Process of an Oil Painting

This painting, although relatively small, just 18" x 24", was painted during several separate sessions. I began by laying in the foreground and mid-ground and setting in the meandering stream.


in progress

While painting these parts, I developed a pounding headache and knew I wouldn't be able to complete the piece, so I roughly brushed on the upper background parts in the toned down colors I was working with, then quickly cleaned up my brushes and paints and left my studio.

My headache turned into a fever and head cold and it was two weeks before I was able to return to this painting. Often when I am working on a painting, it takes on a life of its own, dictating what is needed next. I get totally caught up in the creative process, time flies by, while the image slowly emerges.

Here, all momentum and flow was lost. So I took a digital photo of the unfinished painting and printed out a copy. The print on plain copy paper is always quite faint, but works for sketching with charcoal or pastels.



sketch

On the printout, I sketched with charcoal possibilities for finishing the composition. These sketch marks are very rough and minimal, but often enough for this purpose. I find it very helpful to sketch out different design possibilities on a printout of a painting in progress, determining how I want to proceed before committing paint to the canvas.



18" x 24", oil on canvas, Lydia Johnston

Once I decided that I would place two small trees on the far bank of the stream, I mixed up more paint and continued forward, developing the stream, adding details to the main part and finishing up the background.