Before I go on any further, I would like to inform everyone who will happen to read this article that I do not paint to earn a living. I just happen to appreciate nature as well as the talent that God has given me.
How It All Began
When I was in grade school, I used to ask my uncle to do my projects for me. I would relay to him the instructions that my teacher had given the class and my uncle would do it overnight so I could submit it the following school day. I frequently earned bonus points for submitting my projects ahead of submission date. Unfortunately, during my sixth grade, my uncle and I had a petty quarrel. Well, I couldn’t ask him to do my projects for me then, could I? So I had to make them on my own…And that was the time that I discovered I could draw.
Since then, I had been the one who’s been doing my art projects. And it was during my second year in high school that I discovered that I could also paint. I learned about it when I decided to copy the painting hanging on the wall of our living room. I bought a cartolina and borrowed my father’s old Tempera watercolor and started the job. [The finished work was used as a background in our group’s English short play].
I have done many paintings in watercolor but I was not able to keep all of them. Some, I gave to my friends as birthday presents or as a remembrance to those who had left the country [funny, my paintings reached the United States, yet I haven’t got the chance to do so ]. Anyway, here’s one of my favorites. I hope you guys will come to like it as well…
The Work
Title: One Merry Day
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 12" x 18"
This painting probably had the longest time spent among my works. I think it took me about three weeks or more to finish this. I started with the background; A mixture of white and green [just a small amount of green and plenty of white] which I applied as some sort of coating before I started painting the leaves, and the rest of the background.
The Background
As I did the brush strokes, I have learned that it was not that hard to paint the sunlight using oil as medium. Doing the background – which consisted of trees and fruits, wild flowers and grass – was equally easy, although the oil paint took quite some time to dry up since the amount that I used was quite plenty.
The Main Subject
What took most of my time, however, was making sure that the body of the horse was in proportion and that its color would depict cheerfulness – the reason why I decided to use ivory white instead of the animal’s original brown color. I copied the horse from a back issue of a cowboy magazine, by the way.
Some Tips:
Solvents
Disadvantages of Using Turpentine
I used to blend colors using oil of turpentine, but there were disadvantages: One, it has a very strong odor which is hazardous to health – oftentimes, I suffer from headaches upon inhaling the fume; two, it is quite costly yet the amount contained in one bottle is oftentimes not sufficient to finish a single piece. Sometimes I have to use three or more bottles to finish one single work.
Better Alternative
I have learned from a friend who is a professional painter that I could use linseed oil instead of oil of turpentine. The former is much cheaper.
When I bought these products, I noticed the big difference in their prices: One bottle (325ml) had a price of Php30.00, [if I am not mistaken]; well, try buying one at a hardware, instead of purchasing from notable bookstores such as NBS. The oil of turpentine, on the other hand had a price of Php385.00 per bottle (containing about 50 – 100 ml) [Note: the prices that I mentioned were from way back 2004].
Well, although I had bought these products years ago, I’m quite sure that there is still a big difference in their current costs.
Brush and Palette Cleaner
Oil of turpentine is quite an expensive brush cleaner [lolz! What was I thinking when I used it to soak my brushes???? ] My painter friend also advised me to soak my brush on kerosene, and well, you can use it to clean your palette as well. Just don’t let the oil to dry up completely or you will definitely be having a hard time cleaning your palette - I’m talking about the aluminum type
I’ll be sharing some of my works and ideas in my next post….Hope you guys learned something from this article. Thanks for dropping by.
Should you have any suggestions or comments please don’t hesitate to drop a line. Have a nice day, everyone!
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