Demo Painting of a mustard salver

I demonstrated a small oil painting at Ardington School of Craft and photographed a few of the stages.
To view the planning and a photo of the actual still life, check the previous blog post.

I like starting a painting by rubbing the background with ochre (usually – to add warmth) then drawing the objects roughly using a round hogs hair brush #1. This brush won’t allow any detail, so no chance to obsess. (If for any reason, it needs to be super-accurate, I’ll use a pencil)

I rubbed out some of the ochre wash on the little mustard salver, to paint it ultramarine blue – which was then rubbed in. Shadows are drawn roughly using Burnt Umber, and rubbed over with a cloth. If the subject is more complex, I do the shadows on the object in a mix of Ultramarine & Umber and the background in plain umber. Then I give it a good rub so that it dries. This is really a ‘tonal sketch’.

This palette is a bit of a mess, but, for the salver, I have only used Ultramarine Blue, a bit of violet and Burnt umber (or was it black?)  to darken the blue, and white to lighten.

The salver is almost complete and I am looking at the table cloth in terms of the brightest area – which will be pure white, then the warm whites and cool whites, as well as the shadows. I ironed a nice sharp crease into the cloth for an extra shadow. The hem of the cloth is drawn-threadwork, so I have painted a line in Burnt Umber which will have the detail added. So this stage is still roughing out lights and darks within the white range, and also warmth and coolness.

• Warm whites are: white + ochre + tiny touch of blue
• Cool whites are: white + blue + tiny touch of umber
• or white + blue + tiny touch of Alizarin + tiny touch of umber.
  The reason for adding the tiny touches of blue in the warm white and umber in the cool white is to degrade  the whites and make them neutral rather than tints of ochre or blue.Then I became so immersed in the painting that I forgot to photograph the next few stages. But I think you have the gist of the process! Both the paintings of the mustard salver are available on the website here.
  And do enjoy my sparkling new-look website at www.linkerrdesign.co.uk!