Class Reflection

This oil painting class has been really helpful to me. Even though I have already taken the class before, I found that being more on my own, and it not being a regular class challenge me in different ways than when I took the class fall of my junior year. My first glass panting ended up only being experimental and the work was never completed. However, I learned a few things about glass through the experience, like looking for the highlights, shadows, and color tints to help form the object. By the end of the term, I had finished my own White Objects painting, which helped me with mixing more neutral colors. I had also started a self portrait, and although I did not finish it this term, I started learning the planes of the face, and how shadows and highlights are important in defining the figure. I plan to finish it at home, to work more on the hair as well as the correct proportions. Another painting that I have not totally finished is my architectural space painting. I started this painting because I felt like I had to many still lifes. I also wanted to see how I would approach an architectural drawing, because those style paintings are very different than the figure or the still life. The last piece I finished I am calling Blue Bottle Still Life. I was finally able to accomplish painting glass, and I am really proud of how far I have come and improved over the course of the term. I also felt like I did a good job with painting the fabric; it was one of the first times I feel like I have come close to it looking like actual fabric, with popping out folds.

Overall, I am happy with how this class went. I was able to spend a lot more time painting then normal, because not only did I take Portfolio Development, but I also had a rotating free block, so I spent as much time possible in the studio working on my pieces. I was able to concentrate and feel more comfortable this term in oil painting because I had those extra few hours as extra time if I needed it for certain pieces.

One thing I wish I could have done differently is that I wish I could have spent a little more time on my blog. At the beginning of the term, I had a lot more time to comment and post, but as my term got towards the end, I had a split dedication with this blog, and my portfolio blog. I feel like if I had taken more time, I could have been a little more interactive, and giving advice or comments whenever necessary.

I really enjoyed this class, and I am very sad that the term has ended already. I hope that I will be back up in the studio soon, painting but in the mean time, GOOD LUCK PAINTERS :)

The History of Oil Paint

Oil painting goes way back to old Greek, Egyptian, and Roman civilizations. They used techniques like encaustic: a technique using hot wax colors, mineral pigments, and tempera: which is a technique using dry color mixed with a glutinous substance (often egg yolks) and water. In Italy and Greece (around the Renaissance era), olive oil was often used to prepare pigment mixtures but the olive oil made the paintings take a long time to dry. often oils were used as a kind of varnish, at the finishing of the paintings.

Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) said that the technique of oil painting was reinvented in Europe in the early 1400's by a man named Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441). oil painting since then have had minor changes, but the changes are not totally different from the techniques of that time. Van Eyke's major achievement was the making of a varnish based on a siccative oil, which was mainly linseed oil. This varnish consisted of piled glass, calcined bones, and linseed oil that were kept at a boiling temperature for a long time. this method proved to be a which drying varnish as opposed to the slower ones like walnut oil and poppy seed oil. Antonello Da Messina (1430-1479) also made an improvement to oil painting. Antonello added lead oxide (litharge) in the mixtures to help improve with the drying.

Oil paint has had a huge history, and is still a popular medium in the art world today. Oil paint has been used for centuries, and many discoveries have been made in the process of developing oil paint. It is important to understand where oil paint originates, because often people do not realize how far back in history oil paint goes. It is important to understand the process it took to get to what oil paint is today; oil paint was used to create art, but it was a science to create it.