Buckles & Belts in Oils – Classical Method

6″ x 8″ Oil on Prepared Masonite Panel

March 13, 2009
Buckles & Belts is the first ’still life’ I am attempting. Although the composition includes a horse, the focus is the combination of buckles, straps and shadows where a bridle and halter meet.

I’m actually thinking of it as still life, rather than a horse painting.

The horse was a pony horse I photographed years ago at Mt. Pleasant Meadows, a small horse racing facility in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. He was a regular for the several years I visited the track and on this particular day, I ended up with quite a few photographs of him and some of his ‘coworkers’ at the track. So far, this is the first painting to result from all those images.

The drawing had been worked out some time ago. If I remember correctly, it’s been in existence since 2003, when I needed to put together a body of new work for an art show to be held in conjunction with that year’s Kentucky Derby (the year of Funny Cide!).

All I had to do once I decided to tackle the composition again was to reduce it to the appropriate size, then transfer it to the prepped panel (prepped with a 50/50 recipe of gesso and modeling paste finished to a very smooth surface).

That drawing was then inked in to make it permanent. That is what you see here.

That was followed almost immediately by the imprimatura. Because the ink is water based, drying took only half an hour or so.

The imprimatura is a mixture of Lamp Black, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. I wanted a light tone for this and a high degree of transparency, so I rubbed the color on with a rag, then rubbed it more to smooth and thin the color layer.

The imprimatura will take about a week to dry completely. Further work will have to wait until the imprimatura dries completely.

Because I am using straight Burnt Umber with a minimum of mediums, each day’s work generally dries over night.

I was able to work on the painting on March 23 and March 24 and pretty much finish it up.

March 23, 2009
The Umber Layer is the first stage of the actual painting process. During this stage, values and details are established for the first time.

The Umber Layer for Buckles & Belts was completed in three stages, gradually building values and detail to the required degree. Part of the reason for that is the complexity of the design. In spite of the small size, it was less risky to finish it in stages and allow each stage to dry before moving into the next stage.

The amount of dry brush work than went into the umber layer also shortened the drying time for this painting and that expedited the completion of the umber layer.

March 31, 2009
This is the finished umber layer.

I am very happy with this painting in spite of the complex design and the non-traditional subject treatment. This image is almost enough to make me consider calling it finished at this point.

Almost!

The painting will dry for at least three weeks. That will put the dead layer at about April 21 for beginning work.

June 3, 2009
April 21 came and went and Buckles & Belts sat idle. Too many paintings coming due at the same time, too many things going on in other areas of life and two weeks of a cold that prevented all studio work all combined. All of my paintings suffered from neglect, but this one most of all.

And it would have set idle for another except that when I finished painting on Impulsion this evening, I decided to use the same brushes and paint and begin the dead layer on this one. The intention was to do just enough to get started, but I ended up painting all of the parts of the horse’s head, jowl and neck that show through the various straps and buckles.

I was quite surprised to get so much done, especially since the complexity of this painting has been somewhat intimidating. Surprise, surprise! It was a great way to end the studio day.

September 1, 2009
Today’s dead layer work focused on the halter and bridle and the rest of the horse. I began with the eye, then worked my way out into the rest of the face, finishing for the day with the buckles and belts on the right side of the composition.

This composition is both the most complicated painting I’ve designed and one of the most unusual. I suppose that explains why it’s also been the most interesting painting I’ve worked on in the Flemish technique.

September 19, 2009
More work on the dead layer. It looked finished when I stopped for the day today, but I’ve noticed that whenever I think something’s finished, it usually needs another day.

I focused on the halter and bridle and the rest of the horse. I began with the eye, then worked my way out into the rest of the face, finishing for the day with the buckles and belts. I used a third session to tidy up whatever remained and when I finished that day, I was thinking the dead layer looked complete.

I’ve very satisfied with the horse in this composition, but there are still a few somewhat ragged edges on the bridle straps and I’ve just barely suggested detail in the nylon halter.

I was quite surprised to get so much done, especially since the complexity of this painting has been somewhat intimidating. Surprise, surprise! It was a great way to end the studio day.

September 21, 2009
I took a few minutes to add details like highlights on buckles and straps and punched holes today. The little things that will make the painting sing or resign it to mediocrity.

I also looked at a few other areas, especially around the eye. This is a challenge for me because the eye is usually the focal point of any up-close-and-personal painting.

Not so with this painting. There is an eye in this painting, but it’s not the focal point. The grouping of buckles behind the eye is the focus.

So I have to paint a realistic and believable eye without drawing too much attention to it. That’s a tough call for me! I love painting eyes.

Other than that, there wasn’t much to do to finish the dead layer. A lot of the details will be added in the final stages of color work so it’s a challenge to leave them alone at the other phases of work.

