The title says it all. This post will cover my journey back into oil painting from when i last left off almost 15 years ago! Yep, the last time i painted, anything, was back in 2011 to get into art school. I got accepted, obviously, and theres a whole chapter there but long story short: i was a pretty good painter in high school albeit not classically trained, i got into 3d sculpting later on and while studying colour, again, i realised that i should get back into painting and man am i enjoying every step!
content:
Highschool and the "Secret" to Talent
high-school
All right, lets quickly recap on my highschool setting and how that influenced part of the artist i am today...
One of the first painting projects we had in school was to paint a quick still life; a cylinder with a cube - Another quick note, i dont have photos of all my works so ill just fill some in with pics ill draw out.... Anyway, after this we had to do a few menial paintings, self portraits etc. But, finally, towards the beginning of grade 11 we could start picking our own subjects and here is when i started going nuts for animals. I chose animals because i wanted a challenge and they seemed like a good fit; id been drawing since i was a kid - heroes, game covers, anything badass really and this was just an evolution of my likes....
My animal painting journey started with a snow leopard, some tigers, a wolf, a dog etc etc. And after each one i learned of ways to improve my techniques and realism. The one thing i, and im pretty all artists who arent trained get here as well, was the fact that it took me forever to paint details; i would spend hours on one area before moving on.... This was a result of me trying to copy every stroke i saw as opposed to optimising my brush strokes and painting. Clearly a big sign of my adolescence in draftsmanship and visual art. But even with that hiccup i managed to crank out some pretty epic pieces!
Aaaaaand eventually i was able to create my magnum opus of highschool:
Now i know im gonna sound super braggy here but this was a damn good level to be at for a highschooler. And even though i had other subjects to deal with and life and chores and being super popular and STUFF, i was able to get to this level after only 2, maybe 2 and a half years, of perennial drawing and intermittent painting... So if i can get to this level, you can too. You just need the drive and mindset of someone constantly seeking to get better.
And yeah, that was a quick stroll down memory lane for my paintings; i had some trash ones as well, dont get me wrong. But i either threw those out or painted over them so you wont find pics of them, haha.
The "secret" to improving:
I've never told anyone this but im not talented (shocker i know), i just improve on the areas that annoy the hell out of me when i spot them; this is the difference between pros and novices: Pros can spot mistakes and are aware of how to correct them while novices, who sometimes can spot mistakes, are usually clueless when it comes to correcting/ improving their work... I'm also maddeningly curious about art and i dont mind putting myself in the line of fire when seeking advice.
When i was studying architecture i was one of the only students that went around asking the freakin' sixth years for help. Now, dont get me wrong, me asking the sixth years didnt give me an edge, in fact i think it was a waste of time - they were telling me things i already knew or had figured out. BUT! It was the mentality that helped; HOW THE FUCK DO I GET BETTER AT THIS PARTICULAR THING!?!?! And then finding the answer even if it meant wasting another 4 hours on a Sunday to do so.... Thats it. Thats the big "secret" to improving; a voracious wanting to improve mixed with actually doing it! And having a good mentor, and being efficient etc etc. But all that wont matter if youre not interested in getting better....
I remember going to the optometrist and I remember her being impressed at me being an artist because it sounded interesting while her job "seemed dull" which got me worried because why the hell is someone who isnt inspired by improving my vision trying to improve it?
Im sure there are plenty of accountants, doctors, teachers etc in the same boat; they will never improve because how can they be enthusiastic about improving something they dont much care about? And honestly its heart breaking knowing that this is the case for many people...
Quick side note here:
The drawings below were all done in one week; not one week each but all within a week. Also this was done last year not when i was in high school. Im showing you this so you can see just how awful the first drawing is compared to the last; i looked at each one, identified the issue and tried to improve upon each one. Now dont think that i "improved" this fast, i was learning a new way of drawing, the Russian academic approach, and this was me trying to make mistakes first before moving on... Ive seen so many artists make the same basic mistakes over and over again and even when i correct them they seem to just plateau and not go anywhere... Im not sure why this is the case but its mind-numbingly frustrating to witness. Dont be this artist! Improve with each and every mark you put down and do so with the intention of doing so!
