Painting Techniques

“Nihil Est Virtute Amabilius” (Nothing is sweeter than virtue)

Inscribed on the front of the Gage Academy Building

CONCEPT

Article by Savvy Dani

The second year students (yours truly included) were fortunate enough to watch two demonstrations of poster studies by two talented artists at the Atelier. It was a unique experience observing the similarities and differences in their approaches.

Demonstration by David Dwyer, graduate of the Aristides Atelier.

A wipeout-style underpainting allows you to broadly push and pull values-- with a thin layer of paint that is free of sharp edges and ridges --until you are satisfied with the results. This binding layer of umber locks your drawing onto the canvas within a brief 3 hours, and leaves you open to explore more nuanced form with consecutive layers of paint.

This under-painting of Aurora is on oil primed linen, 14”x32”. I have found that working large forces me to do a more thorough job on each form before moving ahead.  This painting has a grey toned ground about value number 3. (I wanted the background to be a darker value without resorting to a thick layer of paint for my wipeout.)