I recently treated myself to a five-week, beginner’s oil painting class, each session three hours long. It thus took me 15 hours to create the below, 12” x 12” rendition of Gwyneth Paltrow playing Margot Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums. I’m generally happy with what materialized, but the best part of the experience was learning along the way and not taking things too seriously.
One: This painting was rescued from its ugly-duckling phase when the instructor helped me understand the lighting. Cool, blue light coming in from the wintery outside, of course, but this meant I had to warm up the interior side of her dress. The painting came to life when this contrast between warm and cool was established.
Two: While oil painting is often touted as a wonderful medium for blending — and it is — there is technique and finesse involved in blending edges. It involves getting a feel for how long to let paint dry prior to blending it with it’s next-door neighbor. You can see I did not do this well with the light cast on Gwyneth’s left leg, nor the dark recesses of her calf and under her knee.
Three: There are two complementary techniques referred to as a glaze and a scumble, and they both will surely elude me until I am feeling liberal enough to try them hands-on. A glaze uses thin, transparent paint over an underlying dried, opaque layer to saturate and add depth. A scumble uses thin, opaque paint and a dry brush to lighten an underlying tone or create atmospheric effects. À la Claude Monet. One or both of these techniques likely would have been useful for the windowed section of my painting.
Four: How to know if a pigment is opaque or transparent? Check the back of the paint tube! I’m sure experienced painters develop an eye for this, too.
Five: Titanium white causes chalkiness. See my painting. Zinc white is apparently better for preventing chalkiness, if chalkiness isn’t the vibe. Speaking of color, Payne’s Grey is my new fave that I learned about. The ladies suggested I use it for the winter window, which I did. Looking back, I think an ultramarine or phthalo blue would have been a closer representation, but I loved exploring a new color nonetheless.
Six: Oil painting supplies lists are endless. You think you have everything, but you don’t. Even after dutifully purchasing all supplies on the class supply list, I left with several more items on my wish list: a window scraper, which lifts dried oil paints off glass palettes marvelously; a tube wringer for squeezing the most paint possible out of the aluminum paint tubes; Krylon or Winsor & Newton spray varnish, which the instructor swears by; a red gel value viewer for evaluating, well, values. And so on. Not to mention the hardware and tools for framing, and framing itself.
Seven: Artists get really creative about how to store and stack oil paintings in various stages of drying. I went a little cross eyed when they were discussing this. Add glassine paper, cardboard corner protectors, etc. to my wish list for when I have inventory to store.
Eight: There are a million and one opinions about how to clean paintbrushes, whether to clean them at all, and whether it’s a worthwhile investment to spend more for quality brushes that may ultimately have a short lifespan. One must have ego strength in developing and asserting one’s paintbrush-cleaning method.
Nine: To represent all the tips and pointers I did not jot down but tried to absorb while immersed in the painting process.
Ten: Artists can be refreshingly authentic and spicy. When I complained to the instructor that I had made Gwyneth’s legs “too beefy” and needed to winnow them down, she looked at my painting and said, “Oh, fuck Gwyneth Paltrow.” The Jewish lady I sat next to leaned in and inquired softly, “Do you know she starves herself?” Turns out my subject matter got more heat than my technique. I’m fine with that.
Eleven: Taking a class is a great way to hold oneself accountable to putting in the time. It was also just super pleasant to paint alongside others, learn, and enter the proverbial, meditative zone.