The pros and cons to my highschool self:
(P) I had a pretty good idea of how to paint after a relatively short period
(C) Because i had no training my works were just me trying to copy what i saw as opposed to actually interpreting it. Art has always and will always be your interpretation of something
(P) Being young means you have unlimited stamina when it comes to learning, trying and failing...
(P/C) I thought i knew everything (as does every teenager) but i was always willing to take advice, even advice that hurt my feelings, if it meant improving my work.
(C) I had no registry, well a little, of the language of art - the terms and ideas used in creating paintings, drawings, shading terms, anatomy knowledge, gesture, structure etc... So even though i thought i knew everything, i had no idea just how much i didnt know. This type of ignorance is dangerous for anyone at any level.
(P) The fact that i had been drawing from a young age meant that learning new, albeit simple, techniques didnt take too much effort.
All this shaped me into the artist i am today; I still prefer realism but i do so with a respect for the abstract pieces that make up a piece. This concept would have totally flown over my head in school but now im able to appreciate both the impressionist and realist ways of painting a vase... And this is the difference between me now and me back then; the more i learn, the more i realise i've still got a long way to go...
Getting back into it
All right, back to the present. I wanted to learn colour theory again and improve my colour identification and knowledge. Painting digitally is great but seeing all the instructors do the theory in oil paint really made me want to get back into painting again and so i decided, why not? Also a lot of the painting here is taken from some of the New Masters Academy courses on painting; They have a pretty damn large selection of tutorials to go through and i'll mention each course as i encounter them so you can follow the same course if you wish!
I bought some white paint (its always the colour you'll use the most) and linseed oil, pulled out my old paint tubes and canvases and got to work on painting some shapes (eggs, cubes etc). And yes the paint tubes still had the paint totally intact; i just needed some pliers to loosen them a little as its been well over a decade since i last opened them! A few of the paintings ive done below are from the steve houston course on NMA: An introduction to painting by Steve Houston
Upon my first painting, I totally forgot what working with paint entailed and my values (how dark/ light something is) sure took a hit because of it. The lights were okay but the darks were a little too light... Painting a colour over wet paint means it will mix a little with the paint under and so to compensate you have to make the colour slightly darker or lighter than you see. Another thing is that anytime you paint over a different colour, your brush picks up that colour and so you really need to be careful when putting down strokes. And one last tip, probably one of the most important tips when it comes to colour: you should think of white as a really really light grey while black is a really really dark grey... This means that anytime you mix a colour with white/ black you are also greying it out. This is why youll see some paintings will be slightly darker than reality/ photos because artists will use a purer darker version of a colour as opposed to mixing it with white which will desaturate it... Still lifes are a great example of this:
After this i moved on to some ears, eyes, very simple portraits and also a few quick studies of the body in black and white; yes the most important part about colour is understanding the values (how light/ dark something is). Basically i went back to the basics even though i can draw an entire figure and sculpt some pretty awesome details. Learning something new is always a humbling process; no you cant just start off painting a masterpiece if you've never painted before, unless you're Michelangelo maybe.
Supplies
A quick note on the supplies i used and what to look out for as a new artist!
General tips for art supplies: Art supplies can be ridiculously expensive! So when you are out shopping, do make sure to check prices of all versions of the product. For example i saw a kneadable eraser for 30 bucks (about 2 dollars) but i also saw the same eraser in a two pack selling for 40 bucks... WHY? HOW? I dont know but this happens all the time. Maybe its a South African thing, i doubt it, but be sure to look at the pack version as well because it might be ludicrously cheaper than the singular version. Obviously if you are only ever going to need one dont go buying a 5 pack for no reason! But you get what im going for.
