Large Painting

[Sharon Casavant]

I am about to undertake a large painting in oil.  It is 4 ft by 2 ft horizontal.  I want to paint Mount Rainier in Washington.  The mountain is off to the right, not taking up the whole painting.  Any suggestions how to go about this?  I have printed out some photos and taped them together so far.

[Sharon Casavant]

Thanks for posterizing this for me.  I see I have 4 values so far.  Not much dark.  I have a hard time with wanting to put dark in a painting.  Something to work on. 

[Stuart J. Gourlay]

Sharon, I forgot to attach my cropped copy of your photo on the easel in color and a 4 value B&W image I created with Photoshop Elements.  Here they are:  Stu

[Stuart J. Gourlay]

Sharon, Mt. Rainier stands out a lot better now.  My wife never listens to my advice either.  When you paint your oranges, remember:  separate your values to make things stand out unless you want them to fade into the background.  I'm glad that's a cliff because that wide a road would really spoil the wilderness.  Also since that valley with the river is so far in the distance, use some purple to knock the green down a little.  It's really coming along well.  One of the things I do during a painting to see my values better is run my digital photo through the photoeditor to produce a 4 or 5 value to see if I need to adjust my values.  To do that in Photoshop Elements you crop your picture, click on "Enhance" and "Convert to black and white"; and then click on "Filter" and "Adjustments" and click on "Posterize" and put a 4 or 5 in the levels box.  This will give you your black and white values like Richard had us doing in the first workshops.  Keep up the good work.  Stu

[Sharon Casavant]

ps... that "road" is actually a cliff area, and it does look goofy because I am not finished with it :)

[Sharon Casavant]

[Sharon Casavant]

I definately need some turpenoid.  I am getting some today!  The Galkyd is horrible using alone.  I guess I should go back to walnut oil or linseed.  Well, the sky is no longer competing with the mountain...

[Stuart J. Gourlay]

Sharon, "foad" was a typo; it should be "road" ; it is the "S" shaped ridge that goes up onto the mountain.  It looks manmade like a road would and weird.  I know this is just your block in.  Go visit the Gamblin web site www.gamblincolors.com  if you are using Galkyd of Galkyd lite.  I don't know what Grumtine is, I do know what Turpenoid is.  Gamblin recommends using Gamsol, their product with Galkyd.  Gamblin has an incredible amount of information on their website and especially in their studio notes.  One of the studio notes tells you how you can "oil out" your painting to give an even amount of gloss over the whole painting.  This process can use linseed or other oil or an alkyd resin (Liquin or Galkyd or other) thinned with OMS (Gamsol or other like Turpenoid) applied to the whole painting and then wiped off.  Places short of oil will be dull and will suck up the oil and places that are shiny will be wiped clean to even out the gloss.  This can be done when the paint is dry to the touch and it becomes part of the paint film and is a good finish before varnishing with a removeable varnish after the paint is completely dry (3+months).  My point on the clouds is that they are competing in value with your snow covered peaks.  Since this is a painting about the mountains, darkening the clouds around the mountain and brightening the snow in the sunlit areas on the peaks makes the mountains pop.  You are off to a good start with your block in.  It is a lot harder to paint a painting this large.  Be sure you stand way back (10 to 15 feet or more) every once in awhile to see how it looks as you further develop it.  Stu

[Sharon Casavant]

Thanks!

[Sharon Casavant]

good idea to darken clouds over Mtn Rainier.  But I don't know what you mean by "foad to the left of center", wish I did so I could fix it.  The left side of the mountain range will be hid with tall pines, anyway.    Stu, do you think that orange would be good to put in the shadow of the clouds, like a sunrise, and also some earth color?

On another note, when I moved teh large mountain over to the left, it left an empty spot in the sky.  So, I had to add more sky color but used a different medium (Galkyd lite) for that small area.  All of the other sky area was painted with a different medium (Grumtine, yuck) which made the sky very shiny.  You can't see it in the photo.  But now, where Mtn R was, it is matted and not shiney.   I need to get rid of the shiney or make small amount of sky like the rest.        Is it a good idea to mix the Galkyd lite with terpenoid, because it is kinda gummy mixed with paint.  I have never had this problem.  It is the first time I used Grumtin, didn't like it, so switched to the Galkyd lite.    

[Stuart J. Gourlay]

Sharon, it is looking good!  Nice atmospheric perspective.  That foad to the left of center looks a little goofy; kind of like it's a bridge or something like that or "highway to the stars".  It kind of grabs your eye.  I do not think you need more snow on Mt. Rainier, but I do see your white snow competing with your clouds.  If you darken the clouds some and make some places in the snow brighter, you will not have that competition.  Also take a look on each side where you mountain range exits the canvas=same level=move them so they are not the same (I will bet that was in the 23 rules).  Great start overall.  Stu