Oils - study 1

Self portrait

oil on canvas 7"x9"
Private collection NFS

This is my first play with oils, an exercise to investigate the media. I decided to do this quick alla prima style self portrait study using wet on wet techniques. It was finished in under an hour, including preliminary sketch in pencil, which is very quick for me.

It served the purpose of very rapidly highlighting the difference of oil as a media, as opposed to acrylic. It also prompted me to engage my friend and tutor Nici, to give me a crash course in oil painting. It became evident in this course that while some of my intuitive techniques in acrylics could be retained, the preliminary stages of laying down an oil painting were quite different.

Part of my biggest challenge with oils, currently, is to remember that I'm not using acrylics. However, I am excited as I can see a realm of new possibilities available by using oils.

I also discovered a dangerous temptation of oils - the temptation to keep fiddling and touching up a piece during the several days the oils remain wet. In this case I managed to restrain myself from trying to perfect the piece, so as to keep the rough and spontaneous style of the initial work.