The painting was then put into the drying area and will dry for a minimum of three weeks (until October 12).

October 13, 2009
Color work began today as Buckles & Belts enters the final stage of the painting process.

Work began today with a rubbing of Transparent Yellow Oxide over the parts of the horse that are more golden in color. Around the eye, over the jowl and the area adjacent to the poll. I used a small (about 1/4″) frayed sable flat brush to rub color directly onto the surface of the panel. The color was kept thin enough to allow all the details of the dead layer to show through the paint.

When that was complete, I switched colors to Transparent Red Oxide and rubbed that into the redder areas. Where golds and red overlapped, I worked the red color into the previous color, blending them wet-into-wet.

That was followed by a combination of Burnt Umber and a green made from Transparent Yellow Oxide and Manganese Blue into the darker areas.

I used the same brush for each step, working from light to dark and blending colors wet-into-wet as necessary. By the time I finished, the entire horse had color on it. The only areas I didn’t work on today were the eye and the long hairs of the forelock.

To end the session, I rubbed a little bit of golden mixture into the leather straps of the bridle. The halter and bridle will be painted in a more opaque method, but I wanted to put some color into the bridle to help distinguish it from the horse, as well as from the halter, which will be blue.

This work will be allowed to dry completely before the next glazing.

December 10, 2009
Color work continued as I began placing more precise details in the face of this horse.

Since it was toward the end of the painting day, the intention was to work just the face, so I rubbed that area with Alkyd/Walnut Oil medium until it was warmed, then wiped off the excess.

I also intended just to put in some of the highlights and let them dry so I could later glaze local color over them.

So much for intentions!

I did start with the highlights and placed those that are the brightest around and above the eye. Then, while I was using a blue-tinted white, I decided to add the highlights to the buckles and eyelets, as well.

Then I thought it would be a good time to tone the areas of the horse to more accurately reflect coloring. Yellow ochre was used in the gold areas, burnt sienna in the red areas and burnt umber in the brown areas, with ivory black mixed with burnt umber in the shadows. Before I knew it, I had painted over the entire face.

Work was going so well that I then proceeded to paint the section of jowl behind the cheek strap and the end strap and that led, naturally enough, to darkening and repainting the shadows of the neck that provide the background for the jowl.

I could have gone ahead and repainted the neck and poll, too, but painting time was over and I was beginning to run the risk of accidentally smearing fresh paint, so it was time to stop.

December 18, 2009
Today’s 90-minute session began and ended with the blue halter, but also encompassed parts of the bridle, hardware on both and all of the horse to the right of the tack as color work continued.

I didn’t intend to spend a lot of time on this painting today as there were other things I should have been doing and there was half an hour or less of studio time left when I started.

But I popped in a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CD and not only painted all through that (a 58-minute CD), but painted for another hour! Considering the fact that I’d already finished two small landscapes, that made today the best painting day this month.

Work began with the halter, which I painted using Cerulean Blue and Titanium White, with a little green mixture (Prussian Blue and Transparent Red Oxide) in the shadows.

In order to get the edges I wanted, I also painted the parts of the horse adjacent to the halter. The colors used on the horse were Burnt Umber, Transparent Red Oxide, Yellow Ochre, Titanium White and, in the deepest shadow areas, the same green mixture above.

The largest brushes I used today were a couple of old, beat up #2 rounds. Most of the work was completed using 20/0 and 10/0 sable rounds. I can’t say the work was time consuming because I was quite surprised to realize so much time had passed when I finished.

But I can say the work was very satisfactory. The parts I worked on are essentially finished with the exceptions of a few places that will need highlights dropped into them after paint dries. There will also be some repainting in some of the areas as I work edges from the opposite direction.

June 19, 2010
This painting has set idle for a long, long time. At one point, I decided to scrap it. But the paint layers are very stable and it gets a lot of compliments even unfinished, so I’ve decided to freshen it up and finish it.

A few weeks ago, I tried colored pencils on it to see if I could finish the detail work with wax-based pencils. That worked so long as I could get the color down in one or two solid passes and was working over a smooth surface. I worked on a couple of halter sections, then set it aside again.

So the first thing to do today was to remove the colored pencil. To accomplish that, I used odorless paint thinner and a clean rag to wipe the painting thoroughly. It was then allowed to dry completely and was wiped again. A lot of color (all colored pencil) came up the first time. Less came off the second time. When I began to see evidence of oil color lifting on the third pass, I stopped and left the painting to air and dry for the rest of the weekend.

June 22, 2010

Colors Used: Titanium White, Cerulean Blue, Prussian Blue, Burnt Umber
Medium Used: Walnut Oil/Alkyd Medium

In the first work session, the primary goal was to get back into a rhythm with this painting and to begin putting paint on the panel.

The painting sat idle for seven months. The paint was well dried, which is good. But the passage of so much time meant I needed to prepare the surface for more color.

