"Backlit Bovine" Oil 6 x 8 © JMSteele
This is one of the oil paintings I did that was accepted into the
Mountain Oyster Club 42nd Annual Art Show this year Nov.2011.
Here is a quick Demo of how this painting came about......
Step 1: I drew in my Compostition on a gessoed primed masonite panel
that was underpainted with a warm yellow-orange acrylic paint.
Using my own photograph of one of my favorite cows I drew the subject
in with my brush thinning my oil paint with some turpenoid. (I mixed ultramarine blue
with alizarin crimson for the outline).
I then pre-mixed all of my colors so that once I started to lay in the paint
I could work quickly.
Step 2: The Values are now laid in starting with my darks (her under belly
and shadows on her face and body), and then
working up to the lights. The Cow girl is backlit so her whole body
is in shadow. I wanted the values to be interesting so I'm using
the entire value scale 1-10, as you'll see when I get the background in.
Step 3: The Colors I pre-mixed are somewhat muted as I wanted it to be more
low key...but, I've kept them with some saturation. (I can't get away from
that vibrant color it seems). So, the colors are middle to high key chroma-wise.
Here I'm laying the paint in nice and fat (impasto) and leaving the brush strokes.
I've laid in the luscious highlight along her back which makes her pop!
Step 4: Now I'm laying in the background colors, keeping the brushwork
fat and loose, letting some of that underpainting show through,
putting the finishing touches on her face. Softening the Edges,
keeping them interesting, and varied, hard and soft, lost and found.
And Voila'!
Thank you for looking.......
Email me if you have any Questions: jmsteele1@charter.net
and.......Happy Painting!
