The photo shows misty water vapor passing in front of some trees. The mist, which is like a thin layer of white applied as a layer on a painting, does three things:

1. it makes the trees lighter
2. it makes the colors cooler
3. it reduces the contrast

You should be aware of these types of effects when painting (whatever the subject matter). They will occur when painting thinly with an opaque mixture over something darker (in this case, mist over trees). Below is an example from a still life painting:

close up of a still life

There is a thin layer of light gray painted over the streaky background (actually a tabletop). As with the mist in the photo above, this layer makes the background lighter, cooler, and lower in contrast. A strip of the underpaint was left uncovered, as indicated below:

close up of still life, areas labeled

[14 April 2009] ]]> http://karlzipser.com/2009/03/overpainting-can-be-like-a-veil-of-mist.html/feed 0 http://karlzipser.com/2006/11/a-painting-a-in-several-days.html http://karlzipser.com/2006/11/a-painting-a-in-several-days.html#comments Mon, 06 Nov 2006 06:30:39 +0000 Karl Zipser http://karlzipser.com/2006/11/a-painting-a-in-several-days.html

by Hanneke van Oosterhout

Recently we looked at one of Hanneke van Oosterhout‘s finished still life paintings. There were a number of excellent critiques. The painting was already sold, however, so comments could have no further impact on that picture.

Now Hanneke is in the progress of making another still life. It is not yet finished, which means that your comments could help her make this painting better.

We can follow the painting’s development over several days.

Here is an underdrawing made directly on the panel with black acrylic and a fine brush. The underdrawing took less than an hour. This underdrawing was transferred from a pencil drawing on paper made the previous day (click images to enlarge; work on paper not shown).

The next day Hanneke did the underpainting in acrylic, painting over the underdrawing thinly so that the hatching shading of the underdrawing is almost hidden, but still has an optical effect. The work in acrylic took less than an hour.

Next she did a first pass at overpainting with oil, begun immediately after the work in acrylic was dry. Hanneke painted very thinly, starting with the dark tone in the background. Then she added lighter color on the right side. Then she started to paint the grapes because she understood the the grapes would not last long (but would dry out in a few days). “I gave all the grapes shading, then started to paint lighter parts. Started with left top grape, that part is done the best,” she says. She used oil paint from a tube (Old Holland) and thinned it with a bit of linseed oil. No turpentine was used.

Below is the results from another day where she overpaints with oils (the previous layer had already dried).

Below, two images from yet another day working with oil paint, where she develops the glass. First she applies a transparent “glaze” . . .

Then she works wet-in-wet in the glaze, adding highlights and deeper shadows

This painting is pretty good now, but it needs something. Any suggestions?

[Below is the final version of the painting, now sold]

Glass with grapes by Hanneke van Oosterhout