🎨Secrets of Alla Prima: Oil Painting Workshop with Alfred Galvez 🎨

in art •  6 years ago 

THREE OIL PAINTINGS? YES!

I finished my three day lessons for Alla Prima lessons on oil painting
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Before we start!

(1) Is learning Alla prima enough, and what is that?
Alla prima means a "at the first" which means this style/ method of painting is used as an underpainting or a primary step. Also, it is an oil painting with not many details or blending. It is often used for studies and practice painting. It focuses on contrast, lighting and color strategies intead of blending and details, overall it will still have a realistic effect. Yes, it is enough to actually get you started with learning how to blend colors on your palette, mix and apply it on a canvas! Although art journeys never stop, this will help you connect with oil painting and spark a deeper interest on exploration.

(2) Can you actually finish a painting in one day?
The answer to that is, YES! It takes time but definitely achievable! Oil paint takes a lot of preparations before and after the painting but it needs so much dedication and consistency.

(3) What are the necessary steps before one starts oil painting?
First of all, you'll need your materials. Gesso primed Canvas, paintbrushes, oil paint, linseed oil, (turpentine is optional in this workshop), palette, palette knife, pencil, eraser, an easel or a clean and neat working space and a clean towel where you can wipe your paintbrush on. There will be some materials you will need to coat the painting after it dries (varnish). This is also why paintings or art, in general are expensive, the materials, process and concepts behind it do require tremendous amount of work and dedication.

Secondly, find a good subject to paint

Lastly, how to paint? Let's try and see what we have to learn!

THE PLACE, THE INSTRUCTORS AND THREE ARTWORKS

Our instructor is mr. Alfred Galvez, classes were held in one of the studios of Morning Light Art Shop and Gallery.

The workshop had planned out three works to be completed for the whole learning experience.
It covers basics but definitely sufficient to get you started on what you need to know which is:
(1) prepare
(2) apply
(3) finish

Preparing 🎨

How do we prepare?
We need the following:
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  • Canvas primed with gesso (we have a ready made canvas)
  • Linseed oil (this acts like water for the oil paint)
  • Paintbrushes (lets just use one flat tip brush)
  • Burnt sienna paint
  • A clean cloth to spread paint
  • Palette knife and palette

#1 Staining or Imprimatura

Brown is a good base color, it's neutral and colors do not react when we paint over it. What we did was put paint mixed with oil on the canvas and spread it with a brush, then wipe it to scatter and smoothen the surface.
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Here our instructor does the demo and gives us a review on basic sketching, the classical way.

Staining also gives you shaded background and serves as a midtone. This way, highlights can be emphasized and dark shades can be easily adjusted with a little paint.

#2 Sketching

There are two types of sketching, a review with classical style sketching where the subject is drawn using only lines and angles instead.of curves. This helps accuracy! And then we apply using a brush using the burnt sienna paint.

We apply paint normally in this exercise. And also use the cloth to erase mistakes. It was quite easier knowing erasing is easier.

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We watch the demonstration.

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This is the sketch that is supposed to happen. So when applying color, we see lines and dark and light parts.

My work! 🌻🙄 It's not the best, it was extremely difficult but I managed.

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Photo by Mi Yen

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This is called a sketch because it's the initial marks of a process. Its just like drawing on paper, only paint is stickier.

Final result

My picture ended up not looking like my reference. I need more practice.
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#2 Painting with Color

The next process involves color! But there's a twist! We use only 4 colors,

  • black
  • White
  • yellow
  • red
    At first I couldn't imagine how it was gonna end up, I imagined it would only be on the warm side but no! Amazing!

Our teachers demo

Some rules: always be patient and mix your colors first, make sure you get the gradations too.

Black will substitute blue, so we still get a rainbow actually!
Here's the palette
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Remember to use the palette knife in mixinf because oil paints are thick and heavy, we don't want our brushes damaged

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And we just smack the paint on it! Not focusing on smooth blending, it's rough yet the colora and values are present. After, we see how it atill captures the subject!

MY WORK

My subject is flowers, I also had a small palette knife so, my paint is mixed in a cute way
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Observe, not much blending, just light application and rough textures
2018-11-03 01.47.14 1~2.jpg

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Final result

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This painting was easier for me and I was really amazed how grey looks blue on the canvas and also how black and yellow turns to green.

