The Dutch/Flemish style of painting is my latest painting challenge to learn. Sunflowers give me a blast of happy yellow color, for my weary trek out of winter blues.
Combining the need to learn another style of painting and the cheerful yellow/gold together, I now have the start of a Sunflower Diptych wet on my easel! I had managed to click off some photos at the end of the 2015 growing season, capturing the last days of my sunflowers which I had planned to paint.
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Sunflower Diptych (TOP) Bee 12"x 12" oil on canvas by Minaz Jantz |
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Sunflower Diptych (BOTTOM) Lady Bug & Caterpillar 12"x 12" oil on canvas by Minaz Jantz |
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Sunflowers in my garden. |
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Sunflower Diptych CLOSE-Up of BEE & Hidden Heart by Minaz Jantz |
Sunflowers certainly are one of the happiest flowers, wildly blowing in the winds while serving up some tasty morsels for Mother Nature's critters.
I wanted to work with oil paint, using the glazing technique where an underpainting is first applied then build each sequential layer by adding more translucent oil paint to depict light and chromatic subtleties.
This style of glazing reminds me of stained glass and uses transparent colored oils with an oil medium Winsor & Newton Liquin. It helps to smooth out brush strokes, and thin the paint colors to get the glowing optical effect popular with Dutch/Flemish Still Life paintings. Read more here...
Years ago I came across a library book written by Jane Jones called, 'Classic Still Life Painting: A Contemporary Master Shows How to Achieve Master Effects Using Today's Art Material.' and later purchased the book for my own copy and all her DVD's.
Jane really takes her time to explain and demonstrate giving up tips in glazing techniques and color mixing exercises that really helped me better understand mixing values & color temperatures.
Jane's artwork is modern, breathtaking and her colors vibrant.
Getting Started
with Sunflower Diptych:
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My Thinking Sketch Book in Red |
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SketchBook is a great place to warm up to painting ideas with thumbnail sketches and notes. |
My red sketchbook is my thinking book with notes, drawings, ideas, and design possibilities using thumbnail sketches to plan out values, patterns, and design. The Sunflower diptych is created on two 12"x 12" square canvases which have the options to display vertically, or side by side, or can be displayed on separate walls.
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ALL Brushes, Mop and Wipe Out Tool from Jane Jones... to buy go here. |
My brushes were all purchased from Jane Jones and can say having the right tools is half the battle of any painting method. Her Wipe Out tool is in the above photograph with two size ends and will keep edges crisp and an easy way to remove the OPPS paint cleanly and quickly from the surface with no fuss.
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Transparent Oil Paint Sample Palette for Sunflower Diptych |
My Palette for Sunflower Diptych
*Winsor & Newton Transparent yellow,
*Winsor & Newton Indian Yellow,
*Winsor & Newton Bright Red,
*Holbein Alizarin Crimson,
*Winsor & Newton French Ultramarine,
*Winsor & Newton Blue Green Shade,
*Windsor & Newton Titanium White.
I have gotten myself into a good habit of mixing some paint samples first to discover what are the possibilities for the right color combinations and values needed for the selected painting I am about to create. With every oil painting, I intentionally select different palette combinations so I can grow in my experience with mixing paint.
Shopping at a clearance center, I found a box of thick printing paper with one side that is shiny and the other matte called Tango Advantage (C1S Cover 8pt-112lb. 24 weight). Turns out I can oil paint directly onto the paper and use it for my sample oil palettes and even with the added Liquin medium mixed into the paint for an easier application, it does not soak through to the other side! I can let the sample palette dry then later I hole punch it and put it into my palette collection binder that I can reference in the future easily. Maybe one day I will have THE PERFECT MINAZ palette or maybe not but this sample mixing gives me time to warm up to the painting process before jumping right into it.
The paint palette I am using for the Sunflower Diptych is mostly Winsor & Newton brand paints and one is from Holbein. The mixing medium I use is the Original Liquin by Winsor & Newton
Watch the video below about the various mediums Winsor & Newton.
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Sunflower Diptych TOP drawing for 12" x 12" canvas |
Getting out my big sketch pad, I carefully took my time to draw out the sunflowers to fit onto the 12" x 12" canvas using geometry for design guidelines and drawing in the values/shade areas.
Drawing gives me time to sneak up on my subject. I like to take the time to find out about the subject I am painting so it's not just a pretty painting at the end of it. I get to use math, study some history, mix paint, and gain skills in problem-solving. ALL intentions and actions help to create every painting.
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Studio PREVIEW of SUNFLOWER Diptych 4th glaze. |
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Sunflower Diptych BOTTOM drawing for 12" x 12" canvas |
The BOTTOM of the diptych Sunflower also shows a bud about to fully open into a sunflower. I wanted to include my favorite Lady Bug too. When I photographed the sunflowers, this red beetle was chilling out on one of the petals so they too love the sunflower!
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Preparing the canvas surface with 2 stages of color mixing. |
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The left canvas is the BOTTOM canvas and the right canvas is the TOP canvas. Same colors were used but in opposite sequences for different end results. |
I could have painted both canvases the same but didn't want that so I used the same colors but in different sequences saying they are in the same family and go together.
The BOTTOM canvas was covered in Magenta Permanent oil coat first mixed with Original Liquin which nicely stains into the fresh gesso surfaced canvas. Dried it thoroughly and for the last coat of oil paint, I use French Ultramarine blue fanned in opposite directions to the Magenta creating a weaved pattern enhancing the cotton canvas surface.
