Oil Paint Nautilus Seashell Tutorial by Hall Groat II

[Groat II]

Here's an informative art student tutorial I recently wrote on how to paint this 8x10 inch, Oil on canvas Nautilus Seashell. 

http://hallgroat.com/oil-paint-nautilus-seashell-tutorial/ 

Oil Paint Nautilus Seashell Tutorial 

step-by-step instructions below slideshow at this link: 

http://hallgroat.com/oil-paint-nautilus-seashell-tutorial/ 

This nautilus seashell painting was created during a one hour painting session in oil on an 8×10 in. stretched, cotton duct canvas. The piece was painted from directly observing an actual nautilus seashell, using an ala-prima, wet-into-wet,  tonalist style. The shell was illuminated by a single warm light that was clipped onto my easel, which enabled me to interpret the elegant form through observing the subtle relationships of light and shadow -- chiaroscuro. 

My approach to painting essentially merges both aesthetic and conceptual elements from 17th century Baroque painting with a 19th century atmospheric sensibility that's characterized by various lost and found edges and passages of shared value.  Many of my still life compositions involve merely a single object, and are often tightly cropped, with no reference to a table ledge or horizon line. Through the years fellow artists and critics have stated that my still life paintings often contain painterly nuances akin to Edwin Dickinson and Lennart Anderson. My work is quite diverse in form and content, which often leads me to exploring different approaches to painting.  Approaching painting in different ways makes the creative process more interesting and less static. With this piece I used Winsor Newton bristle brushes (flats) , linseed oil to thin the paint, and Rembrandt paint. 

Oil Paint Nautilus Seashell Tutorial by Hall Groat II