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Jeff-Bartels β Hyperreal Oil Painting Tutorial
Published: 2012-08-26 23:58:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 11705; Favourites: 177; Downloads: 101
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Description
Anatomy of a Hyperreal Oil PaintingThis is a step by step view of how I painted "Lonely Sax"
done with oil on canvas
36" x 36"
2012
I used a photo I took of myself playing a saxophone as a reference.
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Comments: 33
Thanks for explain. I have a question: why you beging first with brown color. Why don't you just paint black and white? Thnx.
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How long are you letting each thin layer dry for? are you using a drying medium added to the paint? and are you using linseed oil to thin the paint?
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Bravo! Beautiful job! You are truly blessed with a wonderful gift! 
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Great tutorial! This will help me improve my painting. (The girl in my icon is a painting- a digital one, though. I am quite passionate about painting too, but I'm not as good as you!)
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Thank you, I hope it helps. If you are going to try oil, I can tell you right now that you will probably be frustrated by it at first but if you can push through that, theres nothing else like it
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Thanks for the encouragement, and you're welcome as well.
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finally!! i always wished to see a hyper realistic work in progress step by step...really amazing...one thing i am confused abt is that what would happen if we directly start with black and white instead of the brown layers first..oh and how did u achieve the texture of the hands, the minute wrinkles specifically?
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thank you. You could just start painting directly with the colours you want but you'd just be giving yourself more work to do. The brown paint works well on gessoed canvas and it gives the next layer of paint something to bind to. Its also very quick to do and dries a lot faster then the next layers. The details in the hands are just done with small brushes and a lot of time
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Amazing work. Could I just ask, you said this was a black and white painting yet you have some colors showing in some of the earlier shots, I was just wondering did you do a smaller colored version for the sake of this tutorial or did you use software to add the color for the tutorial?
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thank you. No, the earlier pictures are of the first layer of paint that is done with a brown paint. The black and white is added on top of that in the next 3 layers. It doesnt mater if the painting is going to be full colour or b/w, the first layer is always done with brown because it is great for getting the light and shadows blocked in.
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Thanks for posting this. I'm a self-taught artist and do photo-realistic portraits in pencil, sometimes mixed with charcoal. [link]
I never understood how one could get so detailed with oils until reading your post and seeing the process. What kind of paint do you use and what do you mix it with to thin it down? Thanks! Jim
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wow, your work is amazing, I cant believe you are self taught.
I use artist quality oil paint, from the tubes. I dont really have a brand that I stick to but as long as its not the student stuff you should be fine. The first 2 layers I mix the paint with just pure paint thinner. The other layers, I mix my own medium which is 49.5/49.5 paint thinner and lindsead oil with the other 1% being a cobalt dryer so that I dont have to wait weeks in between layers.
You can also buy premade mediums that are pretty much the same thing but its a lot cheaper to do it yourself. If you have any other questions just let me know and again, your work is amazing
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Thanks Jeff! When I said I was self-taught, I meant that I read a lot of books, view a lot of tutorials, ask questions on forums on how things were done, and most importantly, I draw a lot. Thanks for your wonderful comments and will keep your suggestions in mind when I decide to go back to oils. I haven't work in oils in close to 40 years. Your work is great and really look forward to trying your technique out. Thanks for your response! Cheers! Jim
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Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Oils scare the life out of me. You certainly have mastered their application though.
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Thank you. I still learn something everytime I use oils so I definitley havent mastered them yet. I am most comfortable with oils though.
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Your comfort shows through in your works. I certainly appreciate the tutorial showing the process. It is quite intricate and daunting. But you put it all together and make some beautiful artwork.
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It's a little weird you make it in color first and then turn it b/w, mostly you'd see the opposite process.... not with the same technique though. Also, it's hard to believe it's actually oil, it looks all so smooth and fine.
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The first layer can be any colour really but the brown works well because its very dark when its thick and very light when thinned. I think a dark grey would also work although I've never tried it. Anything too light and the shadows wont show up very well. The reason it looks so smooth is because of the thin layers.
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I see. Well, I admit I know almost nothing about oil techniques, but it seems to me that this is a rather peculiar one, I mean, different from what most artists apply. But then, your paintings also are.
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Its actually a very traditional technique. Da Vinci used this method, in fact if you look at his unfinished painting "Adoration of the Magi" you can see that it is all brown underpainting.
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Really? I had no idea it's done like that. No wonder though, I never tried oils. So.... thanks for the information, I learned something new today
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This is incredible. Can you explain the brown layer though because it seems to get lost beneath the black and white colouring after?
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Thank you. The brown layer does get burried under the other layers, its only meant as a base to apply the oil on to. The colour of the first layer doesnt really matter, brown is the tradtitional choice and works really well when thinned.
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Oh okay, great, thanks for replying. This is superb!
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When you say layers, like the third layer, do you literally paint the whole thing over again, like the second with the black and white, and put extra details, or do you just paint the extra details and make the details already there pop out more?
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The entire thing is painted 4 times including the first brown layer. In between each layer I leave it to dry. It's not an exact science though, some paintings may only take 3 layers, full colour ones could take 5 or 6. It's thought that the Mona Lisa has up to 30 thin layers of oil so I guess you can just keep going until your happy with it.
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Oh wow. Thank you! I didn't know that! Hyperreal paintings sound interresting. I'm thinking of doing one for the state art contest at school 
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This is revelatory to see. Cannot draw a lick myself but I love seeing your works. Thanks for sharing this.
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