I had a big shift in my process and my thoughts today as I began a portrait for my neighbors. This portrait is a gift for them for taking care of my fish for me while I was away on vacation to Spring Lake. I began the portrait today after feeling lost for a while in my own thoughts about painting. So I just began painting and trying to return to myself. Trying almost to turn my brain off while I paint. The main thing that I've been feeling for a very long time is that I haven't been myself. I've been trying to be someone else and paint like someone else.
The portrait that I'm currently working on is very similar to a portrait that I painted for these same neighbors back in 2013 while I was a student. I still believe it's one of the nicer paintings that I've ever done. I did it over the course of 4 or 5 days and it's always been a guiding light for me to return to. I think a big thing is that I've been hurrying my paintings too much lately, instead of letting them rest and working in a few layers. I got too caught up in the whole alla prima recipe, which I still love but it's not the best way for me to work. It's so difficult to just listen to your own voice when other influences are so strong. It's like the whole process is stripping away all these layers to just get back to the core of who I was and who I am. I know that I can only do my best work in this manner. It's funny how you have to go backwards to go forwards sometimes.
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I had a big realization today regarding technique that I feel will help a lot of artists out there who may feel lost with technique. I've written about this before, but I realized again that if you think there's a right way (and wrong way) to do something then you're doing it wrong. By this I mean that there is no right way and wrong way to do something and you can throw all those ideas away. Don't limit yourself in your thoughts. Give yourself freedom to experiment with your colors, your paint thickness, brush selection and anything else.
That being said, I did want to document my current oil painting palette as a way to track my progress. Below is my current full palette, but I definitely don't use all these colors in every painting, but it's a good starting place for anyone looking for a broad range to choose from. Current oil painting palette as of 7/22/19 1. Silver White (Zinc + Flake) 2. Cadmium Lemon 3. Cadmium Yellow Light 4. Cadmium Yellow Medium 5. Yellow Ochre 6. Cadmium Orange 7. Cadmium Red Light 8. Cadmium Red Medium 9. Alizarin Crimson 10. Venetian Red 11. Burnt Sienna 12. Oxide of Chromium Green (Winsor & Newton) 13. Viridian Green 14. Cobalt Blue 15. Ultramarine Blue 16. Prussian Blue 17. Cobalt Violet 18. Raw Umber 19. Burnt Umber 20. Ivory Black I got back from Spring Lake a couple days ago and I've been gathering my thoughts to write a blog post. The first thing I'm proud to say is that I'm going to be showing some paintings soon at The Frederick Galleries in Spring Lake, N.J. I did a ton of painting while I was at the beach and I'm honored to be showing them at such an amazing gallery.
Doing all these paintings also gave me the momentum to push through some art blocks that I've been feeling lately. The main block was that I was putting a lot of limitations on myself as a artist. In terms of my working method, I would say, "I can only do this and that means that I can't do that." But what I've realized is that instead of picking and choosing, I should combine techniques to synthesize my own working formula. That's what I've been focusing on a lot recently. This has really motivated me to work harder lately. I woke up early today because I was ready to paint and I couldn't wait. I plan to up my game a lot more from here on out! |
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