Still Life with Skull...process

I finished this still life study recently, which began as a demonstration for my oil class students. As I've said before, I don't always finish these, but it feels good to have done so. I didn't do an underlying pencil sketch to start this off, instead I oultined the basic shapes/forms with Raw Umber thinned down with mineral spirit. However, every painting I do, whether personal or for a demo, starts out as a thumbnail drawing in my sketchbook. I've included those sketches as well to give an insight into the advent of the process. This is oil on paper.

Waterfall study process...

Last semester I did a demo of me painting a waterfall in oil, here is the method I followed. I was very careful to include each stage of the process for my students; initial thumbnail sketches to figure out composition, design, values, etc. These drawings are probably the most important stage of the whole process, not to sound hyperbolic. After that I like to do a couple of colour studies to establish the basic colour world of my image before I dive in (which is what I used to do with my work in university, much to the distress of my tutors). After those steps, I feel better prepared for the main event, and have more confidence in general about how I'm going to go about it all. Now, I tone my surface with a neutral like Raw Umber or Burnt Sienna. You can tone your 'ground' with whatever you like, but make sure it makes sense for the specific painting you're working on (for example, I wouldn't use bright red for something like a naturalistic waterfall). Then it's time to paint, outlining my basic shapes first, then blocking in my most obvious values, from dark to light usually...

Horse Head study process....

I'm not entirely sure what inspired me to do a horse head study in the first place, but I'm glad I did. It was a great challenge and working on the toned paper lent itself perfectly to capturing that added sense of depth in the values, particularly when applying the layers of graphite powder. I worked from a photo of course, but added my own subtle embellishments so as not to just 'copy' it directly, which would be no fun at all.

Roman bust process...

I've been getting some decent direct observation practice in recently, which was continued in this study of the Roman bust. This is graphite on toned paper, with some white charcoal for the lightest areas. The light source (from the window) changed many times throughout this drawing, but I stuck closely to the initial shadow shapes all the way to the end to keep it pretty consistent and believable. For the most part.