{"id":1315,"date":"2007-12-31T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-31T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnokeefe.net\/blog\/?p=1315"},"modified":"2023-02-21T00:17:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T00:17:59","slug":"tutorial-the-fields-edge-by-john-okeefe-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnokeefe.net\/blog\/2007\/12\/31\/tutorial-the-fields-edge-by-john-okeefe-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial “The Field’s Edge” by John O’Keefe Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"
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“The Field’s Edge”<\/em> was a milestone painting for me and my 10th painting. A professional artist once told me I should see a noticeable improvement in my ability after every ten paintings. He must have been right because this painting was the 10th oil painting I ever completed. Another factor that might have been at play was my daughter was seriously ill at the time with a life-threatening blood infection, and I might have been releasing all that stress and anxiety into the painting. Please enjoy this tutorial “The Field’s Edge”<\/em> by John O’Keefe Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Composition and Materials – “The Field’s Edge”<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I’m a big fan of the Hudson River School painters, and because of this, I have been trying to develop similar skills in landscape painting. Also, the clouds in this scene are from my wife’s photograph and a picture from the wetcanvas.com reference library for the field and trees, and these combined to make a good composition for me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I switched from Winsor & Newton Winton to Winsor & Newton Artist Oil Color and experienced a big difference in colors, mixing, and how the paint goes onto the canvas. Professional-grade oil paints are preferred over student-grade paints. I limited myself to a six-color pallet (see below) and used NO mediums; the paint was straight out of the tubes. The green of choice was Sap Green mixed with Titanium White or Ivory Black. Added to this was a little Raw Umber or Raw Sienna to add some earthy tones. Also, I added the sap green straight onto the canvas in the grass running across the middle of the painting. Of course, it had blended a little as I was painting wet on wet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I put about 25 hours into this painting spread over five days: about 5 hours daily, including prep and clean up. Also worth mentioning is that I painted sitting under a 60-watt incandescent light bulb with not much natural outside light shining on the canvas as I worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n