International Artist – August-September 2019

Station Points 29

Materials

Some of the materials I use

for these demos include:

» Alkyd medium

» Odorless mineral spirits

» Cobalt drier

» Spray finish varnish

» Spray fixative

» Acrylic modeling paste

» Acrylic matte medium

» Ivory black oil paint

» Titanium white oil paint

» White cardboard

» Black cardboard

Pre-texturing with Modeling Paste
Thick oil paint looks attractive, but it takes forever to dry, so
what can you do? You can achieve the look of thick paint by
pre-texturing the surface with a painterly impasto layer just
after completing the pencil drawing. On most oil paintings,
I add this texture at the early stage, using acrylic matte medium
and modeling paste mixed together in various combinations.
Once that preliminary layer is thoroughly dry, I switch to oil
paints. Even if I use the oils fairly thinly on top of that base
texture, the final painting will appear to be thickly painted.

T. rex Family Bathing,

oil on board, 18 x 14"

(46 x 35½ cm)

In a shallow stretch

of a freshwater

stream, an adult

Tyrannosaurus rex

introduces three

juveniles to the water

and supervises them

while they bathe. In

the areas where

I want to emphasize

the texture of the

feathers, I pre-

texture with acrylic

modeling paste

before commencing

with oil. I then drag a

paint-loaded palette

knife over that

texture to bring out

the feather texture.