With M. Graham oils, which are ground with Walnut oil, the best way to prepare an old surface for new paint is to rub the surface with either walnut oil or Walnut Oil/Alkyd medium. I chose the latter because it has demonstrably better adhesive qualities and I want to make sure the new paint sticks to the old.

A small amount of medium was rubbed into the painting with my bare hand. I worked it around with enough vigor and for long enough to warm it up, then let it sit for a moment and wiped off the excess with a clean paper towel.

Painting began with the blue halter and I decided to finish it if at all possible. I began with the shape pushed furthest into the background by overlapping shapes, then worked as carefully as possible from one area to the next. A base color of Cerulean Blue was applied to each area, then I worked either white or Prussian Blue into the wet paint, depending on whether I needed highlight or shadow.

The brushes I chose for this work were a 10/0 sable round and a 20/0 sable round. Color was applied and manipulated in directional strokes as much as possible.

I also painted some background along the cheek strap, which hadn’t previously been painted beyond the dead layer. That allowed me to adjust shapes, manipulate edges and get the look I wanted.

The halter wasn’t finished when I finished for the day, but it was very close. Most of the remaining detail work will need to be added after the paint is dry. Some of it may have to wait until the painting is finished for final adjustments.

June 25, 2010

Colors Used: Titanium White, Cerulean Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Prussian Blue
Medium Used: None

The first thing I did was check the painting to see if it was dry or not. There was no sense working over wet or tacky paint.

Monday’s work was completely dry, though, so I highlighted the halter with a mixture of Titanium White and Cerulean Blue in a dry-brush technique. Once again, I used my smallest brushes; 10/0 and 20/0.

When the halter was finished, I used Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber to begin painting the bridle straps. Each area was finished as much as possible before moving to the next, but I also worked back and forth between them to keep the color uniform throughout the bridle.

The only piece of leather that wasn’t completely finished when I finally stopped for the day was the throatlatch. By the time I got to that, I was starting to need a break and also had enough yet paint on the halter, bridle and parts of the horse to start leaving smudges and fingerprints. Time to quit.

June 26, 2010

Colors Used: Titanium White, Cerulean Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Prussian Blue
Medium Used: None

I didn’t have much time to work on Buckles & Belts today. Weekends come with their own special set of obligations and at least one Saturday obligation requires an afternoon and sometimes part of the evening spent out of the studio.

But I photographed yesterday’s work and decided to do what I could in the time allowed.

The first thing to do in today’s session was finish the throatlatch, including the stitching. I used 20/0 and 10/0 brushes for the detail work and larger sable rounds to paint the larger areas.

When those two straps were finished, I worked on the two remaining areas, which were the cheek strap and the loose end of the headstall. As with the other parts of the bridle, I used a base color of Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber in various mixes. In the lighter areas, the color was predominantly light with little or no Burnt Umber. In the darker areas, I added more Burnt Umber and in some of the areas, I added a touch of Prussian Blue to create a black-like shade. In areas where there was reflected light, I added Cerulean Blue to the lightest base color.

Details such as stitching and edging were painted in a mixture of Burnt Umber and Prussian Blue with one of the small brushes. I tried a variety of strokes and found that lightly touching the brush to the paint and lifting without stroking was the best way to duplicate stitching.

Detailing will be finished when this work is dry. There are some highlights around the stitching that I would like to add and some of the stitching needs to be improved. The holes in the headstall strap also need to be painted, as do the holes and grommets in the halter and the hardware, then the tack will be done.

July 1, 2010

Colors Used: Palette Gray, Burnt Umber, Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, Titanium White
Medium Used: Walnut Oil

This week focused on the only area yet to be finished on Buckles & Belts, the part of the face to the left of the halter and bridle.

The eye had been bothering me for some time. It simply looked too small for the rest of the painting. But when I went to work on it this week, I discovered that it was also not in the right place and was at the wrong angle.

So rather than continue to tweak the existing eye, I painted it over. I also inadvertently opened it up more than the reference photo shows, but I liked the new look well enough to decide to keep it.

It took several passes of painting the upper and lower lids, then reshaping them by painting the eye to get the shape correct. The shadows still aren’t quite right and the reflected lights in the eye itself need to be punched up a bit, but those details have to wait until the painting dries again.

I also worked a little bit in the areas above and below the eye, but the focus of my attention was the eye. Once that’s right, everything else will fall into place much more easily.

The decision was also made to do all the detailing after the painting is finished. The stitching and grommets on the halter, eye lashes, whiskers around the eye and anything else I find to add will be added after the painting has been completed and has had time to dry.

