Sunday 11 February 2007

The Arch finished

Here is the finished painting. I hope you enjoyed watching the progress.



40x50 cm
Oli on Canvaspanel

At the beginning of the last session I corrected some drawing flaws, shown here in the photograph.



This is the block in stage, where I tried to capture the right values. In these areas I used only Transparent Oxide Red, Yellow Ochre, Ultramarin Blue and Titanium White, in order not to become to bright in the surrounding areas of the arch.



Here I did more detailed work and stopped.



To show you how we started our painting day, here is a photo of Michael Ornauer, my painting pal, preparing for hard painting work.

15 comments:

William K. Moore said...

Stefan... haven't been by in a while.. but glad I stopped by now. This work raises painting in oil to a high level; a level requiring insight, and technical know-how. I'm afraid the skills that make this kind of work possible are diminishing around (the States) anyway. This is a world you have captured! congrats..

Stefan Nuetzel said...

Thanks, William! That is quite a compliment. But au contraire, I have the feeling that the skills and the tradition of painting is kept more alive in the English speaking countries. Here the education sucks and especially the technical skills are getting despised.

I learned so much from the books of Richard Schmid, Andrew Loomis, Burt Silverman and Kevin Macpherson.

And here you can find some pictures of the teacher I studied with: http://www.brockstedt.com/aust_gruetzke.html
and I was very lucky by that, because he is a man of great integity and is interested in his students work.

René PleinAir said...

A great but very complex painting Stefan, well executed! The light is sooo soft. I think that one of the advantage of painting indoors, it stays more or less the same. Still I'm baffled that they allow to paint there, ..... splashes of paint everywhere ;-)

Jennifer McChristian said...

Superb painting!
I enjoyed watching the process as well.
I like the warm, diffused lighting illuminating the sculptures.
You've managed to keep it simple,loose and painterly without going overboard with extraneous detail.

ANDREW JUDD said...
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ANDREW JUDD said...

Nice finished painting Stefan. I like the lighting as others mentioned and your drawing is great. I think a scene like this is the most challenging with so many elements to consider. Can't wait for the next one!!

Cheers... Andrew

Stefan Nuetzel said...

Hey René, you have no idea what a mess I leave behind after I have finished the pictures. But to be serious there might be these tiny splatters of paint around my workspace. That adds some more patina to that place.

The light is changing more than one might think when I work close to the windows.

Stefan Nuetzel said...

Jennifer...it is great that you see the loosness in the painting, because since the the time I started painting with Andrew I tried more and more to finish the paintings in one sitting. I then got terrified of the second session and I finally had to break the spell.

Andrew...It would be great fun if you would join me painting there. The only disadvantage would be, we would chatter so much that we would hardly finish one painting. ;-)

Chris Ousley said...

A Loomis fan! Good painting by the way.

rob ijbema said...

great finish Stefan,really enjoyed the step bu step,glad to see the focal point worked out allright.
so much stuff going on but never to much.

Stefan Nuetzel said...

Yes Chris, a Loomis fan. I think with "Creative Illustration" he had written one of the best books on how to learn painting. Unfortunately, when you find a copy, it costs a fortune.

Stefan Nuetzel said...

Thanks Rob, despite your warning, you give me the credits. Great!

Michael Pieczonka said...

Stefan.. wow! What an amazing piece.. and a large size to paint from life too! Thanks for posting the piece's progression, nice to see it as it develops.

Mike

Stefan Nuetzel said...

Hi Michael, thanks for your enthusiastic comment. Actually the painting isn´t that big but I think sometimes the smaller ones are more difficult.

Michael Pieczonka said...

Well.. it looks very airy then!