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This post features a step by step walkthrough of my portrait oil painting approach. Although I’ve shared a few walkthrough videos on YouTube of my process, I wanted to create something that was a bit more sequential and organized, as well as a bit longer, to really capture how I approach these alla prima portrait oil paintings. It just so happened that this recent study of a woman holding a book really aligned with my typical process. Sometimes I bounce around randomly, but this was really in line with the sort of example I hoped to use. The painting itself was about 3 hours, all done in one session, and turned out well for these purposes.
This portrait is a fairly recent one, done in November 2024. My intention at the start was to practice some challenging concepts, like sheer or semi-transparent fabric, window and glass depiction, and just generally messing around with color blends. This portrait study was painted on 12 x 12 oil paper and was my 232nd overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, , and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the high speed vertical time lapses (Instagram and YT Shorts) some other similar painting videos.
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I’ll detail my typical steps for portrait painting after the video embedded below, but first a few thoughts about the painting itself. This is one of my favorites for a reason that might be more apparent from an artist’s perspective: I was able to accomplish what I intended from the outset, which makes the creation memorable. Early in my learning journey especially, I often couldn’t create what I had in my mind. I would want to implement some idea, concept, or image, but what ended up on paper was not what I set out to make. But, this portrait became exactly what I intended, which is tremendously satisfying when you’ve been in the opposite state so many times. Even though I like this one a lot, there are of course issues – as I was trying to keep the material semi-transparent in places, I see now there are significant unpainted areas visible. But overall, a painting that I am happy with aesthetically and I think is worthy of getting the walkthrough treatment.
Here are the steps covered in the above video, including links to the referenced time stamps:
And, here are some additional details of the video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms. As I mentioned, it was my 232nd total oil painting and was originally done in November 2024. The main video I’ve embedded is about 16 minutes, and is similar in format and presentation to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Discussion Video Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎞️ Here are the playlists I’ve grouped my art videos into:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
Maybe a bit redundant with the YouTube video embedded, but thought I’d also try WordPress’ VideoPress functionality to see how it handles large 4K/HD uploads. Here’s the full version of my step by step walkthrough of the portrait oil painting process. This was done alla prima, all in one session.
The vast majority of my oil paintings are done on Strathmore 400 series oil paper, which is a treated linen that feels somewhat rigid like canvass. I am very much a creature of habit, so part of it is that I’m used to how it feels and how paint acts on it. But it’s also pretty cost effective, and storage is much easier than canvass. With the painting that is the subject of this post though, I tried something new – a softer cotton paper called Stonehenge Oil made by Legion Paper. It’s definitely a different experience painting on this softer surface. It’s not overly soft like cloth or anything, but it does feel like there is slightly more resistance as you apply oil paint. A trade off to this different feel though is that the end result has an interesting richness to it.
This portrait I did of a woman next to a window, with fall leaves around her, was noteworthy for using this cotton paper that wasn’t my usual. But also because it was somewhat of an older piece, from October 2023, which seemed to be a leap in quality and technique that isn’t shared by my other paintings during this timeframe. This portrait study was painted on 11 x 14 oil paper and was my 144th overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.
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This piece turned out to be one of my favorites during the time period I painted it – just over one year into learning oil paints. It was interesting because at the time, I didn’t actually have a real easel. I was using a carboard box I had rigged to my kids’ easel…which worked okay for smaller paintings, but was a bit more of a challenge for a larger piece like this. This painting, and a few larger ones that came after, made me realize I definitely needed an upgrade. The painting took longer than I was used to due to the size, but it worked out fine because I didn’t get antsy to move on and just took my time. Most of my portraits feel a lot like sketchbook entries in that they’re really informal, but this one actually feels like a cohesive piece. That felt like a turning point in a way, to have more interest in composition.
