Painting in layers

I am learning new things like the importance of pausing in your work. It's true across the whole of life, take time to rest in between the activity. But currently I'm learning this in my painting. 

Oil paints are a wonder. I've created with this medium that I love for decades (on and off) but it's only recently that I have been taught how to paint in layers like the old masters.  

So today I thought I would share the stages of a project with you that I am currently working on.

Stage one

I painted my board with a tonally neutral color as a ground. Then I waited for it to dry.

Stage two

A week later I sat down and drew the still life. I made sure the sketch I did was accurate. Without an accurate pencil sketch, the painting will struggle with inaccurate form. It's so much easier to get it right at the foundation level

Stage three

Painting the ebauche layer. This layer needs to have the chroma levels dialed down. I was working on accurately painting the mid range.  

 Stage four

After waiting a week for the ebauche layer to dry I worked on the over layer using linseed oil. I used a smaller brush and worked on the pear on the left. Still more work to do on this piece of fruit but I need it to dry a bit first. 

Stage Five

There were lots more layers which would be fun to see one after the other with pictures, but I got carried away with the painting. So, jumping straight to the final picture where you can see I finished with the glaze layer (below).

This painting is headed to the Imagination Redeemed art gallery in September. I have another blog post where I talk all about the inspiration and thought process behind this painting.