How does a drawing style help develop the look and feel of a work? This video shows a selection of my mural paintings and details, along with drawings and studies for them. The relationship between the process of drawing and painting techniques has always been very significant to me.
I learned much about traditional painting techniques from art restorers in Italy and experimented with many historical materials, such as animal skin glues and earth pigments. I usually prepare my canvasses from raw linen, rather than buy prepared materials. I make the preparation of the painting ground by hand, but do not use the old animal glues because synthetic glues perform much better.
Many artists prefer the spontaneity of direct painting, but I use the traditional technique of glazing for my oil painting. My paintings are done in layers, starting with a tonal layer, called “chiaroscuro,” followed with a translucent layer of translucent earth colors. The final color layer uses a full range of pigments and is nearly transparent.
I find it vital to resolve all of the compositional decisions in the drawing stage. My tonal drawings also address most questions of light and shadow so that I do not need to make those decisions during the painting process. I use a selection of the highest quality oil paints and pre-mix about 40 colors with a palette knife before even starting to paint.
As much as I have painted in my life, I wake up every single day desiring to paint. It is rare for me to spend a week without creating or thinking about art, and I can become nervous and irritable when this occurs. I believe that someone who does not feel the desire to create art cannot teach it well. It seems that an art teacher or lecturer that creates every day can be a good teacher, regardless if they are particularly successful either commercially or critically.