In this embedded discussion video, I talk more about this experience painting on the softer cotton paper. I did enjoy it, and appreciate the chance to try something new. But I haven’t really pursued using it more often often my usual thicker, textured linen paper. As I mentioned from the top, I’m used to my old stand by, and it’s sometimes hard to branch off from what I’m used to. Which I feel is especially important when you’re still trying to learn to guide your brushes properly. But, the Strathmore paper is fairly inexpensive as well, which helps when you’re trying to crank out portraits and get as much practice as possible.
Here are some additional details of the video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms. As I mentioned, it was my 144th total oil painting and was originally done in October 2023. The main video I’ve embedded is about 4 minutes, and is similar in format and presentation to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Discussion Video Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎞️ Here are the playlists I’ve grouped my art videos into:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
I had an itch to get some practice with dark oil painting color blends, partially inspired by wanting to improve on a prior portrait painting that featured tons of darkness with small bright highlights. I thought I’d take a shot at similar concepts again, really pushing myself to practice some blends. With this piece, I used a few different mixes of varying proportions: Raw umber, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue, alizarin crimson, and burnt umber in various combinations. I was able to get some really distinct versions of very dark areas, which felt good to put onto paper.
I really like the zones of distinct color in the subject’s face in this piece, and enjoyed exploring the warmer and cooler areas of color. This portrait study was painted on 12 x 12 oil paper and was my 196th overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.
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This painting really incorporates a lot of lessons learned over the past two years for figure studies with oils. One of the biggest ones has been trying to using confident brush stroke to depict distinct zones or blocks of color. I say some variation of this phrase in almost every painting video: “distinct shapes of color”, “distinct color blocks”, and so on. I’ve long admired and appreciated those portrait artists who masterfully combine aspects of impressionism and realism, like John Singer Sargent and Richard Schmid, so this has naturally become a major focal point. Along those lines, early on I came across the advise to blend my own blacks or near-blacks, which I practiced as well. In this piece especially, as I tried to push forward with multiple very dark combinations.
Another aspect, which is arguably at least as important as the above, is freehand figure painting. In my pencil drawing days a few years ago, I typically used measuring tools to help me along (rulers, calipers, grids, etc). But, when I started painting, I decided since I was dedicated to putting in the work to get better on this new medium, I may as well put in the work to try to get better at freehand proportions. I will talk more about this in a separate post, but this portrait also shows progress towards that point. Overall, I think this portrait combines all of these efforts pretty effectively.
In this embedded discussion video, I went for another start to finish walkthrough of my portrait painting process. Most of the conversation centers around mixing dark colors and how to show bright highlights where light reflects. As I mentioned, much of the dark color blend compares mixing different browns (burnt vs raw umber) and blues (ultramarine vs phthalo) to get variants of “near black” colors.
Here are some additional details of the video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms. As I mentioned, it was my 196th total oil painting and was originally done in February 2024. The main video I’ve embedded is about 10 minutes, and is similar to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Discussion Video Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎞️ Here are the playlists I’ve grouped my art videos into:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
One of the painting highlights of 2024 for me was getting to participate in the Postcard Art Exhibit (PAE). It’s a charity event that is hosted in different locations, and the one last year was fairly close to me in McKinney, Texas benefiting the Millhouse Foundation. I don’t have much experience with art shows, but this was a ton of fun and I’m really glad I got to do it. Basically, an artist can enter a piece for free and the sales go to charity, with the restriction that it’s a postcard sized artwork in any medium. I submitted a small portrait of a woman looking to the side, which I thought turned out fairly well.
My family and I attended the gallery opening, which consisted of a pre-sale for VIPs who paid for early access, some speeches by the organizer, and then the public portion. To my great surprise, my portrait actually sold in the pre-sale! By the time we got in there and saw the display, my painting had a sticker on it already (which I someone had to tell me meant it sold). The event was so much fun – it made me feel more like a “real” artist, getting to participate in something like this. Even though the next one is in the Netherlands and I couldn’t physically attend, I will probably still submit a painting. And I want to participate in another show somewhere if I can this year.
