Famous Painting Oil Painting

Assignment:

Use a famous painting or work of art as inspiration for your next oil painting. You will need to create a self portrait in the style of a famous work of art.

Objectives:

Students will analyze and interpret a work of art

Students will create a composition inspired by a famous artist or painting

Students will learn to stretch a canvas
Students will use mediums to work with oil paint
Students will blend oil paint to model forms

Resource:

Milwaukee Art Museum Website

Find their "Collection" to view works.

Examples:

Student Examples

Planning and Design:

Objectives:

Students will analyze and interpret a work of art

Students will create a composition inspired by a famous artist or painting

Directions: Complete the following 4 steps on the planning form provided to prepare for your historical portrait painting

Step 1: Choose a work of art for your inspiration

Step 2: Analyze the Work of Art

Step 3: Develop a Concept

Step 4: 1 Full page sketch

Oil Painting Portrait Planning & Design Assignment

How will you use the art work as inspiration? Your goal is to begin with this work of art and develop YOUR OWN painting. I do not want you to think of this as a copy of the painting.

Here are some strategies you can use for inspiration:

The artist's style:

You can be inspired by the way the artist paints or creates their work of art. By being inspired by their style, you are looking at their technique.

For example: to the right are all Picasso paintings from different periods. Note the range of styles. Look at his technique in each painting. How did get use the elements of art and principles of design? Could you create your own portrait in his cubist or abstracted style?

The artist's concept:

What is the piece saying? What is the message behind the work of art? Could you create an original idea inspired by a similar message?

Using the art as an important to YOUR OWN concept:

Do you have your own message that you want to say? Can you use the art piece as an important element to your own concept?

For example, Kehinde Wiley uses poses from historical paintings to make a statement about black and brown people being underrepresented in art museums and to give them power.

As a Parody:

What is a parody? A parody is an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

In Class Practice

Small Fruit Painting on Scrap Cardboard- 30 Points

Requirements:

Set up a simple still life or find a reference image.

Still life should have a range of values so that you can practice modeling forms with acrylic paint.

If there is something in particular that you would like to practice before going into your final painting (ex. people's faces) I can be flexible with the subject.

Gesso the cardboard piece to prime it before painting.

Practice painting values to make your fruits appear 3-D.

Practice Painting Pointers:

Stages of practice painting:

1. Block in values with one darker tone. Use water to thin out medium values.

2. Add local color. This is the "general" color in the area without specific color changes.

3. Blend in shadows, highlights, and fine detail. Paint the surrounding space.

Getting to Know Your Oil Painting Materials

OilPaintMaterials.wmv

Glass paint pallet (in this case peelable plastic pallet)

Great for oil paints, can scrape off dried color with razor.

Pallet Scraper

This has a razor side and a plastic side. Use this to remove paint from your pallet.

Rags

You really should not throw away paper towel with oil paints and mediums on it- they can be flammable. Use rags to clean brush and pallet and dispose of in bucket.

Brushes
Many types of brushes will work, however, stiffer natural fiber brushes with long stems work best (in my opinion).
Ivory Bar Soap

Used to clean your brushes.

7. Pallet Knife

Great for mixing oil paints.

8. Linseed Oil

Linseed oil is a painting medium that when mixed with the paint increases flow and slows drying time.

9. Natural Turpenoid

Turpentine or turpeniod is a solvent and will thin and dissolve the oil paints. Use turpeniod to clean brushes or mix with linseed oil and paint for a thinner wash affect.

*Store linseed oil and turpeniod in glass containers with lids

Washing Your Oil Painting Brushes:

CleaningOilBrushes.MOV

Stretching Your Canvas

Directions:

Choose your frame size.
Cut a piece of canvas to be larger than the size of the frame.
Use the staple gun and the canvas stretcher to pull the canvas and secure around the frame.
Start from the center of the longest side and rotate.
Work from the center towards the corners.

StretchingCanvas.MOV

Starting Your Painting:

On your canvas,

Use a thin layer of paint to stain your canvas or do an "underpainting". The more turpeniod you use the thinner your paint will appear, also the quicker it will dry.

Draw out your composition with a thin brush and thinned out oil paint on top of your base color. Remember- the oil paint does not dry quickly at all so you can move things around and blend in mistakes at this stage.

Begin using less turpeniod and more linseed oil as your medium the further along you go with your painting.

Use your easel to keep clean!

OIl Painting Start/Sketch.mp4

More turpeniod to oil paint ratio (thinner)-----> Begin working with a combination of turpeniod and linseed oil (meduim viscosity) -----> No turpeniod, only linseed oil and paint (thicker).

Oil Vs. Acrylic

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