About to kick off my first oil painting in many, many years. Maybe it’s a little fun to explain what I’m doing (used to be a painting professor)

First, I put a fresh coat of gesso on the canvas and sanded it down, and drew a light outline with pencil

Next I lay out my paints. I use a paper palettes cause I’m lazy but a big glass one is better for a devoted practice.

You’ll note there’s no black. I forbid my beginning painting students to use black because typical black paint has carbon which absorbs everything around it

If you mix the dark colors instead, when they’re blended with other colors, they reveal all the small bits of pigment from the other colors and it’s far, far richer.

You might also notice I’m using two whites: zinc is a good mixing white, it doesn’t overpower. Titanium is your highlight, it’s like kapow! So use sparingly.

But watch as I mix in the zinc mixing white with the darker mixed color. It’s so yummy as we reveal what’s blended

Also, I should mention my painting mediums: I use a silicoil jar with odorless turpenoid and a rag to clean the brushes while I work.

My medium in the mustard bottle:
2 parts refined linseed or stand oil
2 parts turpenoid
1 part galkyd or damar varnish

The purpose of the medium is to glaze the paint so it’s not chunky or dry.

You know how devs think no other groups argue about tools? This painting medium is one of the things we fight about. This is our equivalent to the framework wars. I pray painting twitter doesn’t find me.

In grad school we were going to make a damar varnish vs galkyd softball team.

For the record I’m a galkyd girl and YES I KNOW IT’S GUMMIER BUT I CAN’T WAIT 4 DAYS FOR DAMMAR TO DRY, THATS RIGHT I SAID IT

This technique is called the dry brush effect- you take two wer colors next to eachother and you use a dry brush to blend them together. This works just as well for big areas as tiny details

By the way, the quality of the paints does matter. I never used to be able to afford Old Holland when I was in grad school so I’m SO EXCITED today. Gamblin is a good step down from there. For cheaper paints they add filler, which is why you’ll need so much more to get anywhere.

I have a site called http://sarahdrasnerart.com  where I keep my old paintings and drawings separate from my dev stuff if you’re interested (the rest of the painting will take time to post more)

For those of you who try this and are sad because it’s not relaxing- painting is kind of like coding this way. One minute you’re like “yes! It’s working!” And the next you’re like “oh no why do I suck it’s not working.” It only really looks quiet from the outside. Don’t give up

At this point I’ve been at it for a couple hours and here’s the source and the canvas. It’s much washier, don’t worry about that, I’ll be coming back in and filling in details. Oil painting is cool this way, I can come in over the top with glazes and detail

Take this older painting of mine for instance- it's obviously got some intentionally more abstract and washy parts, but that tiger and the couple I came back in a few times over to fill in details

This is another one I dropped like 10 years ago I will kick up again, since we’re not going anywhere. I’ll show progress for this one, too!

Ok, at this point, I've done what I can for the day because due to the heat, the paint is getting gummy and I'll make mud if I don't stop.

This kind of discipline is important, even if you want to keep going, if I don't stop, I'll ruin what's there. Let's clean brushes.

By the way, I’m using Princeton sable, they have an excellent amount of give. White nylons are a nice cheap alternative. Plus when the nylons break down they become great dry brushes for that blending technique I mentioned earlier.