Another really cool part of this – one of the board members actually selected this piece as one of his “Board Member Choices” for the exhibit, which resulted in a page in their catalog. According to their social media post, each year the board chooses their top five and this was one of David Sandum’s selections. This was really an honor and I’m appreciative for the opportunity to participate, the interest in the piece, and for the kind words written by PAE.
Here’s what the PAE/Millhouse Foundation said about this painting in their catalog write-up:
“The best works of art are a dialogue, triggering emotion. This beautiful card does just that. It is a quick glance, a capture of time. The woman is on the move, looking away from us. There is a sense of being lost, or in need of help, but also of wanting to manage alone. It is beautifully painted. The artist is a master of his palette, highlights and shades.”
This piece was painted on 5 X 7 oil paper and was my 207th overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.
In this embedded discussion video, I discuss some of my background when it comes to art shows…which is actually just one previous that was quite a few years ago now. The video also covers some details on the PAE show itself, and the two paintings I made for the show, only one of which I submitted. I can’t remember if I covered it in the video or not, but I would say the only thing I was a bit disappointed about is that I didn’t get to meet the person who purchased my painting. I saw several other artists meeting the folks who bought their art, and I think that would have been pretty fun and interesting. But that’s a small matter – overall, this was such a great experience.
Anyhow, here are some additional details of the video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. The video discussion I’ve embedded is about 6 minutes, and is similar to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Discussion Video Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎞️ Here are the playlists I’ve grouped my art videos into:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
I’m currently experiencing an internal struggle with the start of my process. Most artists I follow start their oil paintings with a background wash or base layer of color, which helps eliminate the bright white from their canvass or paper and potentially makes blending easier. But, for most of my 240ish oil paintings, I have started my loose outline without this background wash. I have had a few experiences when it seemed the base layer made it too easy to turn the painting to a muddy mess, so it’s scared me from doing it too often. But lately, especially over the last 15-20 paintings, I’ve found I’m starting to appreciate it! This featured portrait is one I actually started with a background wash of a brownish base layer. It was dry prior to starting the portrait though, which helped prevent me from turning the piece muddy.
I really like the zones of distinct color in the subject’s face in this piece, and enjoyed exploring the warmer and cooler areas of color. This portrait study was painted on 12 x 12 oil paper and was my 229th overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.
Shop link related to this piece:
This specific painting may have represented a start to this trend for me of using background washes more often. Maybe it’s the lack of formal training, but I just don’t have an issue with little spots of white peeking out – not that I don’t do it, more that it just doesn’t bother me. It’s more so that I’ve found lately having a thin base layer of oils helps me as I lay down additional paint. I still have to be cautious not to over-blend, because that risk of becoming a muddy mess is definitely there. But if I lay down paint in discrete zones, I’m finding it useful.
In this embedded discussion video, I explore some aspects of this background wash vs empty space debate. I will add though, that often I have sort of accidentally used a background wash. It’s happened pretty frequently because I messed up my initial subject outline and wiped it away with a paper towel. That leaves a thin base color, which I then paint directly into. But I’ve found it useful enough that I started doing it intentionally! So there you go – learning by stumbling into something!
Here are some additional details of the discussion video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms. As I mentioned, it was my 229th total oil painting – the Shorts video did fairly well, but the others didn’t get a ton of traction. The video discussion I’ve embedded is about 4 minutes, and is similar to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Discussion Video Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎞️ Here are the playlists I’ve grouped my art videos into:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
Sometimes I just paint without any specific reason or goal, but with this piece I actually had a couple specific things I wanted to practice. I was talking with some colleagues about my appreciation for John Singer Sargent’s paintings, particularly Lady Agnew of Locknaw. I love the way Sargent captured the nature of light on fabric, and a nature instinct is to see if it’s something I could practice. I also wanted to work on natural looking figure poses – particularly the back’s curve and how limbs might rest. These are both things I want to return to, but I pushed on those themes with this painting. I think both goals were largely successful with this figure study.
