Though the sea plays an important role in my work, I don't consider myself a seascape specialist. Still I've tried my hand at the genre a couple of times, so I thought I'd share some pointers with you.
My technique is based on working in layers and that's no different when I make a seascape. The first step is painting the basic colors and transitions. I pay a lot of attention to this stage. A carefully done underpainting is very beneficial in later stages.
On top of this first layer I outline the waves with a brush that combines sable and squirrel hair. I wrote about it in my 17 January 2014 blog. I have no idea what the name of this particular brush is in English, so if anyone could help me out here I'd be very grateful.
I add a lot of medium, to make the paint easy to handle and to prevent the outlines from standing out to much. That would only bother me in later stages.
Big jump to the final stage of the painting. I skipped a few steps, but if you insist on seeing the the other stages too, the clip on the bottom of the page will show them.
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| Waves, oil on panel, 50 x 100 cm |
That type of brush is called an extended tip brush, though sometimes called a reservoir brush. Rosemary & Co. make a squirrel and sable version as well as a pure sable one.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rosemaryandco.com/index.php?route=product/search&filter_name=Extend%20point
Thanks, Glenn. I hear good things about the Rosemary & Co brushes. Are they really that good in your experience?
ReplyDeleteLike yourself I have heard many good things but have yet to try them out. They do have many prominent artists from around the world endorsing them. I like that Rosemary & Co. produce and quality control everything under one roof in their UK plant. Contrasted with some of the larger names now farming to outside sources.
DeleteI'm defintely going to try them. Let's hope their succes will be gradually. If their business grows to fast and the demand for their product grows faster than their production capacity can handle, they might want to change their approach ...
ReplyDeleteI hope to try them out at some point as well. With regards to their success they have been in operation for about 30 years now so hopefully they will continue on in the same vein that has made them so popular.
DeleteDo you work with all natural bristle brushes or do you use synthetics (or blends) as well?
Most of my brushes are natural bristle, but some of them are synthetics. If you like, I could send you a list of the brushes and the colors I work with.
DeleteThank you, I would be very interested in receiving a list of your brushes and colours.
DeleteI was on Alvaro Castagnet's website yesterday and saw that he sells a similar reservoir brush but calls it a "needle point", it is produced by Neef (links below). So far Rosemary & Co (extended point) and Neef (needle point) are the only two companies I have found producing these types of brushes. Rosemary's No. 8 is quite a bit cheaper than the Neff's: £8.35 compared to £20.00.
http://www.alvarocastagnet.net/2012/02/needle-point-brush-8/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alvaro-Castagnet-Neef-Needle-Point/dp/B006BBK78W
Hello Mr.Dolsma,sorry bother you..where can I find the clip that show all the steps of this wonderfull painting,,,thanks in advance for all your help, juan
ReplyDeleteWhen you click on the image at the bottom of the article the video should play, at least it does on my computer. Would you please be so kind to notify me on my email address (info@janhendrikdolsma.nl)if the link doesn't work? I'll send you the clip through WeTransfer.
ReplyDeleteInspiring, thanks for the artistic
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Thanks Gerald. It's my pleasure!
ReplyDelete