Another Tip would be to not always buy the most expensive version of something. This might seem like a good idea for paint brushes; i can paint pretty vigorously at times which wears out the brushes regardless of how cheap/ expensive they are, so in my case i dont need expensive brushes! The same goes for oil paint, Winsor and Newton have really expensive tubes but Mont Marte has middle range to cheap tubes which are quite good. The only time i buy expensive brands is when i need crazier colours like Yellow Cadmium Hue which Mont Marte usually wont stock or if i know the colour looks better with another brand.
But as with anything you'll need to get a feel for it as you go and gain experience; theory will only get you so far...
Things i recommend you get:
Brushes: a set of 10 should be a great start. I used to use Winsor and Newton back in highschool but now i use Artboard; they're cheap but they work just as well. The ones i have are multi-purpose and quite soft; i paint quite thin so i don't really use/ need hard brushes...
Paints: I would recommend 25 - 37 ml for colour/ black and 100ml and up for white paints. you dont need every colour! Zinc White, Ivory Black, Yellow Ochre, Scarlet Red, Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Yellow and Maybe a green of your choice will get you very very far. You just have to know how to mix. Also less is more when it comes to colour choices; lookup "Zorn colour palette" to see what i mean.
Oils: I use linseed oil to help thin my paints for painting backgrounds and bigger areas (linseed is the same oil in the paint itself). This helps stretch your paint further.
Canvas: Ive always used flat canvases and so these are the type ill stick with pretty much throughout the article. Im also reusing a lot of my old canvases because why not? You dont need to buy a new board for every practice painting you do, its a waste, really.
Palette: I use a custom glass palette (made from a glass chopping board i found) attached to a piece of masonite board for stability. You could also use a wooden palette but these are a nightmare to clean and take care of!
Easel: You dont absolutely have to get one but if youre painting/ drawing all the time i would recommend getting one as they help keep your canvas upright; tilting your drawing too far can cause distortions when drawing. I stand when i paint so i have an easel thats about 1.7 m high (~5.6 feet). But if your prefer sitting you can get a shorter one. Like everything on this list you can buy super expensive to mid range to cheap. So buy accordingly. Id say middle range paint and brushes are fine and everything else can be cheap if you're short on cash... Also depending on how you paint you might want to either buy the cheapest brushes or more expensive ones; if you are quite vigorous with your strokes (hah) you can get cheaper brushes as it makes no sense to destroy expensive brushes all the time....
Extras: I also use a palette knife to scoop, move and mix paints. Its not essential but doing it with this is preferable to using a brush and then having to clean it each time... The knife is just easier and its also super cheap!
Cloths: I use a few cloths to clean my brushes, usually made from old clothing or you could go out and buy some cheap t-shirts made from cotton. I use 3: 1 big cloth for wiping off the paint from the brush, one medium cloth for wiping and drying the brush after im done cleaning it with turps and another smaller 1 for wiping oils.
Paint/ Window scraper: Also called a "ceramic stove top scraper" I use this on my glass palette to clean off the dry paint, DO NOT use it on a wooden one! Wood palettes are cleaned with turps/ oils instead. Also i hate wooden palettes because you have to oil them (with linseed oil NOT cooking oil!) every time and clean them on the day of using them.... This is frustrating for someone as lazy as i am!
Paint cleaner: theres tons of ways of doing this but i use normal mineral turpentine from the hardware store to clean my brushes. Do NOT use thinners! This stuff is unbelievably strong and will probably give you a headache by the end of cleaning one brush. Speaking of headaches, if you feel turps are too strong you can buy artists odourless turps from an art store; they come in a bunch of sizes but id recommend getting a bigger bottle if you intend on painting more than a few paintings at a time; it is a bit more expensive though so it depends on what you want/ can endure...
Painting a still life
Okey doke, that was enough practice, lets try and get into completing a full painting. For this ive chosen to do a still life; i havent seriously done one before and New Masters has a pretty cool still life course, and also, its seems like a good challenge to move on to. Baby steps!
The course its actually great for beginners because it starts you off really slow and takes you through each process step by step; you wont be shown the difference between cast shadow and center lights nor will you be an expert on perspective but you will have a good idea on preparing, starting, debugging and finishing your painting!
