Flower painting technique by Stefano Campitelli
I used oil colours mixed with Liquin. Liquin is a quick-drying medium for oil and alkyd colours. I use it to speed the drying time in oil painting, besides it makes the paint harder, keeping it from cracking. I paint also in classical flower painting techniques using oil and turpentine but oil colours need more time to dry and sometimes after drying the colours can crack. I like oil painting flowers to have bright colours. I wanted this poppy full of light, so I worked doing more glazes of transparent colours mixed with Liquin. I began from the white canvas painting with vermillion red all the surface of the poppy except the stem. I added white in the lighted parts of the petals blending red and white with a soft dry brush. After this preliminary step I let the painting dry. In this flower painting, as you can see, there is a difference in the colour between the lower petal and the higher one. The lower petal has orange tones, the higher one has a light carmine nuance. After drying I added orange thinned with Liquin in certain areas of the lower petal and the little petal alongside and added also red with the same technique. The coats of transparent paint give the whole poppy a great brightness. I used carmine and vermillion red in the same transparent coats on the higher petal using more carmine where I though it was necessary, without overdoing. After drying I added a little earth cassel between the base of the poppy and the stem blending with a soft dry brush. Between every coat, before painting, it's useful to put on the surface a thin coat of Liquin (or oil and turpentine, if you prefer) so the colour can run and this makes it easy to blend. If you want to reduce the speed of the drying time you can add some drops of poppy-seed oil in Liquin. I painted the stem with the same technique using different nuances of green in coats of transparent colour. I used a mix of different kinds of green to make the background but this time in covering coats. After drying I painted all the picture with a thin coat of Liquin using it as a final varnish.
oil on canvas
Calla (oil on canvas)
Garofano bianco (oil on canvas)
oil on canvas
(oil on canvas)
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