Only seven days left! I’m so proud of myself for making it this far into the challenge. I can’t wait to see what I come up with for the final week.
Day 18 went pretty smoothly once I figured out the composition. It turns out it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to make bananas interesting. I tried really hard to make it happen without peeling one, but here we are. I even tried to eat it once I was finished so it wouldn’t be wasted, but bananas are disgusting. Never liked them, never will. The dog was suspicious of it too.
For day 19 I finally used an old lemon that has been hanging around for a while. It wasn’t until I cut it up that I remembered that I had another idea on how to present it. I think I’m going to have to buy another one. I was really distracted
I had a really hard time pinning down the color of the shadows on the yellow peppers on day 20. It looked grey, brown, purple, and red all at the same time and every color I mixed for it was wrong. I eventually got semi-close after my husband critiqued it. He immediately noticed how off it was and helped me get closer to the right color. Sometimes you just need another someone to discuss with elusive colors with to figure them out.
Day 21 was interesting. I was really struggling with capturing the smashed tomato so I set it aside and painted day 22 before coming back to it and finishing it. I think I’m just too much in my head about painting this week. I just need to relax and stop overthinking it.
I think I love painting these white flower dishes. They just turn out so well when the upper layers mix with the burnt umber underpainting. I’m not 100% how I feel about the peas yet, but I’ve painted worse.
I spent what felt like an enormous amount of time working on Day 23. I sketched out several compositions before settling on this one and I think it worked out nicely. Then I really took my time painting it. I turned the music up and really got into it. Led Zeppelin came up a lot in the shuffle and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven’t listened to them in a few years.
I’ve had some luck selling paintings this week. So far, I’ve sold 9 paintings including this one. Of course, it’s all of my favorites that sell.
Day 24 was interesting. I ordered a sampler pack of Gamblin mediums to test out and used a couple of them on this painting. Since I began oil painting, I’ve always used Liquin, but I’ve been wanting to experiment with other mediums for a while. On this painting, I used Gamsol for the sketch and initial block in, Solvent-Free Gel for the second layer, and no medium on the final layer.
I was really impressed that the Gamsol had no odor at all. Other odorless spirits I’ve used for painting have always had an odor and give me a headache. I still like using walnut oil for cleaning, but I may start using the Gamsol for sketching. I’m not sure how I feel about the Solvent-Free Gel yet. It is very thick and didn’t thin the paint as much as I would have liked. It was actually easier to use paint with no medium at all. It did allow me to layer straight paint on top of it, which was good. I’ve found that it can be impossible to layer paint on top of paint if the previous layer doesn’t have any medium. I need to experiment more with the Solvent-Free Gel. It may just be that it isn’t meant for this type of painting. I think it could be better suited to thicker brushwork.
Check my store for currently available work. Much of the earlier work in this challenge has already sold.
Really nice work Amber! Good idea to get the samples from Gamblin and check it out. I don’t usually use mediums in my paint but recently bought some tube paint online that were a bit thick to put my brush in and work with, so I mixed a 50/50 blend of Linseed Oil and Gamsol and added a few drops which worked out nicely. I will experiment with glazes as well but was wondering if you’ve worked with glazes?
Thank you. I usually do a fair amount of glazing when I take more time on a piece. I love how glazes can add a depth and richness to color that you can’t achieve any other way. There is some linseed oil and gamsol in the sample kit so I planned on trying that too later on. I wanted to do several paintings with each medium to get a good feel for each. Once I get a good feel for all of them I want to write a post going over all of them.