Today I watched this demo by artist Frank Bruckmann (click here to see his website). Much of his finished work is awesome so check out his website. He was just back from six months on Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. Early in his career he spent many years copying the works of the masters in Europe. His demo time was cut short and this painting isn’t finished, but you can see in this post at least his beginning stages. Below I also have summarized his commentary:

• Start with a neutral ground

• Use a palette that has a warm and a cool of each color

• His medium: 5 parts turpentine to 1 part oil

• Start very thin with lots of turpentine (top layer uncut paint)

• Brushes in hand; one for each color

• Begin standing far from canvas

• Create depth:

……………cool colors go back in space / warm colors go forward
……………less intense in background / more intensity forward
……………sharp edges come forward / blurred edges recede
……………less gray in foreground / grayed down in background

• Put darks in first

• Start with similar value , similar tone to what is desired (not exact)

• To kill intensity; mix in it’s compliment

• Put in major forms (a lot of suggesting)

• Just paint a shape; don’t think about what it is

• Don’t stay in one area of the painting; bounce around from area to area

• Step back to see weakest point; paint there next

• When you varnish paintings, top coat must go up and down to reduce glare

• Check out painter Tom Thompson (click here) uses bright red underpainting

• Check out painter Don Stone (click here) uses warm complimentary underpainting