My background before moving to Warwickshire was that of commercial art and graphic design, I have always regularly sketched and painted using watercolours or acrylics, but I’ve always avoided oils until now.
I made the conscious decision to transition from acrylics to oils and though that doesn’t sound very life changing, it was a huge step in my confidence. One of the reasons I suppose is that when I look back during my art college days I felt that I wasn’t good enough or worthy to convert to try oils. I did try a couple of oils paintings but I didn’t feel comfortable with it back then and found Acrylics to be more that adequate for what I needed at the time.
I am not sure whether that was to do with all the expectations and pressures that came with my education back then, but now I do finally feel ready to explore this medium a lot more.
That all probably sounds a bit bizarre, but the process of oil painting and took me right back to basics in a great way. Taking more time and attention to values in painting and trusting the process a lot more.
So present day I have decided to do a selection of paintings in oil and the exciting thing is I am not sure which pathway the subject matter will take me other than starting with a couple of portraits that includes this one pictured.
I am really enjoying the process so far and I can see a lot of advantages to acrylics. Oil has a lovely richness and flow that is hard to replicate in other mediums, it also makes you have more of a sense of planning where to place your values, steadily building layers.
What’s exciting is this new sense of learning and I will update more as and when I complete each painting.
