SamSzymSketch

[Samszym]

Did a handful of little oil paintings this week to force myself to get used to the medium, now I know what all the fuss is about. In oils if you get into painting before you decide on your value plan and correctly mix your pallet, you're screwed. I hit a process I like for these, first decide what the values are for: the background, the light of the figure, and the shadow of the figure. Then lay those in as flat shapes, making them more accurate as you go along. Then work in occlusion shadows and reflected light and then worry about halftones and blending and finishing. When I first started these I was in tears over how much I hated painting, but now I find it sort of fun and relaxing and it's definitely going to influence how I approach working form imagination.

These photos are crap, my camera is dying on me :/

next step: figuring out how to mix colors. nervous gulp.