Chapter 33 The Basic Techniques of Oils An Original Oil Painting by Darrell Crow Assignment
The Basic Techniques of Oils TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 33: Assignment: Darrell Crow, an original painting by Overview.. Supplies You ll Need Preparation. Background Middleground. Foreground. Final Details. Reprint Authorization Notice 33-3 33-3 33-4 33-4 33-6 33-7 33-8 33-10
Darrell Crow Studios, 65 Hixson St., Bellingham, MA 02019 This is a beautiful painting that absolutely anyone can do, even if they ve never painted before. will take about 4 hours to complete depending upon whether you re a beginner or a more experienced student. Also available on DVD. The evening moon breaks over an isolated New England beach. The simplicity of this seascape design will allow the student to grasp all of the fundamentals of painting seascapes with multiple variations of this painting to fit any scene worldwide. Using a limited palette, this exceptional painting can be adapted to any size canvas. PAINTING SUPPLIES Paints Burnt Umber (BU) Burnt Sienna (BS) Raw Sienna (RS) Yellow Ochre (YO) Paynes Gray (PG) Titanium White (T) Alizarin Crimson (AC) Purple (PU) French Ultramarine Blue (FUB) Brushes 2 1/2 Landscape 1 Landscape #2 Script Liner #3 Fan brush #6 Fan brush 1/4 Flat synthetic #10 Palette Knife Hake Blender Sponge Brush (1-2 ) #2, #4, #6 Flat bristle brushes #6 bristle Filbert brush Medium Regular Oil Painting Medium or Medium Clear (MC) Canvas 18 x24 although any size can be used. Miscellaneous: Paper Towels, Baby Wipes, Baby Oil (or Odorless thinner), Container & Cleaning Screen for oil, Beater rack and waste receptacle, table top easel, paper palette.
Page 2 P R E P A R A T IO N B a c k g ro u n d Measure 10 inches down from the top of the canvas using an 18 x24 canvas on both sides. Place a mark on the side of the canvas. Stretch a strip of masking tape across the width of the canvas. The bottom edge of the tape should be touching the line on each side. This ensures 8 below the tape. Paint the entire bottom of the canvas with black gesso. Let dry. You could also dry with a hot blow hair dryer. I like using the fastest, hottest speed. Mix up three highlight colors for the sky. 1. TW with YO for a cream. 2. AC, BS, TW and a touch of PG 3. A Portion of #2 mix with TW & YO added. Mix up 3 base sky colors 1. FUB, TW, PG 2. #1 plus TW, touch of YO 3. #2 plus equal part PG Mix 2 foam colors. 1. #2 sky color with AC, PG and a touch of YO to gray. 2. #1 Foam color with TW. Cover the entire canvas with clear medium. Cover a circular area (loose circle) with #3 sky highlight color. Add touches of #2 sky highlight color. Load your indes finger with #2 sky highlight color and with circular motions, form the moon.
Page 3 With finger shadow lower right of moon with #2 sky highlight color. Using #10 palette knife, quickly swipe excess paint off the canvas and blend moon with a hake brush. Paint the top half of the sky with #2 sky color and the bottom half of the sky with #1 sky color. Blend with large brush or hake. Load fan brush with #3 sky color and for clouds throughout the sky. Stand back and inspect your work. Load #3 Fan brush with #2 sky highlight color and paint tops of the clouds in which you feel the moonlight would be illuminating. With #6 flat bristle blend (by tapping or stroking over with dashes) the border between the highlight and cloud. Fluff up cloud with hake brush. Inspect your work. Make corrections as you deem necessary. Touch some cloud edges with #1 sky highlight color if you feel they need to be lightened a bit. Cover the entire dark canvas with PG. Remove tape and measure 5 down (60%) from left-most horizon Measure 7.5 down (20%) from rightmost horizon and draw line across. This is where the beach intersects with the ocean. Draw a crooked line between the two marks. Load a big brush with #2 sky highlight color and pull straight down with a flicking motion along the line you ve just drawn. Wipe the brush clean and stroke horizontally to blend. Walla, wet sand.
