The oil painting courses at Stapleford Granary start a week today and so I thought you might like a preview of what we will be up to and it can hopefully inspire you to try one or two sketches before we begin.
Find an object, place it somewhere that is lit from one side and paint it in monochrome, just using one colour and white.
Keep the shapes as simple as possible but observe the contrasts between the figure and the background. You will have to keep modifying these as you work.
If you want to use colour make sure that you change the value (how light or dark it is) of the shape you are painting. The more you paint the object the more you will begin to see how the light describes the shape.
You could use two colours (here I used ultramarine and raw umber) to make shades of grey. Crimson red and viridian green is another combination you could try.
If you want you could just start with an outline or a silhouette which will get you to observe the shapes accurately. You could do this with some charcoal or a pencil and it would still improve your painting. Observation is the key to painting and so any time spent on this will be time well spent. Try to simplify the shapes as much as possible and ignore any details.
Whether you have been painting for a while or are new to oil painting there will be lots of puzzles like these to engage with on the course that I hope will get you thinking differently (and more positively) about painting.
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