Oil liftout has been one of my favorite traditional techniques of all time. The particular version of the technique I’m trying to mimic this assignment seems complicated but for some reason it makes things (especially tying all the colors together in the one painting) easier. This technique, first involves a value drawing—pure value, no color, usually done in pencil (often brown prismacolor) and a flat guache color wash over each shape. In other words, the colors itself have no value but the prismacolor beneath show through and provide the value. Then a semi-transparent dark oil wash is overlaid to cover the entire painting in the darkest value that will be used. The oil is then left to dry for a little while till it’s almost dry but not quite and the light values are taken out by an eraser to reveal the color of the guache beneath. Colored pencil of whatever color and be used to fix or add to the drawing to make it clearer or add texture. The brush strokes themselves vary depending on what brush is used to paint over the guache with the oil and what kind of eraser strokes the artist is using. The paint is all slightly transparent so there is often that beautiful layered look, though the texture is almost spongy looking. Also, the eraser can never take out all the oil so some of the oil color will remain mixed with the guache. That’s why the colors are all tied together so well and also why the painting sometimes ends up a darker value. You can also end up with some really great intense lighting effects though.
One of the artists I researched when looking for examples of the technique is named Robert Barrett. One painting in particular I found very beautiful. As does classic liftout, it was a deeply colored painting with many subtle layered values from the different oil colors he used to cover the guache. The lights contrasted highly with the darks and the lines of color were very graceful. (This painting is the one with the ballerina putting on her shoes.) The thing I love most about this artist is the color shifts he uses in the oil and the almost rainbow glass look gives. Unfortunately, due to google search being stupid or maybe I somehow wrote his name down wrong, I can’t find any of his paintings again, even though at one time they were the first thing that came up on the oil liftout list. All I’m finding are paintings of naked women or something and it’s annoying. It was my favorite example too...
Another artist that made it big as an illustrator because of this technique is Mark English. He also had a style that involved a lot of beautifully subtle color shifts. He used a very wide range of subjects and styles, but it’s easy to pick out the ones he used this technique for. There is one painting advertisement of Mark Twain that I thought was especially amazing. The only reason it’s not here is because I can’t find the thing again. The face of Mark Twain is done almost entirely in the colored pencil over the oil paint. Others he’s done are of the typical dark chroma and have more of a somber, smoky look.
The last artist I looked at was Todd Kenton Yoder. He also paints a variety of subjects, but most of his are nostalgic looking paintings of people or families or bands playing musical instruments. Much like the previous artists, he uses different colors of oil over the guache to create variety and subtle beauty. I think one of the things I’ll liking most about how this technique looks is the fact that most of the shadows will be the same duller color while the contrasting light colors will be varies and beautiful. They also have a soft, worn quality to them I really like. It suits paintings of scenes from the old days.
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