Oil Painting Tutorial - Painting a STILL LIFE in OILS - Pears + Glazing Techniques!

in this short video i'm going to be painting a simple still life of some pears this was a lot of fun now i'm going to share with you some of my favorite techniques here and an overview of the process roll that intro [Music] [Music] hi there and welcome to the studio my name's andrew if you're new here this is a place where we talk about all things to do with oil painting whether it's landscape painting portraiture or still life so if that sounds like you then consider subscribing now in this video i'm going to be painting some pears working from direct observation now you might remember from a previous video here on this channel where i painted those quints i constructed a really simple light box just from a cardboard box where i cut a window cut the top off it and spray painted the inside black i'm going to be using the same contraption here for these pairs now these pairs came from my good friend al they were grown on his tree and i just thought they'd make an awesome painting oh bro look at that very nice so i got a few different shapes and sizes they're not all uniform they've got an interesting surface and color to them and i wanted some of these pears to have leaves because i thought that would add so much to the composition sneaky sneaky those pairs are for painting bright dog not for eating you think you're gonna get one of these don't you not yet i have to paint them first good girl now here with this arrangement i'm using a very similar light source high from the top left shining down into that scene very reminiscent of the old masters in fact this has been referred to as caravaggio lighting so it's a single light source so it really illuminates our subject but creates those really dark tones in the shadows especially when there's not a lot of reflected light around because we've controlled the environment that we're setting up our still life in there's not going to be a lot of reflected light with that inside of that box painted black and i really do like the look that this provides because it's so reminiscent of some of my heroes like dahim and kaff and other artists from the renaissance so now you can see my setup let's get painting working from direct observation now here on my palette i've got burnt umber yellow ochre a combination of titanium white and criminants white at 50 50. i've got some cadmium lemon as well as permanent crimson and ultramarine blue and that's it for the first part of this painting and i'll explain a little bit more about these colors as we go through this video now i begin to sketch up my composition using a combination of burnt umber and permanent crimson make it a really nice warm tone and i'm using a synthetic pointed round to just draw freehand what i'm seeing in that still life arrangement now some of these warmer tones will mix into the colors that i go to add over the top and blend in really nicely adding some heat and warmth to my color combinations now it might take some practice before you get the hang of sketching in your composition freehand some people like to use charcoal or pencil but i prefer to just sketch it up with a brush and then get straight onto it with some color so here i'm going to mix up some background color and i'm using a combination of burnt umber and ultramarine blue to make a really nice dark tone i want these pears to feel like they're emerging out of that darkness so i'm going to start back here and block in this near black tone with a series of bristle brushes as well as some synthetic flats now i'm careful not to create too much texture in my background because physical texture in your paint can create little high points that form a slightly glistening sparkly surface it can be quite distracting particularly for dark passages that we want to sink down and go away now sometimes but not always i start with whatever's furthest away and work my way forward whether it is a landscape or a still life and so consequently i'm going to start this painting off after my background just knocking in some of those pairs that are emerging out of that shadow now because i'm working zone to zone and bringing my edges together i've got a nice wet boundary here where i can blend between my brush strokes and create a bit more softness i find harsh edges quite distracting they can draw the eye we could use them to our advantage to highlight a focal point but for anything out here in the background i want to make sure i just smooth that paint over and create some softness between those brush strokes now i'm able to create a pretty muted green using these combinations of color mainly it's burnt umber and ultramarine blue and then i'm lifting out some of those green notes by adding some cadmium lemon and yellow ochre i'm using a wide range of brushes every brush does something a little different generally speaking my synthetic brushes are used for darker areas or areas where i don't want to create much texture my bristles on the other hand are able to build up a surface pretty rapidly creating some nice impasto passages within the painting and again this will reflect more light back to the viewer so i'm using the brush and the physical quality of that paint to help drive a three-dimensional illusion one thing i find really cool about painting is we only have a two-dimensional surface to work with so how do we use the tools that we have in front of us as painters to create something that looks 3d well one of the ways to do it is to control the texture of our surface so again i'm keeping those darker areas or distant areas in the painting nice and thin and one thing that helps me with that is a synthetic brush now with most of my work i'm paying very close attention to my tonal values this painting is no different i'm staying well away from the depth of the tones that i can achieve as well as the height of that tonal scale so this is my darkest darks and my lightest lights in the initial block in stages by staying away from those deeper shadows and those brighter highlights i'm able to introduce them as the painting progresses and almost take on a sculptural approach with this painted surface it really does help when we're trying to communicate a sense of light to have some room to move within our tonal scale so i'm carving out shadows with that deeper tone as i progress with the painting and then towards the end lifting out some areas with some brighter highlights so even though that background looks pretty dark at this stage there's still some room to go we could go darker still now incidentally i like to mix my blacks and here with this palette i can mix a pretty good black with burnt umber and ultramarine blue but when it comes time to glaze this painting there's a few special combinations that will go even darker than that i find that the blacks that i can mix are so much more natural in appearance than the ones that you can squeeze straight out of the tube i decide to work my way around and get that table established and set up a context for these pairs to be situated within and then that way i'll be able to register what those shadows and highlights need to be doing so that they appear correctly in this space it can be difficult to know