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The Painting Process: Two Steers The starting point for this piece was a 5" by 7" photograph I took about ten years ago somewhere here in the Penns Valley area. It was one of those times that I suddenly pulled off the road because I was struck by the beauty of the light and mood presented by a group of beef steers in a roadside pasture. I liked the resulting photo, but put it aside until a time when I was painting in a technique that might do it justice.
Next, I sketched the steers onto the board, keeping the balance of the final composition foremost in my mind. Details would take care of themselves later. A common number two pencil works as well as anything, but an HB is about right if you insist on being "professional" about it. After completing the sketched outlines, I blocked in the entire painting using thinned down acrylics. Thin oils would work, as well, but the acrylics dry almost instantly, allowing me to begin working over them in alkyd oils with very little delay. This underpainting lets me nail down the basic values and color harmonies without worrying about the final look of the piece, as nearly everything would later be covered by the oils. I don't always do an underpainting, but I'm more likely to if I feel any uncertainty about tricky subtleties of value and color. In this case, the underpainting could probably have stood on its own as a finished piece, but I wanted the richer color and texture of the oils.
I began applying the alkyd oils with the brown areas of the steers, using mixes of burnt sienna with ultramarine blue, magenta, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow medium, and cadmium red medium. Without worrying about finalizing anything, I
At this point the piece was brought into the house to sit in a corner where I could frequently glance at it. This allowed me to get used to the painting and notice little things that could be improved upon. Some things take time to see. I this case I added some intensity and color to the foreground meadow and gave a little more sense of horizontal orientation under and January 2006
Contact the artist at karl@keleitzel.com page last updated 3/2/06
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The first step was a final coat of acrylic gesso in a shade that might serve well both as a neutral ground for beginning the painting and as a visible background if I chose to leave parts of the 12" by 16" panel unfinished, which was my intent. I seldom work on a white background, mixing various acrylic tube colors into the final gesso without regard to any precise formula. As with the rest of the painting process, I almost never use any black.
then went on to the white areas, tinting the titanium white with a bit of everything in various areas. Finally, I worked on the background. The background was kept muted by avoiding any actual green paint until near the end, instead mixing my greens out of the previously named colors. I purposely get all the basic colors on the board before going back and fine-tuning, as all the areas of the piece need to be viewed in relationship to one another. All areas of a representational painting of this kind need to "talk" to one another, picking up at least minimal amounts of color from other areas. This is simply recognizing and applying what actually happens in the real world. The "white" parts of a steer (which will never be pure white as light and shadow have their effects on the surface) will pick up hints of green if the animal is standing in a field of grass. The stronger the light, the more pronounced this effect will be. This will be most noticeable in the shadowed underparts. At the same time, other shadowed areas will be strongly influenced by the blue light coming from the sky itself. White areas directly lit by the sun shift toward the yellow and orange end of the spectrum, even toward red if the sun is very low in the sky and the atmosphere is humid.
in front of the steers. I used just a little permanent green at this stage, modified with yellow or blue to avoid garishness. I also cut back a little on the whiteness of the heads and backs of the steers, especially toward the back end of each animal. At the same time, I treid to avoid getting too detailed, as the overall style is somewhat loose and impressionistic. While greater detail in "important" areas helps direct the viewers attention, I wanted to maintain a sense of unity in the entire piece. In a couple of weeks, I'll be ready to varnish and frame the piece.