Choosing what to paint

When looking at my art people tend to ask me several questions, but a lot of them end up being only one: Why and how did I decide to do exactly what I do?  In this post I decided to write about what I do or think to come up with my work.

There are two different kinds of works.  The ones that I get a little guideline to start with, such as commissioned paintings, and those that come straight out of my soul.

Commissioned paintings can be tricky because you have to put your style in it but most of the times the person that is paying for it, has specific ideas and things they want to include.  I usually try to meet with the clients beforehand so I can know what they want.  With a pencil and sketch book in my hand, while listening to the their instructions I draw a fast sketch. It is then when I mix my ideas with theirs, and try to guide them towards my style.

On the other hand, paintings that come from my pure and crazy imagination take a bit more to develop. First, I think of what I want to represent, what do I want to communicate to the public.  When I have the basic idea figured out, I surf the net.  Surfing through the internet helps me put the image of the painting together.  Since I'm an artist who likes to paint the human figure, the next step is to find the model for the interpretation and take a picture of the perfect pose.  Once all of the previous steps are completed I start the sketch, with pencil and paper or if I need some color representation beforehand I use polychromes colored pencils always depending on the painting I want to do.

Choosing the right materials for you paintings

When it comes to painting, there are many decisions to be made beforehand.  Here is a brief summary of my choices.

Before starting to paint there are two things that you have to take into-consideration.  Being able to understand and pick the correct kind of canvas and painting technique, in my opinion is very important for the finishing look of the painting. 

Cotton or linen canvas? Because of my personal experiences with both, I’d rather use linen canvases.  Even though they are more expensive than cotton it’s compensated for in quality and durability. Traditional linen canvases are a bit rough and they are not as smooth as cotton, but now a days there are many options out there.  In my local art store there are more than 30 different types of linen canvases, from very thin and smooth to very thick and rough.  My personal choice is always the thinest and smoothest ones because of the type of work I do, it allows me to create better, thinner lines and detail.

Although I tend to use acrylics for my under-layer because it dries quickly, I prefer using oils for my paintings for many reasons.  I like to work slowly focusing on each detail as much as possible, acrylics dry very quickly, it does not allow me to fix any mistake and/or blend the paint as I like to. Also, acrylic changes it’s color once dry which makes it very difficult to always match the exact color.  Despite the fact that after many years oils dry with a slight yellow tinge, while working on the painting it does not change it’s color.  Traditional oil’s solvents are turpentine or mineral spirits, which does not bother me, but for some people can be a problem, that’s why now stores offer a new type of water soluble oil paints that are very nice to use.  Something I love about oils is that they have many types of mediums. I use many of them but I would like to highlight a couple.  Linseed oil is one of the most used and the most traditional ones. It is already in the mix of the paint.  It allows you to make it more liquid and transparent but it slows down the drying time, this is great to make the texture of the paint smoother and to add more color or sometimes change something you have already done once it’s already dry to touch.  Liquin medium is a great one when it comes to deadlines since it makes the paint dry to touch in approximately 24 hours, letting you work much faster.

Once the painting is done there are also some crucial facts to think about.  Because of the properties of the oils, sometimes when dry it can have different gloss in different parts of the painting. There are a couple of things you can use to fix this until it dries completely (6 months to a year) and you can varnish it.  When the painting is dry to touch you can use Retouch Varnish, which is a “varnish” made to use before the oil is dried completely. You can also paint over it if you like. In my case, I use a mixture of mediums that my friend and master of oil painting, Alex Alemany, showed me and I fell in love with. Equal parts turpentine, linseed oil and J.G. Vibert painting medium .  Once the painting is dry I apply a thin layer of semi-gloss vanish.