The course starts off with is a history lesson; the meanings behind the objects used, what types of compositions were used, the fathers of still life, its origins etc. After that we move on to drawing some sketches; studies of the masters works - I wont bore you with any of those, also i skipped them because i prepped for this by doing all the previous studies and paintings so i was raring to go! And finally we move onto the main course; making our own actual still life.
First up we create a workable composition or use the picture they give, i chose the latter. And next is creating a quick thumbnail to get a feel for what we are going to paint:
This is just here to work out the details and areas you might struggle with later; figuring it out now is preferrable to freaking out on the finals...
After this we had to do a transfer drawing; now this drawing can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. Just kee in mind that this drawing will dictate the composition of your painting so mak sure its what you want the finals to be.
The instructors version looked absolutely epic; its was properly shaded and well designed. But at the end of the day we were just going to take the tracing paper and transfer that onto the canvas without the details so this step seemed like waste to me... Of course if you are a beginner id recommend not skipping this step as its good practice!
After this step you reverse the tracing paper and on the reverse side you trace the main points of the drawing with some charcoal. After that youll flip the tracing paper back and place it onto a canvas and then trace the drawing onto the canvas; yes thats right, the only part that gets transferred is the charcoal drawing you just did on the backside of the tracing paper! Thats why i didnt put too much effort into it... It did kind of kick me in the back later but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it...
The next step was to do an underpainting with a dark brown colour. The instructor used raw umber but i opted for burnt umber instead; its a richer, redder brown that feels far more brown school and classic than raw umber... The underpainting serves as a visual guide as well as a colour harmoniser; it locks all the colours together with its own, im this case, brown/ burnt umber
After this we move onto adding the darks. The instructor went with pure black almost while i chose to go for a really dark burnt umber on the left and slowly fade it into a less darker colour towards the right since thats where the light is coming from.
Next up we add in the colours and basic midtones aka halftones (the darker parts of the light areas; there are no halftones in the shadows). Here im not really adding too much detail, just getting a feel for the painting, colours and layout. Youll also notice that i changed the composition a bit, i added another green thyme herb(?) on the left; its not there in the original composition. That side of the board just felt too empty...
After that i started dealing with the mid tones and shadows more, thats also why you dont see so much of a difference.
In this next version im really trying to round out the forms by adding darker halftones, richer colours and also trying to get the reflected lights down properly. Oh reflected lights BTW are the lights reflected onto the object by an adjacent object; You can clearly see the vase being reflected onto the grinder and also the vase handle reflecting the yellow onto itself on the left handle side.
Here you cant see it too well but there are areas that are drier than others because of the linseed oil i didnt use when painting; i mixed linseed to get the underpainting and background in but when i started painting the details i didnt mix in too much and so from certain angles you can clearly see the difference. To offset this i just take pure linseed oil on a brush (not too much as it will loosen and the spread the paint underneath) and brush out the dry areas. You can do this step as you go or towards the end like im doing...
Fixing some areas and fine tuning it. Blending the shadows more, checking proportions, adding highlights, comparing values etc.
Aaaand below we have the final piece!! Not too bad for my first painting, in a while, but not that great either. Overall i think its good enough. I definitely took more time than the instructor on this but given that its for practice i dont much mind.
Painting a lion
This journey certainly wouldnt be complete without me going back to my roots and painting an animal!
I chose a lioness for this. This time from the Charcoal Drawing with Aaron Blaise Course.
The course is actually super cheap on sale (1 - 5 dollars) so def pick it up if it sounds interesting; the course just walks you through drawing a lioness with an eraser, charcoal and white charcoal. NO it does not go through anything else, its literally just a video of him drawing the picture from start to finish and telling you what he's doing, thats it.
His courses usually arent super beginner friendly, i mean he's a great teacher but sometimes it feels like there should be more info in the course. This one, however, is pretty straight forward and for 1 - 5 bucks id say you get what you pay for...