Page 4 M ID D L E G R O U N D Draw a parallel line 50% (halfway) between the horizon and beach. Draw a second line halfway between the horizon and newly drawn line. These are two saves. Draw 1st line as shown. Load #3 fan brush with #1 sky color and paint a thick line over the to of each of the 2 waves. Using clean brush blend back this line, using Z-Strokes. Leave bottom edge of line alone. Highlight the top edge of the back wave with #2 sky highlight color. I put a touch of paint on the top, clean brush with paper towel and. Pull the highlight paint left and down. It s kind of like painting the water falling over an old pickle barrel. Now and then (Don t overdo this) pull a bit of the water highlight up to create a splash. I did this twice in the entire painting. Clean all color out of the top half of the eye of wave. Paint top half with #2 sky highlight color and bottom half with #3 sky highlight color. Rest of wave with PG. Blend the eye, top down. Loan #6 flat bristle with #1 foam color and scrub in the dump on the left side of crashing wave. Highlight dump with #1 sky highlight color by first placing a line of color across the dump top with #6 flat. Then pull paint to left in arching stroke as though painting over a barrel. Move to the right of the eye of the wave and using #6 flat bristle with #1 foam color scrup in (using backward 3 strokes) foam patterns in the wave curling up from eye to the extreme right.
Page 5 F O R E G R O U N D Stand back and inspect your work. You should note that as you look at the wave, it starts to flatten slightly as you move to the right. Take the #1 foam color loaded onto #6 flat and scrub in the foam on the crumbling edge of the rising wave. Take your time. When done, blend the bottom edges of into the rising wave to set into the wave. Go over the eye of the wave and down the front portion of the breaker. Add #2 sky highlight color to the clean #6 flat and scrub into the tops of each foam clump. Load a #4 flat bristle with #1 sky highlight color and just touch up certain portions of the foams. Don t overdo this. Blend with a hake brush. Blend with a hake brush. Load up #1 foam color onto #6 flat and scrub in the foam patterns at the base of the curling wave. Create a small wave in front of large wave by scrubbing in foam on top edge and leaving wave dark. Highlight the bottom bubbly foam with #2 and #1 sky highlight color in the same fashion as the rising wave s top edge. Highlight the top of the small wave with the #2 sky highlight color. You can even pull some of the foam forward and down to emulate a small crashing wave. Load the #3 fan brush with the #2 foam color and scrub in two rows of splash to the left of the eye of the wave
Page 6 Blend the foam with a hake brush. Load up the #6 flat with #2 sky highlight color and scrub into top edge of the splash as shown. Blend bottoms with hake and fluff up edges. Repeat with #1 highlight. After highlighting the top of the back foam on the left, repeat with a forward row within to add depth to flash. Blend and fluff. Step back and review to make sure the painting is believable.; Add PG to #6 flat bristle brush and using Z strokes set the crash the ocean. Load PU, TW mix onto #6 flat bristle. Stroke foam line onto beach. With clean #6 flat, stroke (parallel to bottom of canvas) the beach foam line back, while not touching the bottom edge of line. Add a second and third line of foam patters onto the beach. Load #3 fan with #2 sky highlight and highlight the backwaters, space between main crashing wave and the second wave. Also add the #2 sky highlight coming out of the eye of the wave. Load the #6 flat bristle with #3 sky highlight color and scrub onto beach behind each row of foam washing ashore. Blend with Hake brush. Make forward rocks with brush by first loading BU onto #6 flat bristle and painting in basic shape. Load clean brush (1 side only) with #3 sky highlight color or PU/TW mix and using dashes, paint rock F IN A L D E T A IL S
Page 7 Paint the rocks on the left side and repeat the process for the right side. You can even add the next set of highlights by mixing AC and TW to form pink and touching highlights onto rocks. Our seascape is really taking shape. Stand back and inspect your work. I made seagulls using a #4 flat synthetic brush and #3 sky color with additional PG mixed into this color. I also used a steady stick to rest my hand on as I painted the birds. Stroke the forward wing, then the body, and finally the back wing. This will give you a well proportioned seagull. Paint an uneven number of gulls. Always paint an uneven number of objects in a painting. Highlight the seagulls with #2 sky highlight. If needed, go to #1 sky highlight. The highlighted bird close up. Highlight all 5 birds. Congratulations. You re done. Sign your work, take a picture and send me copy by email. I d love to see your work.
Page 8 Published by the Darrell Crow Studios www.darrellcrow.com 65 Hixon St., Bellingham, MA 02019 You can visit us here... Twitter YouTube (DarrellCrowStudioes) FaceBook http://www.darrellcrow.com http://www.darrellcrow.biz http://www.youcanpaintclub.com We offer Basic Technique Series of Instructional Painting DVDs on. Landscapes Seascapes People Flowers Tall Ships Wildlife Pop Art Paint From Photos Color Mixing Techniques Teach Kids To Paint Water Mixable Oils Acrylics Much, much more. Reproduction Rights The contents of this document are copyrighted (2011) by and for the Darrell Crow Studios. Only Owners of The Basic Techniques of Oils book, may reproduce copies of this Assignment: A New England Mid-Summer Dream for distribution to their students when teaching A New England Mid-Summer Dream. YES! You Can Paint. I absolutely guarantee it.