Recent Contemporary Realist Oil Paintings These are some of my recent contemporary realist oil paintings, painted mostly from life or imagination. I used a combination of good quality commercial oil paints and my own hand-ground oil paint made in the traditional Old Master’s method for these paintings. Click on an image to view larger file size. The medium is always my own traditional hand-refined linseed oil, which is far superior and faster drying than the thin heat-pressed linseed oil found in art shops. The figure paintings are either from…
Making Vine Black Oil Paint (and Drawing Charcoal)
Watch this video on YouTube Making Vine Black Oil Paint (and Drawing Charcoal) — The Alchemical Journey Series — by Damian Osborne 1 | What is vine black? 2 | Other names and methods of producing a charcoal black 3 | How does vine black oil paint compare with other black pigments? 4 | How do you make homemade vine charcoal for drawing? 5 | What will you need to make vine black oil paint? 6 | How do you make vine black oil paint? 7 | What are some examples of vine black being used by the Old…
Why I Love Realistic Figurative Paintings
Why I Love Realistic Figurative Paintings by Damian Osborne Realistic figurative painting has always fascinated me. When I look back through my old art history books and remember which artists and paintings were my favourites as a young, budding artist, figurative oil paintings felt especially vivacious, expressive, inspirational and powerful. And perhaps the genre of realistic figurative painting will always captivate me. For the language of the body speaks to us in an instinctive, primal way. As humans, we divine meanings and feelings through poses, postures and expressions that spoken words can not convey. Perhaps it’s because we…
Final Stages of a Portrait Painting
Watch this video on YouTube Final Stages of a Portrait Painting — Nigredo by Damian Osborne 1 | What pigments will I need for painting a portrait? 2 | Should you add chalk to your oil paint? 3 | How do you mix colours for the Verdaccio? 4 | How many stages do you need for a portrait painting in oils? Here are the final stages of a self-portrait painting I called ‘Nigredo’ (or the crucifixion). Using my own oil paints, I show a quick summary of the various stages of the portrait, beginning with the Verdaccio.…
Alla Prima Portrait Study in Oils
Watch this video on YouTube Alla Prima Portrait Study in Oils by Damian Osborne In this alla prima portrait study demo, I did an oil sketch of my sister in one sitting, using a limited palette. This quick oil portrait was done in my sketchbook, painting it wet-on-wet. I primed the paper with a basic white acrylic primer in order to paint my oil portrait studies. This is a great way to practice alla prima portrait painting in oils without the expense of canvas. Generally, an alla prima portrait sketch uses a limited palette (the Zorn Palette is…
Final Stages of a Figurative Painting – Painting the Figure – Part 4
Watch this video on YouTube Final Stages of a Figurative Painting Painting the Figure – Part 4 by Damian Osborne Figurative painting has become the main ‘body’ of my work. This painting is part of my Siren Series, where I depict a female figure in isolation before the sea. If you missed the last blog, I started working on painting the skin tone. In this chapter, I complete this figurative painting with several stages of glazing. What are two different techniques for figurative oil painting? Artists who paint the figure in oils can usually be divided into…
Painting the Skin Tone – Painting the Figure – Part 3
Watch this video on YouTube Painting the Skin Tone Painting the Figure – Part 3 by Damian Osborne There are many styles, colour palettes and methods artists present and past used for painting the skin tone, and of course it won’t do to just mix a universal ‘flesh colour’. Although I like to study as much of the old masters and their palettes as I can, as well as living artists’ methods, colour mixing is pretty intuitive for me; I’m thinking more in terms of colour temperature and value than following someone else’s method, rules, or anything else.…
Painting the Halftones – Painting the Figure – Part 2
Watch this video on YouTube Painting the Halftones Painting the Figure – Part 2 by Damian Osborne So, what are halftones in oil painting exactly? After I painted the grisaille (or ‘dead layer’) in the first chapter of this series, I was left with a cool grey, almost bluish skin tone because of the cooling effect white has over the raw umber imprimatura. So now I need to consider the values (light and dark), the colour hues (what actual local colours I need for the skin tones), and what colour temperatures I want to use for the skin,…
Final Stages of a Figure Painting in Oils
Watch this video on YouTube Final Stages of a Figure Painting in Oils by Damian Osborne Usually when I’m working on a figure painting in oils, I write down ideas I have about the painting and the next steps I should follow. So once the painting is dry after a few days, I can pick up from where I left off. My journal becomes quite important near the final stages of the painting, because this is when things really start coming together, and I want to be sure I’m getting things right and not forgetting stuff. I also…
Glazing Skin Tones in Oil Painting
Watch this video on YouTube Glazing Skin Tones in Oil Painting by Damian Osborne Glazing skin tones creates a transparent and beautiful glow of realistic looking skin that is impossible to achieve simply by direct painting methods. Following the classical Flemish method of oil painting, I have thus so far painted the imprimatura, the verdaccio, gone over the figure with terra verte, and completed the first semi-opaque flesh tone layer. You can follow these previous steps on my blog or on Youtube if you’ve missed them. Now comes the first glazing layer. Oooohhh… Ahhhhh.. What is glazing…
Painting the Flesh Tone
Watch this video on YouTube Painting the Flesh Tone by Damian Osborne After the verdaccio and going over the figure with terre verte, it’s time to start painting the flesh tone. I guess this is where it starts feeling like the real painting business is beginning to happen, with the underpainting stage complete. Now we are starting to work with a bit more with local colour. But I try not to fall into the trap of thinking one layer is less or more important than another. What is the best colour for painting the flesh in oils?…
The Sirens 2019 – 2020
What do Sirens Symbolise? The Sirens represent the estranged wildness we may feel in the presence of untameable nature; the salty ocean wind lashing our face, the crushing fear of being dashed against rocks, of drowning, of being vulnerable, of being alive — the luring song of the unknowable. Click on an image to view. I painted this series of figurative oil paintings between 2019 – 2020. The Sirens symbolise our disconnect with the mystical, savage and timeless nature of our unconscious. I have written quite extensively in The Siren Paintings on their symbolism, my…