#3 Self Portrait

The third exercise was to apply 1 and 2.
Sketch, and color!

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This is tracing paper, we drew on it and made sure our sketches were good enough then trace it over carbon paper over the stained canvas.

Ready to trace!

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Tracing 🙏

Zinc vs. Titanium White

zinc white is semi opaque (easier to blend and a bit lighter and translucent) vs. Titanium white, which is opaque and will cover your layers of color
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*We used a different set of paint for fleshtone, we used ZINC WHITE tube then mixed with other paints, we also used ultra marine blue this time.

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My new set of colors, I still used the other palette!

Layer 1, basically filling the face with paint. Then adding shadows, and highlights next.
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Layer 2, highlights
IMG_20181105_161334_020.jpg
See the lights on the nose and cheek?

Layer 3, is the shadow and patches of pink, yellow and orange. It makes the colors more alive. The hair is just yellow, orange and brown and highlights go last.
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Final result!

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HOORAY!

This is actually my favorite because I was able to copy the subject a lot!
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I also enjoyed mixing the paint
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Many of my friends loved how my self portrait looked, I think its successful too!
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I totally am not satisfied with my first oil paint, but I am still appreciative of it being a step in my learning experience!
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I am definitely practicing more! 💛

OUR NEXT EXHIBIT NOVEMBER 11

I am preparing a few works for our Christmas Bazaar.
Hope to see you all soon! Thanks for being with me and stopping by!

Pls feel free to comment and criticize lol :) open to suggestions, ideas and more art tips!

THANK YOU! STEEM ON!


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Wow, you're really talented! Those are beautiful paintings! Keep up the good work! Thanks for sharing this with us and Hope you have a great week!

What an awesome post - so detailed, so thorough, and so interesting! I love how you used writing, pictures, and video. Really enjoyed this one. <3 #steemitbloggers

Thank you so much for reading and viewing my art and post! Have a great day :D

Much skills, much talent :P

Wished there were more art activities within our area. Would love to enroll in such classes and maybe take something out of my tenderfoot coloring skills. Is the mini painting starter pack expensive?

Your outputs look cool ^^

Thank you!
Maybe you can go to a place where there is over the weekend, take a break from work and enjoy art :D
Well the mini paint set cost a lot yes! But itll be worth it once ive learned a lot and makw better art.

take a break from work and enjoy art :D

If only I could but I'm forced to go to a hospital everyday for the next 6 months from internship program :D

Alright, sound advice, thank you :D

You have lots of time to plan then? :D hehe thanks and you're welcome

Whoa what a complete post about your oil painting workshop :D. I really enjoy looking at all the paintings that you made here, and of course the videos are great as well.
                       
Congratulations for your curie vote ^_^.

Thank you so much 💛💛💛🧡❤️
I learned so much. This isn't even all of it but happy to share. 🎨

@jacinta.sevilla WOW I especially love the flowers!! 🤗🤗

Are you a full-time art student?

All the best! ❤

Oh no this is just a short workshop.
I stay at home.
Thank you so much :D

Looks like fun

Yes it was fun!!! ❤️❤️❤️ My classmates were funny hahaha

The pallete alone is already very colorful. I'm already okay with watching thr colors. 😄 But you know what? You did very great paintings for a beginner. I agree that the flower in a vase looks great but your self-portrait too! The lady on the painting is just as beautiful as you.

Did you finish all those three paintings in a day? How big is the canvass that you are using?

I made one painting a day :) aww thanks so much! I appreciate it. The canvas size is 12 x 16 i think.

I just commented on one post about the author earning from her arts. Your one painting per day is well enough. If you continue with your beautiful arts, you too can earn from them even with just digital copies. 😊

This is a beautiful post @jacinta.sevilla
You have a great artistic touch on these drawings and it feels like painting is your calling.

Wow thanks! You know it used to be my weakness. But now, it's become a strength.

