of the thumbnail view almost more so than looking at the painting itself and came to rely on it to work out which strokes looked good to my eye. I have found myself using this method more and more recently as if it looks good in the thumbnail then I know I am on the right track.

I have started to experiment a lot more on wet on wet recently, probably due to watching a few Bob Ross marathons on Twitch LOL. I still haven't quite figured out how long my brush strokes should be, short strokes seemed to work the best and haven't quite got the feel for blending yet. Also I wasn't quite sure how much of a thinner to add to the paint. I tried to stay as thick as possible to show the strokes but at times it almost seemed to be too thick and that I was just swirling the paint around on the canvas without really knowing what I wanted.

I think I might try some more still life and experiment some more with the oil brush and see where it leads me, my paintings recently have been getting thicker with paint and I want to try and properly figure out how to better control my brush strokes.

[Bertrude]

Nice challenge, I couldn't get it right with the basic oil brushes - it ddn't look particularly natural or loose, so resorted to using the palette knife too. I hope that's not too much outside the spirit of the challenge