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 Venice (Oil)

STAGE BY STAGE

Essential Supplies

The items you will need to complete this scene are as follows:-

Oil Paint
 
 Cobalt Blue
 Titanium White
 Naples Yellow
 Raw Sienna
Payne’s Grey
 Cadmium Yellow
Raw Sienna
Transparent Brown
 Cadmium Red
 Ivory Black		 Brushes
 
 No.18 Georgian
 No.12 Georgian Philbert
 No.3 Bristlewhite
 No.3 Dalon Rigger
 Painting Knife
As you can see from the basic outline, there is no under painting or anything involved just a simple outline using a normal pencil. This painting is done from colour drawings that I took in 2003.  For the sky wash, I use cobalt blue, titanium white and a touch of Naples yellow. 

Using my No.18 Georgian oil brush simply whack on a load of colour, paying no attention to where it goes whatsoever. Then using an old tea towel, simply drag all the colour together then go in with a little bit of titanium white, just to highlight a few cloud areas here and there.

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For the main impressive buildings they need to be strong but not too strong. So using my No.12 Georgian filbert and a No.3 bristlewhite round,  with mixtures of Naples yellow, raw sienna,  Payne’s grey and titanium white block the building in, paying special attention to the bit of light catching the right-hand side. For the shadow in this building, I used my No.3 bristlewhite and a mixture of Payne’s grey, cobalt blue and cadmium yellow.

For the main clump of buildings, I have gone on in no particular order with mixtures of Naples yellow, raw sienna, Rowney transparent brown, sepia and Payne’s grey. The roofs were done with Rowney transparent brown, lightening with a touch of titanium white. The rest of the colours were just added haphazardly here and there concentrating on where I wanted the light to hit, but again paying special attention to the shadowed areas which enhance the lighter areas. Any detail done on the buildings was done using my No.3 bristlewhite and a No.3 Dalon rigger. Notice a few highlights of white paint on some of the chimneys here and there, keeping these to the right-hand side.

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The buildings on the left were done using the same colours as the buildings on the right, but kept very much lighter by using more Naples yellow and titanium white.  But also, if I wanted the building lighter by making the mixes lighter I also needed to make the shadows darker to enhance the light. For this

I used the same shadow mixture of Payne’s grey, cobalt blue and a touch of cadmium red.  For the window blinds on the central building, I used a mixture of cadmium red and Naples yellow. These were done with just a quick swipe with my No.12 Georgian filbert. Any little bits of detail here and there, such as window frames, were done using the shadows colour again and my No.3 Dalon.

Notice a hint of white here and there to the tops of the balconies and roof lines. For this I used my small painting knife and titanium white, and  literally just touched on with the sharp edge. Finally to these buildings using the point of my painting knife I scratched out a few lines here and there.

For the main wash on the water, again using my No.18 Georgian oil brush and a mixture of cobalt blue, Payne’s grey and Hooker's green. Simply block the whole lot in and at this stage it looks a real mess. Then using my tea towel again drag it all together with straight horizontal lines.

Now to the No.12 filbert and the same mixture of colour but darker, add a few squiggly lines here and there. Also at this stage using the same brush repeat some of the same buildings colours in the water areas to the left and to the right. Paying careful attention to the fact that I want the left hand corner especially darker. Now a few squiggly bits of white here and there still with the same brush and there is my water done.

 

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 To the boats and the final details. In the far distance, these were just blobs of any old colours I had in my palette, but the red in the middle distance was painted using cadmium red and a touch of Payne’s grey into the red for the left-hand side of it. Remember to throw down a few rippled reflections into the water.  The main gondolas were done using ivory black with touches of titanium white here and there for a few highlights. Again remembering some strong reflection. Then for the posts on the left-hand side, using my No.3 bristlewhite, a few short diagonal daubs of titanium white followed by cadmium red in between each daub. And then yet again I darken the bottom left-hand corner even more.

And there we go a  finished painting and quite a grand scene at that. For all the mixes of paint I used low odour thinners and Daler-  Rowney oil painting medium. All the colours were Georgian oils onto a pre stretched canvas which was 30” x 20”