I rarely paint just to make a painting, I’m always trying something a little different to learn more about my process and the materials I use. After my last few oil portraits, I felt a bit stale, so I decided to shake things up. Before starting this oil portrait I came up with a list of main things I wanted to try:

• Paint an alla prima study

• Larger canvas

• Alter my colour palette

• Paint faster and messier

• Tone down my skin tones

Alla Prima Study

A study is just a small quick painting that an artist will do to explore their subject. This might be done prior to a larger painting, or as a sort of practise. The artist might put down values (darks and lights), or quick colours to explore different combinations. For this portrait, I was interested in colour. Because I’d decided to switch up my colour palette, I wanted to explore my use of cold and warm colour (see photo below).

My study only took one painting session, which is one or two hours for me. And with slow drying oil paints, that means that I layered wet paint over other layers of wet paint (wet-on-wet, or alla prima). I learned a lot through my alla prima study. Two main things were that I should switch where I use cold and warm colours (for some reason I used blues in the well-lit areas), and that the nose and chin are stronger focal points than I assumed at the beginning.

Painting Size

Square foot (12 x 12 inches) paintings are popular right now, but I’ve been finding them too small. I’ve really been itching to do a larger painting zoomed in to the face, but still also messy. I compromised on this painting and chose a 12 x 16 inch canvas I had in the closet. I gessoed over a previous failed painting with gesso I bought from Opus.

Colour Palette

Normally I paint with a sort of Zorn palette, though, I make my own black with Ultramarine blue and Burnt Umber. Years ago, I experimented with different versions of this, and I found an interesting combination with Sap Green and Alizarin Crimson. For this painting I used the following colours:

• Sap Green

• Alizarin Crimson

• Phthalo Turquoise

• Yellow Ochre

• Titanium Zinc White

• Warm White

All the colours are oil paints from Gamblin Oils. I also simplified my oil mediums. For beginning layers, I used the fast-drying solvent Gamsol (from Gamblin oils), and for final layers, I used the slow-curing linseed oil. Since I do my final layers with a palette knife, I found it challenging to use the linseed oil.

Painting Technique

Every painting of mine is a balance of expression and accuracy, speed and detail. I try not to get caught up on details and slow down, but I often forget. I was consciously trying to leave details for the very end (especially the eyes), and I think this helped. But in the end, I got bogged down in the palette knife work. It wasn’t exactly how I imagined.

Skin Tones

Realistic and interesting skin tones can be difficult, and I felt that the skin tones may have been a bit too cartoonish or obvious in my last few paintings. For this painting I really wanted to tone down the skin tones and make them colder (more blue). The different colour palette helped for this, but it took a lot of mixing to get things right. I will definitely need more practise to get things right. I managed to work in a few turquoise accents that don’t stand out too much and make it more interesting.

This source photo has been on my list for a long time. I love the expression and the lighting. If you are interested in purchasing this painting, or wish to commission your own custom original fine art oil portrait, please feel free to shoot me a message at the button below, or visit my Commission page for more information.