After a marathon 13-hour session with The Picnic, I think I’ve wrestled it to the ground. The Picnic has fought me since day one.. First, the canvas, from a sub-par batch of cotton duck, wants to sag against the cross bar. Worse is the lousy ground. I’m always looking for efficiencies and this time it…
I worked on these paintings this morning. I painted-out some foliage in the upper-right of Three Girls. The tone in the photo of that area is more yellow–by far–than the actual tone. The under-painting is done (has been for a bit) and I’m driving toward finishing it. It’s a lot of fun painting the VW Bug. Three…
I had my first painting session with Taking Note yesterday. Yesterday’s session will be the first of 12 or so. I can’t remember how many drawing sessions I had before I started painting–4 or 5 sounds about right. Taking Note is 42″ x 60″ and it’s a refreshing change of pace to work on a…
I’ve updated my oil brush reference with a review of Creative Mark Pro Stroke 77B bristle brushes. In a word: mediocre (but cheap).
I’ve bought brushes marketed as ‘Russian-made sables’ at different times and from different vendors. The actual manufacturer is obscure. Their only identifying marking is the distinctive logo, which you can see in the accompanying photo. In addition to the logo, the brushes have long, mahogany handles. They are excellent brushes for oil (I’ve never used…
Main Street #1, or ‘The Antique Shop,’ is on the easel in this photograph. I had a couple of good, long sessions on it today. I’m having fun painting the bric-a-brac in the shop window. Vermilion is a lake-front town (biggest concentration of small-boat marinas on the Great Lakes) and many shops have a nautical…
I bought a selection of long-handle ‘pure sable’ brushes from Creative Mark; their Pro Stroke 49R series, and added them to my Oil Brush Reference. In a word: avoid.
I wrote about oil brushes before and it’s a good topic to expand. This post is a companion to my Oil Paint Brand reference and, like that post, I’ll update this one as I get new material. When I started out, my sole criteria for buying brushes was price. Like most in my position, I told myself that it didn’t matter that I…