July 5, 2010

Colors Used: Titanium White, Manganese Blue, dark Palette Gray, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber
Medium Used: Walnut Oil

When I sat down to paint this session, I didn’t intend to do a lot of work or spend a lot of time. It was already eight o’clock in the evening and I’d put in a busy day creatively, working on writing for over three hours and starting a new painting. But I wanted to do something with this painting, so….

I ended up working for half an hour and making very good progress around the eye.

Using a medium size sable round and a ‘drawing style’ stroke, I added lights and medium tones as needed to create the shifting color behind and below the horse’s eye. Strokes went in the same direction as hair growth unless I was applying broad washes of color. In those instances, I sued a larger brush and didn’t pay much attention to stroke direction, then pulled the colors together using the sable round and the directional strokes.

Shadows were painted around the halter and bridle and under the eye, then I worked on the eye lid and the highlights and mid-tones over the eye.

The lower part is nearly done. The upper part needs a lot more work. Both areas are going to have dry before more work is done.

July 10, 2010

Colors Used: Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Transparent Yellow Oxide, Transparent Red Oxide, Burnt Umber
Medium Used: None

The second session for the week was short. I put in half an hour of work between the spate of Saturday chores and fun things. Tonight is the annual concert at the Carriage Factory Art Gallery, so our evening was already booked. That meant everything else I wanted to do had to be done in the afternoon.

Buckles & Belts was one of those things.

I concentrated on the area above the eye in this session. Beginning with the lightest color, I used a couple of sable rounds to place the highlights, then placed darker colors where and how necessary. Titanium White, Yellow Ochre and Transparent Yellow Oxide were used in the brightest areas that tended toward yellow. In the red areas, I used Titanium White and Transparent Red Oxide. Those two areas were blended together where they met in an effort to create the variations of color that appear in this horse’s coat.

Burnt Umber was used in the browner area and in the deeper shadows.

In a couple of places, I used a finger to blend color or to pull color from painted areas into unpainted areas. Moving forward over the brow, for example.

I also worked behind and below the eye using the same colors and techniques.

Some of the areas I worked on in this session are finished or very close to it, but I still need to work on the area over the eye. Overall, the painting is coming along very well and looks better and better every time I look at it.

July 12, 2010

Colors Used: Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, Transparent Yellow Oxide, Titanium White
Medium Used: None

Buckles & Belts is getting close enough to completion that the sessions are getting shorter and shorter and further apart.

In the week of July 12, I got only one painting session on the painting. Most of that time was spent darkening the shadows around the bridle and halter and the front of the face with mixtures of Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue.

I worked a little bit on this painting this afternoon, darkening the shadows around the headstall and halter and on the front of the face using a mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. That was the best way to emphasize the light and shapes of the horse’s face and to separate horse from tack.

I also adjusted the shape and brightness of the highlights around the contours over and around the eye and was much happier with them afterward.

I didn’t think the painting was close to finished because I could still think of lots of things to do with it. But in passing through the studio later in the day, I caught a glimpse of it from across the room and the changes really advanced it. It looked almost finished.

July 20, 2010

Colors Used: Black, Burnt Umber, Manganese Blue, Titanium White, Yellow Ochre
Medium Used: Walnut Oil

Given the previous session, I hoped to have this painting completed this week. Another busy week and the need to let paint dry thoroughly between sessions prevented that.

After dealing almost exclusively with hair coat for the last few weeks, I turned my attention to the hardware again. The grommets in the halter were painted in and I began the detail work on the buckles of halter and bridle. I used various mixtures of white tinted either with Manganese Blue or Yellow Ochre depending on where the reflected light was coming from.

I also worked on the forelock, replacing what had previously been painted out. I’ll need to rub the surface with Walnut Oil to get a good ‘do’ on that, though, so I decided to let the painting dry for several days before continuing work.

July 30, 2010

Colors Used: Colors Used: Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, Manganese Blue, Ivory Black
Medium Used: Walnut Oil

The painting session began with a good rubbing of Walnut Oil. I used my hands and rubbed the surface of the painting thoroughly to warm up the oil and spread it over the parts of the painting I wanted to work on. The excess was then wiped off and I was ready to paint.

I painted in the forelock and eyelashes on the horse, added highlights and details to the hardware on the tack. All of the details I’d been holding off on until the painting was nearly finished.

I used a 20/0 or 10/0 sable round for most of that work, using the brush like a pencil to ‘draw’ in the details I wanted.

One thing that had been bothering me for some time about this painting was the cheek strap on the blue halter. The angle of the lights and darks just never seemed right. So before quitting for the day, I blocked out the existing work with a base color of Cerulean Blue and Titanium White, then repainted the lights and darks. The end result was much more pleasing.

I think the painting is now finished. I took it upstairs to dry and will take a look at it in three weeks. I didn’t sign it today, but I could have. The painting was taken up to the drying room. I’ll take it down for a review in a week or two. If it still looks good, I’ll sign it and it will be finished.