I just went for Oil Painting lesson #5, a couple of days ago.
It has been a chop chop curry pok course so far, where we went from this in lesson 1 -
Cube
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| I can still feel its mocking stare - "you will never get my lines straight without a ruler, you will never be able to make me look 3D!!!"
To this -
Lesson 2 to 3: Bottle with weird vines under spot
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| My art teacher, L, artistically arranging the vines, making it impossible to draw |
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| I had to draw this. |
In my mind, I was thinking "SMLJ!* How did we go from a cube to this? What happened to the other 3D shapes that I've yet to learn, like drawing cylindrical shapes? Or even if we were to start drawing still life, shouldn't we start with the fruits, you know, the banana, apple, orange?
L explained that she wanted to challenge our ability to use gradation and .... (actually I wasn't paying attention at this point, cause I was trying not to pee my pants).
* Definition based on Takingcock.com:
SI MI/SI MI LAN /SI MI LAN CHIAO(see mee)
Hokkien for “What?”. With “lan” or “lan chiao” (penis) tagged on, it becomes much more belligerent, not to mention rude; less a question than a warning not to complicate matters.
I was such a noob, that I had to get help with my easel. I had no idea how to set it up.
I was incredibly rusty. I've always thought drawing would be like swimming, a skill that you will never ever forget. Boy, was I wrong. I've not held a pencil for so long, that my wrist was stiff and I can't seem to get the sketch right. Come to think of it, I don't think I've even written properly on a piece of paper for the longest time. But it feels good to be getting in touch with this long lost hobby of mine, its like reacquainting with an old friend.
10 years ago, I would have ripped the canvas apart in frustration. Today, it feels good just to enjoy the process, even if the end result is not what you want it to be (cue song, Let it go, let it goooo.... now its stuck in your head and you hate me don't you?)
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| Imperfect - my bottle looked like it was made of rubber instead of glass. True story, that's what my teacher said.
With oil painting, you want a very rough sketch, all details should be painted in later, since the paints will cover all pencil markings. I use willow charcoal for sketching since its a lot easier to erase and kinder to your canvas (and also because kw bought a big box of it during his painting days and I didn't want to waste it).
Oil is also extremely forgiving since it takes forever to dry and I really do mean forever. My painting was left untouched for close to 2 weeks at one point and it was still wet. Since it doesn't dry, you can take your time to mess with your painting till you are satisfied. You can layer paint upon paint to correct any imperfection. |
My typical set up
Here is a picture of the cat watching the world go by and the brushes dry. Its the only close-up picture I have of my brushes. Note that the bristles are rough and not the smooth tapered kind.
For ease of reference - here is a handy guide from NAFA if you want to pick up painting on your own :
Oil Painting is difficult - Myth!
Before I started the lessons, I thought oil painting was difficult. Myth debunked! Its cumbersome, but not difficult. The main difference between oil and normal poster paint that we use as a kid is that water is not used in the process at all (science lesson 101- oil and water do not mix). To dilute the paint, use just a drop of turpentine and linseed oil. Similarly, to clean your brushes, you need copious amount of turpentine. For cleaning purposes, I've sneakily used the coarse turpentine (not just me la, from the smell in the class, I suspect there are many others who do too). It reeks, even though we paint in a well ventilated room.
Oil Painting is expensive - Maybe...
Coarse turpentine is actually very much frown upon by L , since it is bad for your health (here, scare yourself silly by reading about its terrible effects. It is advisable to use only distilled turpentine. I would too, if distilled turpentine doesn't cost S$16.50 for that tiny bottle below!! I'm too poor to paint healthily.
My way around this is to clean the brushes really quickly with coarse turpentine in the bottle and recap it immediately (do everything while holding breath). I can now do it in 3 seconds. booyah!
What's unique about Oil paints?
I experimented with acrylic paints for my 2nd drawing (more on that later). The main difference is that oil paints just DO NOT DRY, you can hang a perpetual 'wet paint' sign on your painting. One of the most annoying process for me, is mixing colours to get the shade you want. Theres a lot of trial and error involved. So the major upside about oil is that once you get that shade, you can pretty much take your time to paint without worrying that it will dry up. In fact, you can cover your palette with alu- foil and the colours can last for a couple of days.
End of lesson 2 - Ok, this was a perfect example of what not to do. It was way too wet and L had to dab it with a piece of cloth cause my paint couldn't adhere to the canvas.
Lesson 3 - The final piece with a lot of touch ups from L. Notice the neck of the bottle and how L miraculously straightened it by filling in on the background and making it more 'glass-like".
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| If you are wondering why the top left corner is left unpainted, its where my thumb goes when I port it back home from class. I'm practical that way. I poor, I take mrt. |
It was amazing how different our paintings looked, even though we were painting the same subject.
L, "It is important to place paintings under the spotlight"
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| KW, "Why their paintings so good, why yours like that". See! I told you guys that there were many pros in my beginners class. |
(I need to work on my abrupt post conclusions).
In lesson 4 and 5, we are asked to paint this weird mix of items, including a duck who might've been dressed by a kpop stylist..
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| Duck rockin' its polka dots, flowers, and ombre colours. oh yeah..so swag |
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| I can see where it got its fashion inspiration from. Source: http://voguemagz.com |
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