Thank you for taking us into Alfred Galvez workshop. I love live workshops, it is amazing how the professional artists work, you see the initial steps and to tell the truth at early stages they look like any that might be done by simple beginners. I love the way how the colors are build up and this is especially in Oil painting is awesome, you can use few layers and control how long they should dry, you can stop and continue later. I love the paintings you did, the still life if beautiful and portrait has so much similarities :)

Good tip! Thank you. I'll be putting retouch varnish on them later.
I'm excited to make more, although I don't know what are good subjects to paint yet.
Art classes are so fun! They're happy and feels like therapy hahahahaha xD

You must have had mad fun that day, and well, learnt alot. Your paintings looks so so beautiful. Well, even though the first didn't look exactly like the "subject" it did look beautiful in my opinion, I am sure with a bit more practice, you will get a hang of it. Well, looks like you got better after that one.😀

This is actually my favorite because I was able to copy the subject a lot!

I would have questioned you if you didn't get that one right. Lol! You are a beauitiful lady...

And oh, those flowers, you painted them so beautifully as well...

Thank you so so much hehe 💛❤️🧡 and ill be sure to practice more on proportion. You have a good eye, you noticed hehe.

Flowers are lovely! And not so hard cause they're generally all the same unlike human faces hehe.

Have a great day!

Hahaha! Yes, unlike our beautiful faces, lol! I probably should start practicing with them, maybe that way, I will get better. Lol! (Actually, i cant draw/paint a thing🤣 but it will be a great start, right?)😉

🤗

You can definitely start! Anyone can!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

You got skills @jacinta.sevilla! Even your first attempt was quite good. I can see why you may have not been as please with it (the forehead was somewhat out of proportion and bigger) but you still did a fantastic job. I agree that your second one was the best in terms of duplicating an original. You should be proud of the self portrait! I think it's such a good painting.

This brings me back to when I was in school. I always had one art class or another and painting was one of them. For some reason I immediately thought of this time I put on some music and left the room. When I came back the other students had changed it because it was too heavy hahaha

Your post brought back some good memories for me and I enjoyed watching your process. Thanks for sharing and keep up the amazing artwork! Cheers!

Awwww thank you so much, I remembered art class too when i first attended.

Yes I felt like I wished I had done a better job at my first one.
Thanks for the description, yes trying to duplicate is the word.
Wahahaha is that metal music?

Cheers! Thanks again.

Yes hahahaha it was pretty heavy metal music. The first couple songs are just heavier rock songs so it was ok but then I left the room and this song came on where they're basically just screaming really loud and repeating the same chord over and over hahahahaha It's a funny memory I have of art class. In High-school and college, someone always put on music because we would all be there for hours drawing or painting and music was nice to listen to. I just have a different taste in music that most LOL

Ahhhh thats totally the feeling I miss too. That relaxing art and music hahahahahah

Right?!?! It was one of my favorite things to do! One of my favorite classes at school too. Was so cool to roll in, set up the canvas and just start painting with that music blasting. Loved that.

So much of work goes into an oil painting!

Yes super!! No wonder their expensive

that well to read this post you are an artist in progress, genial your prima there, although I would not neglect this initial technique, since great painters as Velasquez for example I use this technique to represent some of his paintings.

You can see the organization and the good classes given by the academy. very efficient and endowed with materials.

in short I like very much the portrait, the still life and the self-portrait that you have made of yourself.

You have excellent hands and by the winds that blow you will be a great artist.

A thousand congratulations, thank you for sharing.

How long have you painted ?

greetings, peace and love

Oh yes alla prima is onw great technique, even in itself it can look like a finishes product! Its a very beautiful style.
Yes our materials were free, included in the enrollment fee.
Very enjoyable

Thank you so much.
I only started practice painting a few months ago, this being my first oil painting experience.
🙏☀️🧡❤️

You're amazing, @jacinta.sevilla :D I love your enthusiasm, your spirit and your talents :D Really wonderful post!!! All three of your painting studies are very lovely, and I love the thorough text and photos accompanying each :D

Gorgeous post! Congratulations on your curie, also <3

Awwww youre an amazing artist too.
Thanks for reading and appreciating my art too.
🙏💛🧡❤️ Thank you.