Aaanywaay, Just like the still life i prepped quite a bit before actually jumping into the finals for this painting. Given that i got into all this to study colour i had a vision of the lion in blue, a green background first, then some lights in blue and the midtones in a warm yellow ochre maybe... This was just for fun so decided to do a few test studies with different colours to see what i could get.
These drawings took about 1.5 - 2 hours each and are maybe a little smaller than A4 size. But as you can see they all look pretty good in their own way. The first two really stood out for me while the normal one seems "too normal" and the red version was maybe too much saturation. But a good set of studies to experiment with nonetheless....
Just to really get a feel for the version i chose (the first one) i did another study to really drive home the point.
Here i start with covering the canvas in a light yellow ochre mix (yellow ochre mixed with white). I wait for that to dry completely then cover the canvas in phthalo green mixed with black and linseed oil. The oil thins out the mixture so its easier to wipe off (yes, im using the rub out technique for this painting - its more advanced but super artsy and youll see what it means later).
After this i immediately start wiping off the paint with a cloth; this dries the paint but also lightens it. Ill do this a few times before i start drawing on the picture. And dont worry, ill go through every step for the final with pics but here im just giving a quick overview.
Next ill add in the background and the darks plus lights and then finally the midtones...
After this ill add the lighter areas and midtone details
Finally ill try and darken areas that need it and rearrange the colours as i see fit
Some things i didn't like about this test run:
The lights could have been cooler; the original first run was cooler in the lights and darks with a hint of warm in the midtones which also suggested the actual colour of the fur. The colour harmony also seemed quite off here; you can't randomly put colours everywhere; well, you can but if you dont know what you are doing it'll show... This is something ill have to deal with in the finals because thats up next!
The final Attempt:
All right, this journey took about 2 months including the finals (2 MONTHS!?!? Not much of a journey...). So lets end it off with a bang.
For this ill use a flat canvas 51cm x 76cm (~ 20 x 30 inches). And ive prepped that first with a mix of white plus yellow ochre (just a bit of yellow ochre not a lot) + linseed oil; this creates a light beige colour on the canvas for me to work on. So when i rub off the green paint later it shows this light beige colour instead of the actual white canvas; given that we are working with yellow ochre in the actual painting this makes more sense than plain ol' white. I could have also used a light blue instead but i didn't want too much blue in the underpaint given that we're using so much blue in the actual painting... I then wait for this to dry for a few days before doing anything; i did this setup before i started working on the previous test paintings so yeah it wasn't a long unwanted wait...
Now that the canvas has been thoroughly dried out (if it wasn't dried out the linseed oil from the paints applied on top could loosen this layer and create a mixture of both colours which is definitely not what i want), we can start the painting process. Again this is the rub out (heh) technique so i wont be using any underdrawings/ prep drawings on the actual canvas. Its a process of painting, rubbing out and then painting again. Its a dynamic process (there are videos below to show you what i mean).
First up ill create a mix of phthalo green and a little black (this green is a nice dark, deep hue of green) and a bit of linseed oil (the mixture should be pretty weak but not weak enough to run off the palette when you tilt it a little). Im using a palette knife to mix this but you can use a brush instead or both. Also, i'm adding black (not too much) to darken the colour further because usually with this technique youll want a relatively dark colour; when you rub it off the lighter canvas will show through so it wont be as dark as you might think.
After ive covered the entire canvas in the concoction, ill rub it off with a smooth cotton cloth (yes, this is why its called the rub out technique). Make sure the cloth isnt one of those that sheds tufts of cotton every 5 seconds! You'll notice the paint will quickly gather on the cloth and youll need to fold the cloth over to get a fresh side instead. I'll do this for one pass of the whole canvas, then another. And for the last pass (the 3rd pass) ill use a side of the cloth thats somewhat stained with paint to really even out the paint so there arent any blotches or patches; it doesnt have to be perfect...
