Oil Painting Process Broken Down: How To Paint Anything

in this video I'm going to show you how if you can get a hold of paint in this Apple here you can paint anything now even though I'm painting a very simple subject in a very simple way the lessons that you can gain from this will help you paint anything how I go about seeing the shapes and values and painting this Apple is how I see the shapes and values in anything so if you can get a grasp on the concepts and I'm going to be talking about in this video in terms of paint in this Apple you should be able to paint anything pretty well so if you actually want to see the long version of this tutorial it's on my patreon page which can be found in the description below also every Friday I really say paint talk video and paint talk is where I answer your questions on oil painting so if you have any questions leave them in the comments section I just might answer them on paint talk and if you wanna see when I paint on a daily basis you can follow me on instagram at 4:43 let's talk about painting this Apple now the first thing to do is do a quick under painting to get the values and I'm keeping my paint very thin here almost like watercolor because I wanted to dry quickly so I can paint over top of it and having a lot of paint thinner and my mixture is gonna allow me to do that so here I'm just worrying about the values I'm breaking the Apple into light and dark I'm also finding the value for the ground the apples sitting on and also the background and I'm making sure my values match up with my reference so the background is definitely the darkest value and the shadow side of the Apple and the shadow being casted by the Apple are the next darkest and then the lighter side of the Apple and then the ground notice how I make the dark side of the Apple in the shadow casted by the Apple the same value or very close to the same value this will come into play later on I'm making my paint lighter or darker by using less or more paint thinner when I want to be really light I'll use more thinner it was really dark I'll use less it's very similar to watercolors at this point we can see just doing this quick value sketch under painting already gives us so much more information and when you have this you're gonna feel a lot more comfortable moving on to color because you're gonna have this under painting as a guide map to dial in your values correctly alright let's move on to color the first thing I'm gonna do is get the shadowed side of the Apple and I'm gonna find the average color and average value and I'm going to do that by squinting my eyes and just grabbing the average it's not gonna be the darkest value that I see the darkest color the lightest color it's gonna be an average of all of them and again I get this average by squinting down and painting what I see when I squint down I do the same thing for the light side I find the average color and average value by squinting down and painting what I see now finding the average value is going to be helpful because it's gonna allow you to push things lighter and push things darker as you see fit later on in the process look at that you could stop right now and people already know that it's an Apple they know it's an Apple because you dialed in the right values and you got the right shapes going everything after this is just gravy now I'm going to jump to the background it's really important to paint the surroundings of your subject while you're painting the subject and bringing it all up together because the surroundings are gonna influence the subject especially because this background is the darkest value in the painting having it there is gonna allow me to compare my other values in the painting to that darkest dark also having the background there is gonna allow me to cut back into the Apple on the outsides and shape it how I want if I need to I remember this shadow on the ground was very similar to these shadow in the Apple so when I'm mixing up the purple for this shadow I want to make sure that it's the same value as the Apple now a little trick that you can do to make sure you get the right value with your colors is when you put it in take a picture with your phone and then put that picture in black and white gettin rid of the color will allow you to gauge the values correctly and make sure things are matching after that I lay in a light value for the ground knowing I'm gonna dial that in a little better later on so this is where you want to get to first every piece of canvas is covered with paint you have something in place for every part of the painting you're going to use all these parts and compare all of them while you're painting to make sure everything is working together now it's time to zero in and start identifying a little bit more specific shapes and values for example the smaller lighter value and the light side of the Apple it's not the brightest highlight but it's definitely lighter than the previous value we have there you can see just by laying down this simple value shape and the right spot is already giving the Apple a lot of form I think you'll come to learn that when you can really nail the shape and really nail the value the less you're gonna have to rely on detail so since I have this lighter value already mixed up and all my brush I'm gonna find the other areas in the Apple that share the same value now inside that light value shape we just made is that bright highlight so I'm gonna put that in and now we're really cooking with gas so something to be aware of when you're painting is the different light sources hitting your object for example with this Apple the main light source is this bright