Expressive Painting with Luscious Wet Oils in Painter 2015
- Planning the Composition and Sketching
- Building a Color Theme for the Painting
- Trying Out Brushes and Sketching
- Building an Underpainting
- Modulating Color and Sculpting Forms
- Refining and Adding Details
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Painter 2015 offers an exciting variety of oils brushes and media. The main brush I used to paint the piece for this article—the Real Oils Short—incorporates artists’ oils capabilities and real bristle capabilities. The Artists’ Oils paint is smeary, wet, and viscous, enabling you to lay down color and blend much like you can with conventional oil paints. The RealBristle capabilities incorporated into the brush allow for responsive, natural brushstrokes.
Light and Shadow Play 2, shown in Figure 1, is one in a series of paintings of flowers that I painted from direct observation using the Oils brushes in Painter 2015 and my Wacom Intuos Pro tablet.
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Figure 1 The finished painting shows the play of light and shadow on the graceful flower. The simple background with subtle complementary colors and values helps enhance the focal point of the piece.
Planning the Composition and Sketching
My vision was to paint a close-up view of the orchid, with interesting negative space behind the flower’s dynamic curves. The play of light on the orchid’s delicate petals was also an important inspiration for the painting.
Your first task is to set up your still life. To begin my painting, I placed the blooming orchid plant in soft light near my computer, as shown in Figure 2.
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Figure 2 The live orchid set up near my computer. Notice the light shining through the translucent upper-right petal.