what a highlight or a shadow is doing if we don't have anything to compare it to and this is why i like building up that block in quite rapidly with big bold brush marks in the block in stage i like to simplify my shapes i'm going for something that's reasonably close in terms of the tones and the colors but i will be coming back and adding even more detail over the top now because i'm going for that old masters type vibe i'm going to be building up this surface with a series of layers you can paint it all in one go working wet and wet or aldeprima but i prefer to get the base information down those big bold shapes knocked in with plenty of loose brush work and then refine in the next pass so because i'm using liquid original here these layers will dry in about 6 to 12 hours i'll be ready to go over the top the very next day with some detail or even a fine glaze now if you're new here and you haven't seen any of my videos before there is a simple rule that i like to follow when it comes to using mediums in particular a medium like liquid original and that's just one part medium to three parts paint now it doesn't need to be measured exactly but i consider that a speed limit of sorts i just make sure i don't go over that ratio now what liquin does is it effectively plasticizes the paint ensuring that it is permanently flexible and it binds everything together but it's also incredibly fast to draw in making layering possible the very next day i find that using a product like liquid original does take a lot of the confusion and complication out of oil painting now using mediums can really transform the painting but we just want to make sure we don't use too much of them because they can lead to issues down the track like cracking or yellowing now as you can see here i've been working my way across this painting pretty much preserving that last pair the main central focal point for this piece i apply a few of these brighter green marks just following the contour of that three-dimensional form and it does help that pair appear like a solid mass in the canvas but another thing that helps us look a bit more three-dimensional is lifting out just a slight highlight glistening off the surface now this is not the brightest i can go i'm still holding back with my tone but i'm just blending that color in just a little bit to the surrounding colors in the pear now initially i take a bit of a muted approach with some of these colors and i build into this more and more saturation when i say something like saturation what i'm referring to is the intensity of the chroma the intensity of the color so we're starting off very subdued and muted and then lifting out some more intense notes of color if necessary now these pairs have got a really beautiful bronze quality there's so many different colors coming through the yellow ochre balanced out with a bit of that cadmium lemon was certainly handy for communicating some of this surface but also that permanent crimson which is a beautiful transparent red now the permanent crimson replaces alizarin crimson i don't use alizarin crimson because it's fugitive it's not light fast at all and over time the red tends to disappear in the presence of uv light so permanent crimson is a great replacement if you like using that type of red now titanium white and criminants white have some key differences and there is a reason that i mix them together titanium white on its own is a really reflective light it's quite opaque too it can be overpowering and obliterate any of the delicacy and transparency that you have in your mixes but there is a place for it criminals white on the other hand is a lead-based white and it's much more delicate and transparent it's also structurally very stable and considered one of the most archival pigments you can use and i've had great results mixing these together now one of my favorite little detail brushes is actually the end of a brush here i'm using just the brush handle to scrape through some fine lines now our painting is touch dry it's been about 24 to 48 hours and we're ready for a second pass i'm going to push this painting even further by applying a glaze and here on my palette i have transparent yellow oxide transparent red oxide ultramarine violet ultramarine blue and phthalo green now all of these colors are really transparent in nature and i'm mixing into this just a touch of liquin fine detail medium again no more than one part medium to three parts paint now initially i mix up a dark greenish color with varying amounts of transparent yellow oxide transparent red oxide and a bit of ultramarine violet it's more or less a muddy type of glaze but i'm trying to neutralize some of that color in the background and push it down in terms of tone now you can work a glaze over the surface pretty well with bristle brushes so generally i've got a applicator for that glaze sometimes a soft synthetic brush and then a blender or a mover which is a bristle brush if the surface goes matte dull or patchy sometimes a glaze can really help even everything out in terms of surface quality from gloss to matte but it also does add so much more dimension in terms of the color as well as the tonal arrangement within the painting here i'm applying a glaze as a dry brush technique over some of these areas of textured paint lifting out some brighter highlights this really helps create even more three dimensionality within the painting well that was a bit of fun hopefully these pears look good enough to eat [Music] [Music] i really hope that you've enjoyed this video you've come away with something to think about maybe a few new techniques to apply to your next still life painting now i'm pleased to announce that my course is finally here so make sure you check that out by clicking that link in the description down below this is all about painting simple still life paintings working from direct observation now in this course there are six different demonstrations with a detailed discussion on materials glazing and varnishing color theory and mixing as well as brush work and so much more it's the first installment of my oil painting essentials series of courses and this one's all about simple still life paintings so if that sounds like you make sure you check it out by clicking that link in the description down below now thanks so much for being here if you like this video click that like button leave me a comment down below and make sure you subscribe to this channel and make sure you click that notification bell so you're notified when i upload another video thanks so much for spending this time with me here in the studio i really enjoyed your company and i'll see you again in the next video

Channel: Andrew Tischler

Views: 88,974

Keywords: still life, oil painting, realism, oil painting tutorial, how to paint in oils, still life painting, traditional realism, Simple Still Life, Classic Oil Painting, Classical Painting, Oil Techniques, Oil Painting Techniques, Still Life with Fruit, Fruit Painting, pears, pear still life painting, how to paint a pear, vanitas, classic realism, old masters, old masters painting, how to paint like the old masters

Id: CIBQC8B38LM

Length: 16min 11sec (971 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 31 2022