warm light shining on it from the right but there's also another light source hitting it from the left this is actually coming from a window nearby so it's cooler it's not going to be as harsh or as bright as our brightest highlight coming from the warm light on the right side the Apple but it is another lighter value and it's a cooler value so I'm going to mix up a cool lighter bluer value to lay in on this left side another light source on this Apple is the reflected light from the ground you can see the ground is bouncing that warm light up onto the bottom of the Apple so I want to make sure I get that in too but I want to make sure they're all dialed into the right value this warm high light coming up on the bottom is not gonna be nearly as bright as say the bright high light coming from the warm main light hitting the Apple and when you're identifying the different light sources also be aware of the different planes of the Apple I try not to think of the Apple as a perfectly smooth sphere but more like a block of wood that's been carved into an apple and the sculptor hasn't gotten out the sand paper yet and smooths everything down the Apple is constructed of all these different planes and panels and each one's face in a different way which is causing it to catch different light like the left side of the Apple that's catching that cool light it's facing a different way it's a plane that's facing a different direction it's facing that cooler light opposed to a plane on the right side of the Apple which is facing a different direction and it's catching that different warm light source or the bottom plane of the Apple which is facing down towards the ground and catching that light that's bouncing up at it now don't neglect your surroundings I noticed in the back sections of the ground that it was actually darker in value than certain parts of the Apple so I darkened it up a little bit this ground is just another element in the scene and it's getting hit by light just like the Apple is different sections are gonna be lighter and darker depending on their relationship to the light source now getting back to the concept of a reflected light there's not just light being reflected onto the Apple from the ground but there's also light from the Apple being reflected onto the ground it's very very subtle and a lot of times you can't pick it up in a photograph but when you can see it and you can put it in correctly it's gonna really add to your painting and there you go we got an apple now I know you're probably thinking like Chris like Howell is painting this Apple gonna help me paint a face or a landscape how are these things similar it seems like this Apple is so simple yes this Apple is simple but these other subjects that you find more complicated and difficult like a landscape or a face aren't more complicated it's just the same process repeated it over and over if you're painting a landscape you'd have to do this exact same process for the tree for the mountain for the barn for everything that you put into it when you're painting the tree you're first gonna have to think of the tree and it's big general shape it's light and dark shape and as you go you're gonna have to break the tree down into smaller and smaller shapes and you have to be where the different light hitting the tree you have warm sunlight hitting the leaves on the top reflected light hit and leaves on the bottom maybe there's some cool day light hitting the leaves on the left side of the tree same things goes when you're painting a portrait first you've got to break down the head just the general big shape of the head and the major planes and what's the light side the face what's the dark side of the face then you break it down into smaller and smaller pieces to where you get to the point where you're looking at just the nose and it's like alright what's the general form and shape of the nose what reflected light is hitting the bottom of the nose what main source of light is hitting this right side the nose and you can get me even smaller than that you get the same thing all right this right nostril it's curved it got this light hitting the top it's not as strong on the bottom so you can see even with complex subjects you're still utilizing the lessons that you learned in this video and again if you want to see the full version of this painting video tutorial you can find that on my patreon page which is linked below I hope you enjoyed this video if you did please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel you can follow me on Instagram and see what I'm painting on a daily basis of 4:43 paint talks are on every Friday so if you have questions put them in the comment section I just might answer them on paint talk I am Chris Hornet arrow here telling you to go get painting whoa you're still here you made it to the end of the video that must mean you really liked it in that case you should hit the subscribe button you'd also probably like this video too and this video please pick one alright this is getting awkward

Channel: Paint Coach

Views: 283,158

Keywords: oil painting broken down how to build a painting, oil painting what I wish I knew when I started, most common oil painting mistakes, Oil painting things that would have saved me so much time, learn oil painting fast, learn to oil paint fast, oil painting for beginners everything you need to know, oil painting everything you need to know, start oil painting today, a beginner's guide to oil painting, oil painting crash course, everything you need to know to start oil painting

Id: if6Z4BaqDSU

Length: 8min 41sec (521 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 13 2020