The TOP canvas was covered with the French Ultramarine blue oil coat first mixed with Original Liquin, dried, and then the Magenta oil was brushed over top for the last layer. Using a fan brush after each application of paint blended the surface while creating a weaved texture.
After the oil paint was completely dry which takes a few days, I took the original sketchbook drawing and traced it onto a clear tracing paper as this helps keep the integrity of the original drawing and way easier to use clear tracing paper to line up the proper placement of drawing.
NEXT, I used white graphite transfer paper to trace out ONLY the FLOWER. Later when drawing out the other parts of the flower, I found out that none of my grey or black transfer paper seemed to trace onto this shiny surface of the canvas.
SO WHAT TO DO? I took some vine charcoal and rubbed it all over the back of my tracing paper, taping it onto the canvas to not have it move, then took a pencil and traced out the lines. Lifting the drawing carefully, I had some guidelines down but still had to hand draw over areas that didn't stick. I gather the Liquin had created a hard surface that makes it difficult for the transfers to work well so will have to look into better transfer techniques.
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Under paint with titanium white for the sunflower petals ONLY. |
The following stages are all about the glazing method using the Original Liquin mixed in with dabs of translucent oil paint. It gives a shine to the paint and shows off layers of glazing colors and dries the paint faster.
Following is a step-by-step glazing technique method.
FIRST Glazed layer for TOP & Bottom
of Sunflower Diptych
of Sunflower Diptych
First glazed layer I start to cover up the stark white underpainting and get some shadows in by toning the yellow value with a mix of purple which tones down the saturation of the yellow mix. I put in the green leaves and stems with a mix of yellow and blue.
The glaze is put on with Liquin Original which gives the paint a translucent quality as you can see the white underpainting reflecting through the petals.
I start my glazing for the bottom diptych the same as the top sunflower, using all the same mixes.
The center of this flower is roughly suggested and will not get to the center or leaves for a few more stages cause I want to set up my flower petals right before taking on the other parts of the flowers.
SECOND Glazed Layer for TOP and Bottom
of Sunflower Diptych
I mix up Transparent Yellow and Indian Yellow mixed with Liquin Original medium to make a brilliant gold layer glaze brushed over the top of the last layer to start a glowing surface. I add some red mixed into the main mix to set up the center of the sunflower. I do not develop the leaves or stems yet.
I start to develop more defined shadows and edges by adding some purple to the Yellow Gold mix and only painting the flower petals for now.
Third Glazed layer for TOP & Bottom
of Sunflower Diptych
of Sunflower Diptych
On the third glaze layer, I bring back some lighter highlights by mixing titanium white into my gold yellow mix as this will contrast with the darker shadows already created.
The flower petals are starting to get a bit of glow and the white underpainting is still showing but will disappear with later glazing.
Still adjusting my shadows and highlights and putting more Transparent Yellow into the glaze to bring out the sunlight touched petals.
Fourth Glazed layer for TOP & Bottom
of Sunflower Diptych
of Sunflower Diptych
This layer adds a variety of light gold highlights and also darker shades into the shadows for a glow.
Adjusting the shadows with the highlights lets each glaze dry before the next layer. Slow process but I am starting to like this method of painting.
FIFTH Glazed layer for TOP & Bottom
of Sunflower Diptych
of Sunflower Diptych
I adjust some more with the yellow petals and now adding a bit of Brilliant red to the gold mix. I also decide its time to develop the center of the flower building up texture.
Adding the Brilliant red to the golden yellow mix is giving my flower petals POP and pleased with it so far.
SIXTH Glazed layer for TOP & Bottom
of Sunflower Diptych
I layer over some of the very light yellow golds with a fresh mix of Transparent yellow and Indian Yellow to bring back the golden glow. I also mix a darker mix adding Brilliant Red and a touch of Alizarin Crimson. I make my dark black mixing reds and greens for the center flower and develop more details.
I decided it was time to work on the leaves and stems. I mix my variety of greens with Ultramarine blue and the Blue-Green shade with the two yellows for a variety of cool and warm greens. I also make some pinky reds for the stems.
The leaves came together very nicely and added shifts of gold to the edges as the leaves were turning to fall decay.
FINISHED!
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Sunflower Diptych with Pine Frame |
When I photographed the sunflowers in my garden, they were covered in busy bugs doing their thing, and thought to put them into the composition of the diptych to honor their greatness as they may be little but without them, the GREAT swaying sunflowers in my garden would likely not exist.
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Sunflower Diptych; TOP The Bee Oil on 12" x 12" |
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Sunflower Diptych; Bottom The Lady Bug & Monarch Caterpillar by Minaz Jantz Oil on 12" x 12" canvas  Lucky Lady Bug Shoes (Oil) |
Read more here about the monarch butterfly and what you can do to help.
My all-time favorite bug is loaded with childhood memories of laying on the sand while thousands of ladybugs walked all over me busy doing something.
The Lady Bug is also my LUCKY BUG and even had a pair of runners that have long gone to shoe heaven. I painted them in a still life too and my sister Lori also shares my passion for Lady Bugs and also owns this painting too!
My all-time favorite bug is loaded with childhood memories of laying on the sand while thousands of ladybugs walked all over me busy doing something.
The Lady Bug is also my LUCKY BUG and even had a pair of runners that have long gone to shoe heaven. I painted them in a still life too and my sister Lori also shares my passion for Lady Bugs and also owns this painting too!
May life BUG you with all good intentions!
Minaz Jantz
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