My painting process. Painting “To the Sun”
Hi there, dear art lovers and artists!
Today I’d like to share my painting process with you. You will know more about art in general, about how I paint my works, get some artistic tips and hopefully inspiration to explore more art and create yourself!
For my little impasto art tutorial, painting masterclass, I’ve chosen one of my latest paintings in impasto technique as an example. Painting “To the Sun” is oil on stretched canvas 10/10 cm.
I am really thrilled by impasto technique, because it is the most creative one, nowadays the technique is still in process of developing and offers lots of freedom in colors and in palette knife strokes. Living in a modern society of quickly developing technologies, having Artificial Intelligence as a big rival for modern art and artists, I really believe that impasto technique can make a difference. Palette knife strokes made by artists can’t be substituted by machine digital art. Luckily, human mind is still much more creative than artificial intelligence. And what is more valuable - it’s moral and humane, it has it’s own philosophy behind the canvas. Hopefully, there is still a significant place for handmade art in contemporary world and it will always be. So, let us create!
Step 1. Choose a topic
At this first stage I chose a topic for my art. Using photo references is a good idea in modern world full of wide variety of wonderful images everywhere around us. My personal preferences are nature and animals, but you can choose any topic you’d like to depict. In my opinion, the key to success is to be truly inspired, have a strong sense of motivation and enthusiasm, and finally to love what you paint. I’m sure that if these conditions are fulfilled, viewers will feel your emotions and appreciate them!
For me it’s important to pick a good view/ angle and secondly think about the colour while choosing an image. I usually answer two questions in my mind:
1) Is it an advantageous pose/view/angle? What emotion does it transmit?
2) What colors are already seen in the photo reference and how I can modify them to transmit the emotion I’d like to express.
Step 2. Make a sketch in pencil or charcoal
To make your art more geometrical, to depict forms closer to life, you need to make a good sketch before applying colors. Here, I try to draw good lines, showing boarders for future colous and light and shade place on the canvas.
We can also paint an underpainting after or instead of the sketch, but this time to make a quicker painting I’ve decided to omit the underpainting stage.
Step 3. Choose medium and tools
Though there is an option to paint impasto art with acrylic, my favorite and recommended medium is oil colors. There are many advantages of oil colors, such as thick structure perfect for impasto, long drying period which gives you time to correct or modify your painting, bright and wide range of colous available at art shops.
My preferable tool for impasto technique is a palette knife. Shapes of palette knives are so varied today that there’s a great opportunity to experiment, discover new usage of knife shapes, mix them in one painting and every time create something new. Changing shapes, lengths and directions of strokes we can express more meaning in our art, express subtle details.
The best surface is a classic stretches canvas of good quality.
Step 4. Choose colors and start painting background
At this stage I look carefully at my photo reference and build my palette. Some photos are full of light from nature, and these beautiful bright colors are quite visible, some photos are very poor in colors, so many color modifications should be made to better express the idea and emotion of the painting. I am always thrilled to experiment with colors and discover interesting colors combinations, for this purpose I can experiment on the palette and mix colors up. When preliminary colour decisions are made we can start the painting process.
As a rule, I start with the upper left corner of my canvas. Background with no or just a little bit of details is usually what we see at the upper left corner, it gives me opportunity to decide on the strokes shape, length and practice putting them in secure area on my canvas, to train my hands a little bit before starting the most relevant part of the canvas. Here I can relax a bit and just enjoy the process of applying color on the surface. I don’t cover all my painting background with paint at once, but only the upper part, because if I do it now, I will tend to wipe the lower part away with my hand or palette knife while painting the middle part. I consider that impasto technique requires very careful work if we want to see nice, neat and clear strokes and lines as a result.
Step 5. Start painting the main image
After finishing with the first part of the background, I slowly start building the shape of my main image - a cat. In this example I start with ears, strokes always follow the fur growth direction. It’s important to think about tones, colors and shapes at the same time. I always compare different parts of my painting to make sure they match each other and that I follow the right direction so that the whole painting keeps the same mood.
Step 6. Breaking main part painting into smaller stages
I tend to paint from different sides all the time, up and down, right and left, diagonalish, choosing the best succession of my steps. I search for the best directions for strokes, best ways to apply the paint. I choose colors and tones according to the whole image, checking all the time the parts I already finished and trying to keep the strokes in one symphony. All we need at this stage – one solid harmony to express what we’ve chosen to express – core idea and emotion.
Although we need a lot of concentration, time and effort to paint, the process is a joy and a thrill because for me it feels like magic to notice how my own image appears on the canvas. It's really exciting to watch how my image appears on the canvas with its individuality and as if it has its own personality. I enjoy noticing that even taken from photo reference it’s still a separate piece of art. Creativity nature is the essence, sometimes the result is very unexpected and rewarding. Artistic spirit will definitely help!
Step 7. Check the harmony and add finishing touches
Once the main image is depicted and the whole background is covered with paint, let’s look at it from a distance and compare it a bit with the photo reference. Even at this stage I can very carefully scratch off the first layer and/ or add second layer of paint if it’s needed to specify colors, tones, shapes, maybe adding some highlight of new color. Whiskers is the last finishing touch I’d like to add to my cat portrait, so I use one side of my palette knife to draw whiskers lines.
Step 8. Signature and painting name
When the painting itself is ready and there’s nothing to change or add, when I feel satisfied and see that the image is completed in one harmony, I sign the bottom corner carefully so that it does not disturb what is already painted.
With this cat portrait I would ask what emotion he expresses at my painting and try to pick name for the painting. Maybe he feels proud of himself or proud of things around, maybe he enjoys the world around, maybe he is pleased with it, may be he is dreaming about something, or everything at once, to me he looks like stretching his face to the Sun and enjoying the world around, so I name this miniature painting as “To the sun”.
Step 9. Painting the sides and back of the canvas
Before starting this stage, I leave my art piece for about 10-12 days to dry, the layers are very thick, and they need to have some time to get dried naturally.
To décor a house with an art piece we need a finished product, so generally there are two ways to prepare the painting to be used as a décor: pick the right frame or paint the edges. I’d really prefer the second option, because it’s cheaper, easier and looks modern. Moreover, one more advantage is that I can experiment and create my own edges design, not being limited by mainstream products from the shops. Finishing impressionists’ style paintings, my preference is to continue the colorful scheme from the face of the painting to it’s sides. However, when I make impasto “dot-like” painting, my preference is one color, matching the painting color scheme.
I chose blackish color here to highlight my main image – cat portrait. I carefully paint the sides and the back with the same acrylic color. I don’t use oil here, because there is no need for thick structure anymore, what I need is that my painting’s sides dry quite quickly. The painting is ready now to be used as a décor at home, to bring joy and art mood to the surroundings.
Hope that you’ve enjoyed to know more about my art and feel a bit more inspired to discover and admire the art around you and perhaps create yourself! I’m sure human mind and ideas are unlimited thus there is an endless number of new things for us yet to express, old things to learn, reconsider and renovate, so let’s enjoy Art and create more!
My strong believe is that Art in every form such as painting, literature, music, dancing, theatre can make our world a better place for us all to live!