International Artist – August-September 2019

Oil Demonstration 65

Continued

My Art in the Making Edouard Manet paints Claude

Monte and his wife Camille in his studio boat

Materials
» I stay mostly with Winsor & Newton for quality and consistency. In the
past I used W&N Liquin to speed drying time, but now I use only Odourless
Solvent and fi nd that it is touch dry the next day if not painted thickly.
Cadmium red is an exception as it takes days to dry, plus it is thin so for
solid red I undercoat with acrylic fi rst. For white I use W&N Griffi n Alkyd
Titanium White. Alkyd paints dry quickly and most colors I mix contain
some white so are quicker to dry thanks to the alkyd content. I fi nd paint
straight out of the tube easier to blend with other colors.
Colors
» A typical selection of colors on my palette includes Titanium White,
Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Hue (quite often depending
on the subject, Alizarin Crimson), Windsor Green (Phthalo, which is a
very powerful color, so use sparingly), Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue
(sometimes, especially when painting the sea or bright blues, Cerulean
Blue), Burnt Sienna, the vital Raw Umber for de-brightening colors and for
mixing with Indigo to make Black. Occasional other colors are Flesh Tint,
Rose Permanent, Naples Yellow and Winsor Lemon. If you require pure
CMYK these three colors are essential to achieve pure, clear brightness.

Brushes
» For textures of grass, trees, earth and the like I use ye olde pig’s bristle
brushes. For most other work I fi nd Neef Filbert Stiff Synthetic the very
best to work with, though unfortunately their shape depreciates after

many uses; and Mont Matre Taklon Detailers for fi ne work.

Tape

» For required straight edges, such as the surrounds of Manet’s painting,

I mask with removable sticky tape. For other edges, I use ordinary 80 gsm

copy paper either straight edged or cut into a shape. I have a piece of copy

paper cut into a sort multi-shaped French curve to place on the canvas and

brush out from to give a clean edge when needed.

WHAT THE ARTIST USES

I posed for Manet’s neck-down reference.

The Manet painting was photographed in correct

perspective for the composition.

Reference

photos