Although I am certain I’ll never catch this blog up with all 240 oil paintings I’ve done over the last two years, I do at least want to incorporate some of my favorites. And this figure study is certainly one of them, so I thought I’d go all the way back to November 2023 when this painting was done. This study was painted on 12 x 12 oil paper and was my 164th overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.
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Much like the previous post, this piece is an exercise in some of the more subtle aspects of oil painting. My first year of painting was very much brute force attempt to learn the basics quickly – in the last couple months of 2022 at the start of my journey, I somehow did 53 portraits in oil. And then in 2023, my first full year, I did 147 oil paintings! The quality was often quite iffy, but I expected as much and knew from learning pencil portraits that this was just part of it. I slowed down significantly afterward, and that’s where those subtle aspects I mentioned come into play. Now that I’ve got some of the basics, the overarching goal has become to start to learn how to use confident brushstrokes to convey texture, suggest form, and hint at details (rather than shout them with discrete lines). This painting was one of the first that I started shifting focus in this direction towards the subtler elements of painting.
As I mentioned at the top, one aspect I wanted to explore (and needed to practice) is free-handing subject proportion and form. Does a figure appear natural and relaxed, or does it seem forced and sitting? I believe this requires a delicate touch, and although I’ve definitely improved, I am still developing my skills in this area. This specific figure study was a good effort that has held up pretty solidly in the time since I painted it over a year ago.
Another subtle aspect I wanted to highlight is the fabric’s fold and interaction with the light. Going back to John Singer Sargent and his skill in capturing the essence of fabric in his portraits – his purposeful and confident brush strokes and colors create a natural illusion of fabric. Definitely something that I greatly admire about his style and approach, but also clearly an aspect that will take a massive amount of practice to even begin to emulate. I wanted to achieve a sense of light filtering through the fabric and creating a textured effect. While I didn’t quite capture the texture, I managed to capture the idea of fabric hanging down with a faint glow of light. Overall, not a bad effort!
Here are some additional details of the discussion video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms. As I mentioned, it was my 164th total oil painting, and is actually my most popular Giclee print on the Etsy shop. The video discussion I’ve embedded is about 4 minutes, and is similar to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Discussion Video Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎞️ Here are the playlists I’ve grouped my art videos into:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
Almost from the start of my quest to learn to paint with oils, I’ve been captivated by expressive eyes in portraits. It’s something I’m drawn to just when I’m admiring paintings by other artists, so I naturally gravitated to wanting to learn how to emulate the same effect. Unfortunately for me perhaps, I learned quickly that it requires a subtle touch and more experience than I had in the first year. But like with many things, practice is the prescription for that ailment! As I kept painting, in my second year (mostly 2024) I was occasionally able to apply the right mix of subtle brush strokes to get what I was looking for. I can’t always get the brush to do what I want it to, but I’m finding I can more often as I continue to gain experience.
This post is a bit of a catch-up/throw back to a figure study I did almost exactly a year ago. This piece was actually done when I had the flu, so I was definitely less focused and painted more loosely because my body wouldn’t give my brain the energy it needed to overthink things. This study was painted on 12 x 12 oil paper. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.
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After painting this one, I got to thinking about about the concept of capstone paintings – attempting to implement everything you’ve learned, practiced, or emphasized into one piece. I already mentioned the focus on expressive eyes, but there were some other concepts I was very interested in at the time (which are still focuses even now as we start 2025). These points of emphasis are: 1) figure studies, 2) expressive eyes, and 3) more interesting colors. Most paintings I’ve done in the year since have involved intentional practice of at least one of those concepts. With this painting, I didn’t set out to incorporate all three – as I mentioned, I had the flu at the time, and wasn’t really in the right state of mind for planning. Although it may not be true for everyone, for me at least, I think the mental and psychological aspects of making art are important. I believe this relaxed mindset helped me achieve a better result with all three objectives.