You made me feel like I was attending the class with you. Your explanations are so detailed and you sound like a pro :) I'm sure that you will be able to lead a class very soon ;)

It looks like it was a tough day. 3 different paintings sound like a lot of work. I would agree with you on the first one. I like it but it looks a little bit different than what you were supposed to paint :) The flowers painting is absolutely amazing. I love the colors. It looks great! And your portrait is stunning. It looks like you were very determined to correct your mistakes from the first painting and you did it so well. It's amazing how you can use just a couple of colors and create something this stunning.

Congratulations to your curie vote Jacinta. You absolutely deserve it. I'm looking forward to the report from the November class :)

Awwww woa, hehe glad I could invite you to class too hehe.

Yea I am pretty disappointed but anyway I can always paint over it and make something new.

Thank you! I think I did a good job on my second and third.

Yes i was surprised as well using only red and yellow and black and white.

Thank you! ❤️🧡💛🙏☀️

Or once you learn everything you can do an online class and I will join :)

You absolutely did a great job on the second and third - I really like them :)

Have a great Sunday my dear!

Hi jacinta.sevilla,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.

Thank you so much 💛❤️💛❤️💛❤️

Very nice work, I just love the self portrait being a selfie shot, that became the self portrait, how clever that was.

Yes it is a selfie hahahaha xD thank you so much

I see that this workshop gave you a lot of knowledge to improve in painting, it's good that you took the time to share with us what you learned. Keep practicing, your paintings look great to be the first.

Thank you very much!! ❤️ Ill keep going

I've tried oil painting a few times before, not easy at all... Haha

Its totally not easy thats why lessons help and some encouragement hihi

You will always have our support here!

You literally brought us along in your workshop! Thank you @jacinta.sevilla!! I still remember your turtles :D I love your self portrait, the hair strands in front of the face especially. And now I know why I see people use knife to mix the colours. I like watching people do oil painting, the way they mix the colours on the palette and then scrape here and there. Hehe. Do you need to pay for the workshop?

Thanks so much! Yes it does look nice mixing paint ah hehe.
Yes now I know too hehe.

Thank you so much!

Yes I had to pay for the workshop :)
Its expensive but reasonable

WOW I loved your post from beginning to end .. it must be because I am a fan of art, your paintings are spectacular and those wow flowers are super beautiful, God bless your painting skills, you are a great artist ..
By the way when we see other of your "easy mini art" contests?

Wow right thanks for reminding I did think of some nice things for an easy mini. Hehe soon!

Thanks too for appreciating my art!
Lets all learn together!

You are incredibly talented. Thank you for sharing you experience and results of the painting class.

Hello, thank you so much! I am very happy to share ❤️❤️❤️

AMAZING!!! What an awesome comprehensive guide to alla prima oil painting and you did some great work here. The workshop looks like it was a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing :)

Thank you! Our teacher was so great!
Glad to share!!!!

I really enjoyed looking at how each painting developed. I think you did a fantastic job!

Hi and thank you❤️❤️❤️❤️

I am just blown away! You are so talented and practiced! I love the oil painted "selfie". The technique worked for you. My father use to do oil painting and i had forgotten how much work went into it. Thank you so much for the reminder. I really enjoyed the read.
Ren

Hahaha yea it is quite different to use a modern selfie in a classical painting hahaha.
Thank you!

Awwww thats so nice! I'm sure he made lots of good art huh?

Have a great day, glad to share!

We all love it. He did about a dozen and they were amazing, but then he found woodworking and started turning bowls. He was always trying something new.

I love seeing process posts of artwork. I think I'm beginning to figure out why I've never been good at painting. I simply don't have the patience to do all the steps! :-)

Awwwww well if you ever feel in the mood or have inspiration I'm sure you can really do it!

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Holy oils!
You have improved so fast.
Congratulations my old zootopia friend!!!
my greatest admiration and respect ;)
-monk

Hahahaha!! Hey its been a long long while!!!!
Thank you zootopia friend!!! Hehehhe

Wow @jacinta.sevilla! This is amazing :) I love the flowers, but your self-portrait is wonderful too!!

Thank you so much!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Hello your artwork looks amazing congratulations for the curie upvote it is so well deserved:)

Thank you so much!!!! Im glad you like it hehe.

Awesome job @jacinta.sevilla. They all came out amazing. You can even see improvement in each one.

Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!! glad to hear that! yay! have a great day!