This is my 25th painting, so quarter of the way to the 100 mark. I finally got to test my theory that my not being able to make the snow break on mountains was because of my WN brand titanium white paint that was too creamy and not dry/firm enough. I finally got my large tube of Ross brand titanium white and put it to the test. In the end, it's definitely me, not the paint! I still had a lot of difficulty making the paint break again. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. If you look at my other mountains I painted previously, I have the same problem. I swear I'm not using too much pressure. I did just watch a Youtube video tutorial and, next time, I'll try getting a larger roll of paint at the tip of the knife, letting the paint 'latch onto' the canvas, then pulling downwards. If anyone has advice, I'm all ears (well, eyes in this case).
Once again, I double primed my canvas myself and made my own liquid white and added a good amount to the canvas, as I've been doing for the past few painting attempts. I find this really helps me with blending skies.
I almost didn't break the oval. That was the ultimate bravery test. I also tried painting quicker and was able to finish this one in less than 2 hours.
18x24
Comments
Nice painting, the depth in your painting is outstanding!
You did great job! I like your colors and depth! also foreground looks detailed enough to be the foreground! Well done!
@Lightsow, pressure is the key but you told you don' t do much. I was able to make snow brake with plastic card cutout from WN TW because I don't have access to my pallet knife. Imagine you hold a feather that you try not do damage, but not a pallet knife in you hand . And another thing I noticed with my plastic card cutout that if it is more horizontal to the surface of the canvas the better the result. But when plastic card bends and becomes parallel to surface I aplly some pressure because i get mad it does not break. As soon i do it snow breaks. My cutout is Y-shape and I used the leg of Y while holding for the top, This is when I noticed this strange horizontal effect.
Also another thing for the mountain undercolor - try to wipe it with paper towel or rag before you apply white on the top, it will help you to have thin layer of the oil left on canvas and paint should not slip.
I also struggling but I keep trying the various knives and as I said cutouts from plastic card. Sometimes it is better, sometimes it worse. Don't loose your heart!
Also another thing when you see it is not breaking scrape it off and reapply. If you wiped dark color with rag before, your white will not take a lot of under-color. Try not to cover the same space more than one time. Just whatever texture is there leave it , don't OCD it. Something should work out. We all get to it.. I believe in us!
Congratulations on your first 25; here's to 25 more!
An excellent oval with beautiful color and solid effects throughout. I think the mountain looks fine, but if you want more breaking, one thing that helps me is to only drag the roll of paint. If I can avoid the knife blade hitting the canvas, I have better luck initially unloading the paint. Once the roll is nearly spent, then I let the knife drag along what's left.
I am very curious about your homemade liquid white. If I missed a previous comment where you reveal your recipe, I apologize, but I am so curious what you are using. I recently took your advice and applied a little more than usual to good effect. Like you mentioned, I think was also taking the phrase "THIN, even coat" a bit too literally.
@sunnylady - thanks for the tips! I've been doing a lot of research and video tutorial watching about paint breaking. I have a few things I want to try.
@dracula - thank you as well for the tips! I usually try to keep in mind that it is only the roll of paint that should touch the canvas. One thing I recently read is to 'cheat' and add a much larger roll of paint on the knife.
One thing I have noticed with my new Ross brand titanium white is that there's a lot of oil at the top, so when I squeeze some paint out on my palette, there's a gob of oil that comes with it. That would absolutely not make the paint 'firm and dry.' I've tried shaking the tube and I can hear the oil inside. I've also tried squeezing the tube to mix it up but I'm wary since it's one of those thin aluminum tubes that can perforate easily (I've done it before).
Yet another excellent and beautiful panting from you. About your pallet knife and TW paint issues, I can perhaps add the following. I changed very recently from a soft (very bendable) pallet knife to a really firm one (as Bob prescribes) and it helped me enormously, giving me so much more control. As for the Titanium white, I also have 200ml tubes and the paint is more vast in structure the smalle tubes. A very little drop of linseed oil helps smooting that out and it does the trick for me. Hoping to catch much more of your darling paintings soon!
Too runny or too much liquid white could be affecting your knife work. Try cutting that back a bit if you can. Also after applying your mountain base colour try to scrape most of it off with the knife and really work it well with the 2 inch brush before applying your top coat with the knife. Think of it as making a british rail sandwich, scrape it on and scrape it off again. Hope that helps. Having said that, not all snow needs to break and your mountain looks great.
This is really beautiful. Very nice work. Personally I don’t notice anything being out of place with the mountains because they look great to me.
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Congrats on 25!!!