Here are the details of the discussion video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms.
The portrait was my 184th total oil painting, which feels like a quite a long ways away as I sit here having just finished the 240th piece a year later. It still really holds up for me though, which is one of the reasons why I decided to share it on the website in addition to the usual social media. The video discussion I’ve embedded is about 5 minutes, and is similar to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Discussion Video Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎞️ Here are the playlists I’ve grouped my art videos into:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
I think some of my best paintings come from a very loose approach and relaxed mindset. I can’t always achieve that, but I love when it does come together like that. In this piece, I really wanted to explore some bright and interesting color mixing, pushing on yellows and greens and light reflecting through windows. It was fun to paint and the result was satisfying.
This post is all about this figure study, painted on 12 x 12 oil paper. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.
Shop link related to this piece:
This portrait really had me thinking about how I organize my palette – dark colors like umbers, sienna, and blue on the left, and lighter ones like titanium white, ochre, and reds on the right side. The painting time lapse on screen is one that fits with a conversation about colors. It’s an extremely vibrant portrait where I let myself get loose and experiment with some bright and vivid yellow and green mixes. I had some fun with this one for sure! The discussion video really centered around colors and I took the opportunity to add a quick tour of how I arrange the paints now.
Here are the details of the discussion video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms.
The portrait is my 237th total oil painting, and was a lot more improvisational than most of the pieces I create. I can tell when I look at this one compared to others that it takes on a looseness that’s somewhat unique for me, which I really like. This is hard for me – to be so freely flowing. But maybe I can work on that in 2025. The video discussion I’ve embedded is about 5 minutes, and is similar to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Discussion Video Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎞️ Here are the playlists I’ve grouped my art videos into:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
The subject of this post is another figure study on 12 x 12 oil paper. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.
Shop link related to this piece:
This portrait really had me thinking about the size of my painting surface, as I had plans to do a figure study that was panned out more than this final result. I realized pretty quickly after I started that I had painted too large and couldn’t fit the entire subject. But I liked how it started and decided to keep rolling. I like the final result a lot, but can’t help but wonder what it could have looked like on a large canvass.
Here are the details of the discussion video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms.
This video features a painting I really like, but also one that made me realize that I need to start painting on larger surfaces. I had plans for a figure study that showed a bigger scene and more of the subject, but I just didn’t have space for it. The portrait is a partial figure study of a woman in a green dress leaning and is my 227th total oil painting. The video discussion is about 6 minutes, and is similar to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Discussion Video Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
The subject of this post is another figure study on 12 x 12 oil paper. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.
These square paintings aren’t so easy to convert to vertical video, and unfortunately I had to crop out the horse on this one. Still though, I think this scene turned out nicely. The main subject came together exactly as planned and the background figures worked out as well. I can’t always get the oil paints to behave as I want, but it’s fun when it does come together like this.
Here are the details of the discussion video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms.
This is a start to finish walkthrough of my oil painting portrait process, mostly touching on some positives from this particular experience. The scene is a figure study with a farm landscape (including my first horse attempt) and is my 207th total oil painting. I’ll try to timestamp some of the overall topics below. The walkthrough is about 13 minutes total, and is similar to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).
Timestamps:
Materials Used:
Colors Used:
🎨 Here are some other painting walkthroughs:
✏️ Here are some pencil drawing videos:
This painting is one of my favorites – it features a woman in a nature scene that has a number of aspects that are appealing to me just from an art-enjoyment standpoint. I like the figure pose and natural standing position the subject has, as well as the impressionist-inspired landscape around her. I had a lot of fun with this one, and in all honesty still have not done another quite like it, even more than a year since painting it.
The subject of this post is another figure study on 12 x 12 oil paper. With this one, I tried to practice a very natural pose and stance, with a back curve and fabric folds that seemed realistic to some extent. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some of the verbiage I used on social media. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube video that features this piece.
