Art is a rather expensive pursuit, but I consider it as an important everyday activity. It allows me to express though drawings and paintings the things I’d rather not express verbally and it makes me happy and in touch with my yearnings to see peace, beauty, color, and order in the world I live in. I am as well, very drawn and specific in seeing details in everything, so when I observe another work of art, or do something which is mine, I pay very special attention to the details.
As of this time, I am finishing my third oil painting but still I haven’t had an idea on how to put the final details on the composition. In addition, I also need a bottle of linseed oil because the oil pigments that I’m using are highly concentrated and linseed oil will make the pigments stick well to the surface and is also important for all the colors to blend together and easy to manage. I’ve been rummaging for weeks on an art store trying to find the cheaper brand of linseed oil that I’m using, but as of now, there are still no stocks available, while the other store has another more expensive brand which I can’t afford. I managed to simply hand-paint the grass, leaves, and stone pathways which occupied the center-space of the composition, and although they are well painted in terms of surface area, they looked a bit dull and two-dimensional. I have to work on improving techniques, especially in using brushes with oil pigments, color mixing and efficiency, proper perspective rendering, shadows and lighting, and the overall skill of painting itself. I believe that oil painting is very pricey and it needs a lot of focus, practice and time—but the results are very rewarding, seeing a finished beautiful work of art that reminds me of a work done with lots of passion and full of personal meanings.
While on the other hand, I’m enjoying the watercolor medium as well and compared to using oils, watercolors allow me to give extra emphasis on the finer details of drawing and painting. I have greater control and flexibility because the watercolor pencils that I’m using have pointed tips which allow me to compose well-detailed drawings, and I can also blend colors well by brushing the colored surfaces with water using a fine tipped brush. Just like oil, watercolor paintings also need to be done with proper focus and care so that the finished pieces will be beautiful. Aside from watercolor and oil, I also have a gouache color set which I used on one particular piece. Gouache is also much like watercolor, but compared to the latter, gouache is more opaque and it cannot be blended by color glazing, unlike watercolor. Gouache produce very lively and vivid colors depending on the amount of water mixed. I also like it because it is more affordable since it only requires water as its mixing agent. I only used it once, so I also have to work on improving painting on this medium.
- Maica
11 June 2011
I’m starting to be confident with my techniques even though I believe that I still have a lot to learn and a long way to go in this process.
