Turpentine diaries 5/5/19
I had 2 more sessions with Troopers. That's 7 sessions. Am I half-way through (12 sessions is par for me for paintings of this size)? I think so, yeah. I used some of my homemade…
Category: materials
Turpentine diaries 4/28/19
I planned on starting a podcast for a long time and today I finally got around to doing it. In the initial Turpentine diaries podcast, I talk about recovering a painting that failed, materially failed,…
Turpentine diaries 4/20/19
This photo shows my new painting, Troopers, after 4 sessions. I've covered the canvas with paint, and now I'm putting it aside to dry. I typically need 12 sessions to finish a painting of this…
Turpentine diaries 3/31/19
I finished a couple of paintings during the past several days, including the one in the left-hand background of this photo. I also had my second session with the painting on the easel, Portrait of…
Come on, RGH
I support the paint maker RGH by regularly buying their paint. RGH prices are drifting higher off their initial lows, but their paint is still among the best value on the market--decent stuff at affordable…
Baseline yourself
Regardless of where you are in your career, you will do well to establish a baseline for your oil-painting toolkit. The baseline provides a powerful framework that you can use to analyze materials and techniques.…
Wrong again?
A reader said he tried sun-thickened oil on my recommendation but it didn't demonstrate the handling quality that I'd claimed for it. Secret sauce and other seasonings Sun-thickened oil has the happy quality of maintaining…
Turpentine diaries 2/10/19
I had good painting sessions with Fork. The painting is so large, 4.5 x 5.5 feet, that I started painting portions of it before I completed all parts of the drawing. Today I completed the…