texture painting, glazing technique, Paul Fenniak art, oil painting

Texture Painting and Glazing | Close-Up Technique with Artist Paul Fenniak

“Close-Up” provides insider knowledge and an intimate view of a painting that is featured in The Artist’s Magazine. “Texture and Glazing” by Paul Fenniak originally appeared in the March 2012 issue.

Texture and Glazing
by Paul Fenniak

oil painting texture, oil painting glazing, Paul Fenniak artist

As you can tell by his description of painting this face for 'Arrival of the Homing Pigeon' (oil, 48x60), Fenniak’s process is anything but systematic. He likes to build up layers of paint, finishing parts of the painting while leaving other parts in the thin wash state to be completed much later.

I kept changing my mind about this head, so the mess of semi-erased heads beneath this one was helpful in suggesting the final form. I used a large brush loaded with blue-gray to paint broad swaths around the shapes left by the previous heads until I saw something in all the chaos that seemed right and then based my model’s pose on that. One great benefit of this otherwise annoying and time-consuming intuitive method is the build-up of textures.

oil painting texture, oil painting glazing, Paul Fenniak artist

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A In the area around the mouth, under the lip particularly, I brought out underlying texture by scraping to interrupt what was the flat opacity of the green-gray shadow.

B Around her right eye, the already textured surface allowed me to lightly drag thin paint with a soft flat brush over the ridges of dry paint to suggest wrinkles and break up the surface, thereby animating the flesh. I also dragged wet over dry paint in the highlight on the forehead.

C I established the basic shape of the head with strong blue-violet shapes with crimson edges on the side of the head and the side of the nose.

D For producing the effect of late-day sun shining in her face, I used a progression from yellow to orange to red to crimson—but crucially with accents of cool, light blue-grays (and occasionally green), especially on the edge of the forehead and along the edge of the nose.

E Bright sun meant there should be conspicuous reflected light in the shadows. This is most evident along the jawline and on the neck, where I glazed the crimson underpainting with ultramarine violet.

Learn more about artist Paul Fenniak’s process and materials in the March 2012 issue of The Artist’s Magazine.

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