Date of Completion: 14 December 2023
Medium: Oil Paint, Prussian Blue and Titanium White
Inspiration: Tom of Finland
This is one of a pair of blue-scale oil paintings I did in 2023 to get back into oils, as well as learn different types of painting styles and techniques. The Prussian Chest was thus a study piece and it is made up of tiny little dots (pointillism). I practiced using this approach to learn mixing the medium, how it would be applied to another medium (in this case glass I had left over from floral pressings), and to learn how to shade. It was, overall, simply applying the right tint (adding white to a pure hue), which I found most effective to enter the medium.
The image itself is from a Tom of Finland graphite drawing that I really enjoyed due to the values that the graphite created, particularly on the right pectoral. It looked somewhat metallic and engrossed in light, but also displayed a highlight in a shadow, which I specifically wanted to learn. I saw it as a good starting point to study oils and felt it would look nice in blue-scale. To me, it turned out pretty good!
The above photo is what the painting looks like when sunlight is on it. The colors really pop out and it makes it look like it is dazzling due to all of the tiny dots that make up the image.
LACRIMEDIA 