Trying to Find a Way with Oil Paint

The last two weeks have been rather up and down in regards to my drawing, so I decided to take some highlights and combine the last two weeks into this one blog post.

Ink sketches from Serpentine Park

I wanted to start by showing a quick few pages of some recent sketchbook work. Outside of my gouache sketchbook, I have two other sketchbooks that I tend to carry around with me: my observational ink sketchbook and an imaginative sketchbook where I come up with new compositions and drawings for potential paintings.

Drawings from my head, pencil in sketchbook

Working at a smaller scale has been incredibly practical for me as it allows me to really play with ideas, make mistakes and just produce a lot of imagery that feeds into my oil painting. Several tutors have spoken to me regarding this way of working, and some feel like I’ve gotten too comfortable. Going forward I’ve been suggested to create more “risk” when it comes to my work and move out of my regular format.

Pencil sketch for Oil Painting (see below)

I understand the need for “risk” in work, and I’ve also noticed that particularly with my gouache sketchbook I do feel the need to have a complete image that could translate into a larger painting. I do think that my “imaginative” sketchbook is more experimental and certainly contains more risk, but I’m starting to wonder if I should reflect that in my painting too which is usually a lot more refined.

Oil Painting Work in Progress

My lack of gouache work over the past couple of weeks is partly due to my focus on my current oil paintings. This current larger landscape in progress (the largest painting I’ve done in a good while) has emerged from my imaginative sketchbook work and working at this scale has helped me work with a mix of finer patterns and larger brushwork/textures. I feel like I have this weird ambivalent relationship with painting where the more I paint, the more I end up struggling and despising what I make, but then when I take a break I’m lured back to the canvas by the hope of working it out.

Next week is my last week of the term, and I’m hoping that my assessment tomorrow will give me some good pointers on what I need to crunch down on and re-evaluate.

Apologies for the shorter post, I’ll be looking to do some show reviews and making more YouTube content over the winter break.

Until then, see you next time.

Tomas