Painting Yellowwood Lake in Oil (6)

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series

Painting Session 6 and Final
Date: 07/03/2017
Subject: Yellowwood Lake, Brown County Indiana
Medium: Oil on Paper
Link to painting sessions: Session 1. , Session 2.  Session 3. Session 4, Session 5

This was the final painting session for the Yellowwood Lake painting on paper. During this session, I painted the background trees and water lighter to make them recede further into the background. I also added highlights to the foreground tree and weeds. My medium of choice is oil, but as part of Expand My Artistic Horizons, I wanted to try something different. So choose to use paper as the support. In Session 1 Introduction, I mentioned I had started this painting several years ago, thinking I could use paper for field studies. But quickly lost interest in using paper due to issues I had when trying to paint on paper. Now that I finished the painting and experienced the differences between paper and canvas, I may need to try paper again for field studies. At the very least, I want to paint more on paper.

If you have experience painting with oil on paper feel free to comment 

Final Observation from Painting Sessions

1. When I first tried painting on paper, the paint seemed to soak in quickly. I paint in thin layers, so the paint soaks in, and you cannot blend the paint the same as you can on smooth canvas or gesso board.

2. The soaking in issue does have its benefits. You can get a very smooth look to the paint with no visible brush strokes

3. I like the look of the oil on paper and the slightly duller look and the absence of brush strokes.
4. The paint seems to dry much quicker than on other supports.

Personnel Critique

1.  Not sure I got all of my values right, I wanted the painting to have a little more depth.

2. The tree in the photo has fewer leaves, I think that looks better, but somehow I put on too many leaves on my tree.  I wanted the tree to look a little more dead.

3. I wish I had done the background clouds different.

4. But overall, I am pretty happy with the final painting.

Feel free to leave your own critique good or bad in the comments

Original Photo

Unfinished Painting

End of Session 1

End of Session 2

End of Session 3

End of Session 4

 End of Session 6

Final Painting