After this we can finally get to the main event and start laying out the lion. Here ill use the back of a brush (the pointy end of the handle) wrapped in a cloth to draw out a sketch out the lion i want to paint; im still rubbing out paint here but using the cloth as a weird impromptu paint eraser. Rememember the paint is still wet and we can use this to draw out a quick but accurate version of what i want to paint.
Another thing: this isnt my first time sketching this lion out so im aware of what goes where and what proportions make sense. Also ive been drawing for quite some time so my sense of proportions are not too bad either. Another thing ill do is wrap the cloth around my finger to sketch in the lighter bigger fur areas as well. This does two things 1.) Its helps me organise the sketch with its direction, proportions and 2.) it also dries the paint a little so the light areas dont mix in too much with the darker green paint i started with...
When im happy with the initial sketch ill add in the background first. Ill start off with a French ultramarine blue for the darker areas (its one of my favourite blues) and then use the same light beige colour i used for the canvas. Normally people use the dark colour they painted on the canvas as the darks (in my case the phthalo green) but i went with a blue instead; its still fine as blue harmonises with green (they both have blue in them). Im still keeping the proportions and relationships in mind when painting in the background...
Okay, on to the actual lion. For this ill start off with the darker parts using ultramarine blue. Im also honing in on the darker areas (how the edges change direction etc) to get a more accurate depiction of the lion as i go; im building it up with each step. Im also starting off a little lighter than what i see because i dont want to go too light or too dark too quickly. For this i will mix the paint with some linseed oil to dilute the colour. DO NOT mix it with white! This will change the look and feel; remember at the beginning of this article i stated that mixing anything with white/ black will also desaturate the colour? In this case because its blue adding grey will also give the illusion of warming the colour (adding grey to a warm colour cools it while adding grey to cool colours will give the illusion of warming it). So just remember that. If thats too much just remember that greying anything can change it far more than you wanted!
Next up im using the lighter colours (pure white or the beige yellow ochre mix i was using) to get in the lighter fur; Here im actually detailing the fur and also kind of blocking it out. Im using quick, confident strokes with a smaller brush (size 2 flat brush) to detail the fur. Using drawn out, sketchy, unsure lines here will get you into trouble really quickly. Im also paying attention to the flow and gesture of where the fur is going so i can exaggerate some parts to really show its essence. I continue the process throughout the fur and then try and get into some of the mid tones with a light yellow ochre towards the upper neck.
Next up ill try and blend in the darks and light areas so they dont look too separate.
When im happy with this ill move on to the dark areas i blocked out first and try to get those detailed. Ill also make sure to get in the finer edge details of the lion while doing this. The snout has a good mix between light and dark so ill alternate between the two when I do this; im using two brushes for this instead of one BTW; its easier and causes less hassle with trying to clean and reapply paint each time. Here im being very careful as theres a bit of finer details on the snout; i apply the darks first then the lights over to suggest the sun kissed fur on the darker sides.
Getting near the end here youll notice im fading out the details as i get to the bottom of the picture; this saves time but also has the viewer look at the most important part of the painting; the lions face! Ive also used more contrast + more colour variation here to really draw attention to it. The forearms are really just there to show the pose and the grass ive put in is used to push the viewer back into the face.
And here is the final! I might touch up some areas here and there but for the most part i think ill call it done!
A journey ends, another begins!
Aaaand that marks the end of the start of the first part of this painting journey..? Theres obviously a ton of things i have yet to get back into and write about but i think this is a good start for now. And given that my (anyones, really) drawing skills are pretty translatable to painting ill be sure to keep on drawing and getting better at that while dabbing into painting here and there. Overall its been an epic journey and i cant wait to challenge myself with even crazier subjects, compositions and colours!
If you're interested in more of my content you can checkout my other articles, vids, tuts etc down below.
Thank you for reading, good bye!
Hey, it's me again!
Thivolan Moodley, 3d Artist from Johannesburg, SA. Currently working as a freelance character artist. Also creating free and paid tutorials for the clueless- i mean enthusiastic (yeah that sounds better) 3d artists out there!
Tutorials, socials and portfolio: https://linktr.ee/Thivolan3d
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