I thought I’d share a little bit of technique I used as part of my Water Elemental repaint project. The original image was made by drawing out the image in pencil on vellum, scanning that in, and then painting it digitally. Inspired by a suggestion from a friend, I decided to repaint this elemental in oils.
The lyre the elemental is playing has very thin strings – easy to do digitally, a little tricky with oils. I decided to use a technique I learned from Mary Pettis during one of her landscape painting workshops. She showed this to me as a way to paint power lines. I like it because you can get either precise or very expressive lines, depending on what knife you use and how you move it.
Step 1- Mix the paint with a long palette knife, then smooth the pile out, letting the knife glide over the paint surface (but not using so much pressure that you scrape down to the palette).
Step 2- Using a knife appropriate for the type of line you want to make, dip the long edge into the smoothed paint. For the needs of my painting I had to dip and scrape a little to build up enough paint on the edge of the knife. I also chose the smaller palette knife because I needed a fairly short, straight line. If I were painting power lines, I’d probably use the longer knife.
Step 3 – Drag the edge of the knife along the painting surface. Some variation in thickness did occur but for the most part I created the shape I needed. For the sections that were too thick for my liking, I used a synthetic bristle flat to carefully brush away and lift off the excess paint.
I hope you find this useful. Let me know if you have any questions!
I also teach several classes at The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Art in Minneapolis.
Illustration starts next Thursday, September 19. 7 – 9:30 pm.
Gesture Class starts next Tuesday, September 17, 4:15 – 6:45.
Color 1 also starts next Tuesday September 17, 4:15 – 6:45.
Visit TheAtelier.org to learn more about the classes and to register.