Male nude painting in oil on canvas by Stefano Campitelli

I like the sea, its colours, being nude on a beach in summertime and the sound of the waves.

Like in other paintings, for this male nude on the beach, I used Liquin in place of oil and turpentine to speed up the work. Liquin is an alkyd resin by Windsor & Newton that can be mixed with oil and alkyd colours. It dries more quickly than oil and the final paint is harder.

Oil is very slow to dry, sometimes you can see that even after a few weeks the paint will be still fresh. When I want to finish a painting within reasonable time I use Liquin. If I need to slow down the drying time a little, I can add a few drops of poppy-seed oil in Liquin.

I began the figure with a light ochre, tracing lightly the dark parts of the body. After drying I added layers of ochre and burnt Sienna thinned in Liquin creating transparent coats of colour. While going on I blended with a soft and dry brush, creating very soft and refined glazes ("velature" in Italian).

After each coat I could add other colours and mix more colour or Liquin according to the result I wanted to achieve.

After drying I began working on the sea with different shades of blue, glazes over glazes that helped me create the transparency of the blue water. I added more Liquin when I wanted the colour more transparent, less Liquin and more colour when I wanted it to cover more.

On the sand I painted the pebbles with a fine brush.

I finished adding a coat of Liquin as a final varnish all over the picture.

From male nude painting to male nude drawing