OIL PAINTING DEMONSTRATION #1 || How To Paint An Eye

Hey guys, today I'm going to give you some tips and share my approach to

paint

ing which I hope you find useful. I will do this

demonstration

in oil

paint

on a 12 x 12 primed paper. I will try to go step by step. I am going to explain the entire process and what I do and I have also listed all the supplies that I use and that you may need in the description and I will put a link to the reference photo that I used in the description as well so that you can download it from there now Having said that, let's start.

Normally, I start by preparing the surface and setting the guidelines for this

demonstration

. I am going to use primed paper as a surface for the oils. I don't know if you can see it in a video, but this paper has a lenion texture, which is something that I really like here. It already has a coat of white acrylic primer and now I'm going to put a couple more coats on it. I use neutral gray primer because it helps me identify the values ​​correctly like The value of my paint refers to the lightness or darkness of a color, as an example. , if you put two brush strokes of the same color, one on the dark gray background and one on the white, it looks much darker in the second image on the right.

It creates a kind of optical illusion that can interfere later because it will be much more difficult to judge darker colors, they would appear too dark and you will most likely lighten them resulting in your own values. I'm going to put a neutral medium gray background behind it. Look, it's actually the same color. This illusion is something to keep in mind and that is the reason why I prefer to paint on a gray surface and I advise

painting

on anything instead of pure white or black, you can tint the canvas with burnt umber, burnt sienna or some type of neutral gray tone, as I do, there are so many approaches that artists use at this point, it's just a matter of personal preference, okay, now I'm etching the paper. on a board I like to put some key points and lightly outline the shape of the subject with a pencil in this case I am drawing the basic shape of an eye based on the reference image when it is finished it is time to mix a palette for this paint I use a limited palette consisting of five essential colors burnt umber ultramarine blue cadmium red cadmium yellow and titanium white.

I talk more about mixing skin tones and stuff like that in my color mixing video on this channel. I'll put a link in the description, but in short, I premix some color groups from the dark values ​​to the light ones. These will be the colors I start with and then adjust or alter as I paint. Here I have mixed the main ones. shades and now I'm mixing some of the more saturated shades or some color variations that I see in the reference image, as well as the eye color and the whites of the eye. Now, when everything is ready, we can start painting.

I paint mainly from dark to light is a very popular way of painting, it means you start with the darks and gradually progress through the midtones to the lights, but sometimes I go back and forth, there is no real rule or a formula in the way I paint, speaking of which, I just want to remind you that it's the way I like to paint and it's just one of the ways you can approach oil painting. The color may still look too dark right now, but it's actually perfect and you'll start to see it very soon. As the painting progresses on white paper, it will look even more extreme, so as I said before, it is best to tone or prime the surface with anything other than pure white throughout the painting process.

I'm trying to put the values ​​correctly. step by step, which is basically, I'm trying to paint the darkest areas dark enough and the lightest areas as light as they should be always looking and comparing the paint to a reference image, okay so the question I'm asked very much, I want to address it here. It's like changing between colors and not contaminating them. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm sure there are different techniques and approaches, but this is what I found works for me. I use paper towels or tissues to clean. my brushes before choosing a new color.

I don't have to do it every time I choose a new color. I do it only when I feel it is necessary. I have a little bottle of paint thinner here and I dip it in from time to time. my brush when I feel like I need it is like using water when painting with acrylics. I add a little liquid oil to the paint thinner each time before proceeding to any subsequent coats to follow the grease of Aline's rule. However, I am painting this study in a wet-on-wet coat, so I don't have to worry about any of this.

Returning to the question, what also helps me is that I use several brushes, each one for a different group of colors, for example. one brush is for pink and beige tones, another for dark blues and black and so on. This way it is easier to avoid contaminating the new color because it is very similar to the paint that remains on the bristles after cleaning the brush as I have done. I. I said I like to start with the darker values ​​but then I jump to the lighter tones and from one area to another and then back again, it's more of a free process for me.

A pretty important piece of advice or advice I can give you is one. hand, do not define the features and try not to put harsh lines while painting, especially if you are painting a portrait. Sometimes I still have problems with that because we have that need to define the features, if we see a line, let's say where the bottom is. meets the white of the eye most of the time we would want to emphasize it when in reality everything is much softer and subtle, on the other hand don't go in and try to smooth everything out nicely, it's better to have visible brush strokes or roughness rather than blending everything together and mess up all the values ​​in the process, you know what I mean, so it's very important to find that balance, so to speak.

I want to take a little time now to address something that many people have this. There is a misconception that oil painting is very expensive and don't get me wrong it can be but if you are just starting out you will only need some basic materials, you don't need a lot of oil colors for example I mainly use only five essential colors in place to buy. canvases, you can prime a paper with gessa or acrylic primer in terms of other supplies. I made my palettes myself with a piece of glass that I got for free and some acrylic paint, so I want to encourage you and tell you that there are ways to reduce the cost of things without undermining the quality and these are just some of the ways when deal with areas with a lot of details, don't try to paint each tab or something, place them in groups quite chaotically, loosely and don't try to repeat it exactly as in the reference, especially with details as small as this.

You can put all this effort into painting it as in the reference, but you will spend much more time and the result will be the same. Putting in the smallest details like eyelashes, hair, wrinkles, is not what makes a painting look more realistic, having the right values ​​and colors is what works and here is the finished painting. If you have any requests for the new videos, leave them in the comments and I might make some of them too. I will be posting art prints of several of my paintings closer to the end of this month. They will be available through my site.

The link to the site is in the description. I hope this tutorial was helpful. Thank you. Thank you all so much for watching and if you are going to do this tutorial and repeat this painting study, share it with me on Instagram to see the results you have, that's all for today and I'll see you next time, bye.