COLOR WASH

This Saturday we will move on and into the "color wash" phase of the still life paintings you are working on. A "color wash" is the under-painting and is the first phase of the "form" painting process.  The color wash helps us to establish important aspects of light, shade and color before we begin painting with oil paint (and medium if you so choose).  The color wash is just that, a thin, transparent wash of color and value (translated accurately from what is in front of you), made with oil paint and solvent. Using the solvent allows the under-painting to dry quickly.  The studies you completed (value and color posters) will be valuable reference, so bring them with you on Saturday.  You'll also need your linen panel with the line drawing you transferred from you grisaille.  The photo below represents both the color wash (on the left side of the head) and how the form painting is developed from the color wash.

  "Patty"
Oil on Linen

Leslie Lienau

 The color wash process might take several weeks to complete.  The idea is that you have a complete, transparent painting (very much like a watercolor painting).  Painting in the "form" painting method is a process of "finishing as you go", painting very carefully, deliberately and thinly.  Many of the Dutch Masters painted using this method.  Anthony Ryder, Ted Seth Jacobs, Jacob Collins and others paint using this method.  It  is ONLY a method.  It is not right or wrong - just one of many ways to paint.