With this painting, I wanted to match another figure study with a nature landscape. With this one, I tried to depict a natural standing position with a back curve posture that made sense. But I hoped to show this through the folds and fabric of the subject’s clothing. I think that attempt was largely successful! I also really enjoyed the nature background and think it turned out as planned.
The video I shared on YouTube is a complete walkthrough of the oil painting process.
As I continue to try out different versions of these complete oil painting walkthroughs, I think I’m started to find where the edges are in terms of what people are interested in. It seems like the 20 minute version was a bit too long, while that 10-15 minute range might be sort of a sweet spot. I thought the two and five minute videos would be too short to be useful, but even those got some traction. So, I figured now I’d try something right in the middle – a 12 minute walkthrough. As a bonus, I tried something a bit different with more of a landscape combined with a figure study.
Timestamps:
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Colors Used:
Here are some of the other walkthroughs I have so far:
My latest painting is another figure study on 12 x 12 oil paper. With this one, I tried to really emphasize a bright light source behind the subject. I think I was able to accomplish this for the most part, but I can see it’s something I need to practice a bit more. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some of the verbiage I used on social media. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube video that features this piece.
Bright Light, oil on paper
With this painting, I wanted to emphasize bright light behind the subject. I think I was able to get most of the way there, but there are still some aspects of depicting lighted areas that I need to practice. This may be partially an instance of “I don’t know what I don’t know”, but I think part of the trick is to use darker values to frame the light (paraphrasing a lesson from Bob Ross). I also wonder about materials – I always use Titanium White, but I have thought about trying some other types of white. Overall though, I like how this one turned out.
The video I shared on YouTube is a discussion about this same topic – depicting bright light in an oil painting, just some thoughts on trying to really highlight a shining, bright area in a portrait. I think this is actually a pretty tricky thing to navigate. Some pieces to this conversation include the properties of the paint itself, such as the pigment’s temperature, light reflection, and components (00:50). And the second part of the discussion involves how darker color values in a portrait bring out the light (03:00) and emphasize brightness by comparison, which is a subtle aspect I still need to practice.
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Perhaps I’ve finally found the solution to my massive blog post backlog. As I mentioned in my last post, I’m almost comically behind on sharing art here – about 8 months and 110ish paintings at this point. It’s such an odd notion, considering how much of a proponent of blogging I once was. But, as an experience artist once advised, considering my limited available hobby time, I had to decide between being an artist or a blogger or risk not doing either to my satisfaction. I decided to commit as much of that time as possible to painting over the last year or so, which I feel was the right decision. But I do still miss writing blog posts.
I tried a couple of things – batching multiple paintings in one post, as well as shortening and streamlining post content. Nothing was able to keep pace with the 2-3 paintings per week I was averaging. So, the solution? Perhaps it’s just to skip all the way to the present, and only share my favorite paintings going forward. That ultimately means skipping over some (or many) paintings, which certainly triggers that compulsive part of me. But I think this is probably the best path. So, here is one of my latest paintings, which was the last of 2023!
Last Painting of 2023, oil on paper
Although I thought I might squeeze one more in, this ended up being the final piece of the year – it’s the 146th of 2023, 179th overall since I started last October. I also made this one into a 20 minute walkthrough video on youtube to really cap things off. I did my first painting of 2024 on New Year’s day, so it didn’t remain the most recent for long. The painting in this post continues my efforts to create more interesting backgrounds -mostly nature scenes right now, in a nod to Bob Ross. Perhaps 2024 will evolve different types of scenes? I’d like to paint more themed subjects too, maybe some fantasy RPG type situations. Looking forward to seeing how this year goes!
The video I shared on YouTube is a 20 minute start to finish walkthrough of my oil painting portrait process. The featured painting is a figure study that emphasizes sunlight, with bright warm colors shining onto the subject and through the subject’s hat. To complement my videos on specific topics, I’m trying to make more of these complete walkthroughs of various lengths. Since this one is fairly lengthy, I thought I’d added some time stamps as well.
