THE MAKING OF A PAINTING

David and Goliath – a painting by Samuel Shelton.

The Process: I started the painting by making a traditional hide glue gesso which was painted in a number of layers on a braced panel. I toned the surface with burnt umber and walnut oil, let dry, and made a careful charcoal sketch of the scene on top. I then rendered the whole scene in Mars Black and Tree House White mixed with impasto medium to add texture to the light areas. Once dried I used a limited palette of earth colors (Treehouse White, Yellow Ocher, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Venice Red, Burnt Umber and Mars Black) straight from the tube to color the whole scene. After this I added one more layer with the same colors but in some areas I glazed these colors. I also added Transparent Red Oxide at this point as well as a few hand mulled earth colors.

Samuel Shelton