Just because I work with brush and paint, I might not really be a painter after all. Let me illustrate what I mean, with my newest... ahm... painting.

The piece I'm currently working on is a commission. The man's Zodiac sign is "Libra" and he loves this one I did back in 2014.

So we agreed, I was going to do a new version for him.

Of course, I never even try to do the same painting twice. But I do like to work on variations of a concept. In this case, my goal was to fine tune the pose and use different colors. Although it is said, Libras (and I am one of them) like soft pastel tones and therefore violet, light blue and pinkish colors are associated, I do like bold red. Big secret, right? Like another one "hidden" in the picture ;-)

After a digital sketch in Photoshop, bringing in the "machinery" I designed in Illustrator, the first step to bring the whole thing into this world, is priming the empty canvas. Much like @leoplaw shows it here or @gric does in his tutorial

In my next step I added a layer of a light English red tone I mixed in acrylics with a little bit of gesso. I try to not get it on evenly, to achieve a more lively base...

Then I transferred my "blueprint" to the canvas...

As you can see, I also have my palette set up for the next step already there. Anything not white on it is from a previous job. For the new painting, there really is only white being used at first.

And this is where the fun part begins for me. With the use of white acrylics only, I build up all the elements in their form only. The ground color is the base for the mid tones. The darker colors and shadows will later be added with thin oil glazes.

I really like this step very much, because I can actually draw more than paint my painting. I build my shapes and formes much like you'd do in a drawing, very much based on the use of lines, hatching and even cross hatching.

click ☝️🔎

Once this part is done, I will add a layer of gold ocre, so thin, that one can still see everything. On top of that I will highlight the lightest parts with white even more. From there I will finish the painting in oil, with thin glazes and mostly transparent pigments.

So, this is where I'm at now, happily painting... ahm ...drawing away. Off to the studio, yay!

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All photos/scans by me of my own artwork

See more of my work on sola