Paint An Impressionistic Violinist in Oils

Today I will show you how to paint a violinist in oil colours, using the impressionistic style. To paint this figure I make use of two surprising elements. Firstly, I use a huge palette knife, a no.16 to be exact, to paint with, and secondly, I mix my oils with a medium to assist in creating luminosity. I show you step by step how I went about creating this painting.

I use a masonite board measuring 50 cm x 64 cm as the surface I paint today's painting on. I start by giving it a proper cleaning with a wet cloth.

I then continue with my surface preparation by painting the whole board with Dala Acrylic Gesso.

Once the Gesso is dry, I paint the background Titanium White, using acrylic paint. This white background will assist in creating the luminosity that I wish to achieve with this painting. The acrylic paint dries very quickly, allowing me to continue much quicker than when I would have used oil colours, but you can use the latter if you are a purist.

I now stand my surface up on my easel and draw a very rough sketch in charcoal. Once the figure is in place, I brush the excess charcoal away with a clean brush.

I mix the first of my background colours with an orange, a brownish red and my Impasto Medium.

I decide that I want to add more yellow to this mixture.

Notice the large palette knife I use to paint most of this painting with.

This first colour is painted around the edges of the painting, encapsulating the figure in the center. This will assist in focusing the attention on the figure.

Next, I mix Buff Titanium with the Impasto Medium.

This colour is painted on the inside of the background.

I now use a cold purple along with magenta and Impasto Medium to mix the colour for the dress.

The majority of the dress in painted in this colour.

I mix the pure magenta with Impasto Medium to create highlights in the dress. I then do the same with the purple to create shaded areas, as well.

Progress photo.

I use the same mixture that I've used on the edges of the background to paint the violin.

Then I mix Raw Umber with Impasto Medium.

This is used to give definition to the violin.

I use two different flesh tones, which I mix with Impasto Medium.

The figure is painted in flesh tones and the hair is done with a mixture of the browns and reds already used in the painting. My name is signed in Buff Titanium. This painting is available for sale from uys.marietjie@gmail.com.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
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