Here are some of the other walkthroughs I have so far:
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Going back in time to May 2023, here is an oil painting I did around that time based on when it was shared to the Amdall Gallery Instagram. This post will include a static image of the piece, an embed of the time lapse video, and then some verbiage from when I wrote about the painting on social media at the time. So, keep in mind what’s written here is a bit of a time capsule.
At this point, I’m comically behind on sharing paintings to this website – 110 paintings that I haven’t shared here! There is zero chance I have time to actually share them all unless I quit my job or something, so I’m going to have to start skipping more. I’ve leapfrogged over a couple of months for this one, and I’ll start jumping more soon. Let’s go back then and see what I had to say about this painting…
May 2023: Redoing an old portrait, oil on paper.
Redoing an old portrait, oil on paper. This was a fun one! Occasionally, I like to redo an old portrait to gauge how I’ve improved. If I’ve given it enough space, 2-3 years or so, the difference is pretty significant. It’s fascinating to actually visually see what I’ve learned, rather than just broadly estimate. I’ve done this exercise previously comparing pencil drawings, but never comparing a painting to an old drawing.
The thought crossed my mind to try this, and I had the perfect old drawing in mind. This is one from late 2020, which I was not very satisfied with. I didn’t like the spatial arrangements (head tilt, feature placement) or colors (too dull and muted) in the pencil version. I tried this again with oil paints – the result was so much better! The colors are much more vibrant and match what I wanted but couldn’t achieve with the original. And with all of this “no measuring” freehand painting I’ve been doing, the feature placement was much better.
In this time-lapse video, I also tried to do something a bit different. I usually just share the high speed progression video as-is, but this time I also added a comparison at the end with the drawing and painting side by side. Hopefully that adds something useful to this one!
Going back in time to March 2023, here is an oil painting I did around that time based on when it was shared to the Amdall Gallery Instagram. It included a collection of game characters, including Link, Zelda, Pikachu, Tom Nook, and Minecraft Steve. This post will include a static image of the piece, an embed of the time lapse video, and then some verbiage from when I wrote about the painting on social media at the time. So, keep in mind what’s written here is a bit of a time capsule. Let’s go back then and see what I had to say about this painting…
March 2023: Zelda, Link, and Pikachu, oil on paper. This is the second part of a larger painting featuring a bunch of video game characters. As I mentioned in the first post, it’s a “commission” from a non-profit organization, but I’m donating the painting so it’s more of a request/giveaway situation. I’m always excited to paint or draw for a purpose though, so this was really fun.
The painting itself is wider than my usual size, so I wasn’t quite sure how to share it in this vertical format. I’m breaking it up into a couple sections, then consider if there’s a way to share the full view. I haven’t played the more recent games, but I loved the Legend of Zelda and Adventures of Link on NES, as well as Link to the Past on SNES, back in the day. And Pikachu from the Pokemon games was a must-add considering how much my kids love the little fella.
March 2023: Michelangelo the Ninja Turtle and Tom Nook from Animal Crossing, oil on paper. This is part of a larger painting featuring a bunch of video game characters. This is a “commission” from a non-profit, but I’m donating the painting so perhaps more of a request/charity thing than commission. I’m always excited to paint or draw for a purpose though, so this was really fun.
The painting itself is wider than my usual size, so I wasn’t quite sure how to share it in this vertical format. I’m going to try breaking it up into a couple sections, then ponder if there’s a way to share the full view. Michelangelo from TMNT was always my favorite turtle, so that was an easy choice to add – who doesn’t like the “party dude?” And my kids love Animal Crossing, so Tom Nook seemed reasonable too.
Also, a nice bonus here is I could incorporate Mike Patton’s version of the TMNT theme song!
(Looking at this from my current perspective, this was a fun one! The cartoony game characters naturally aren’t like Renaissance paintings or anything, but they are decent renders of the originals)
