Hello there. I have recently complete an oil painting I’ve been working on since late February 2020 and only completed in mid June. I will share some of the process in the writing.

The world has changed a lot in those few months and there was a lot of emotional stress during. When I was painting, I would forget about the world and just focus on what is in front of me.

Part of why I love to paint, draw and make art, is to escape and forget about the world. Not so much of fear, but out of boredom and fatigue from the mundane. Boredom from the repetition that I see happening on an everyday basis, boredom from the narcissistic modern world that is only concerned with material possession. There really is not much that inspires me from the modern world, except it’s catastrophes and failures. Well, I can keep ranting, but that might bore you, dear reader and internet dweller.

Using burn umber and titanium white to work in some of the values. I will later add Ivory Black for darker cooler tones.

This was also my largest painting so far, so it took me a lot of work and patience. I’ve also ruined it a couple of times during the process; so I had to keep reworking those parts where I’ve made mistakes.

somewhere at 50% in the process.. April 2nd, 2020.

But knowing this happens often while painting, I knew and still know, that mistakes make a painting even better once they are fixed. The mistake itself, takes the painting in an unknown and unpredictable direction. And from there, a new visual concept is created.

Overall, I am happy with the end result. And have managed to keep some of the good things from the graphite drawing, while still fixing some of the perspective and anatomy issues present in it. Although, like I mentioned, the mistakes made it interesting for me.

As for the emotional aspect, working on this painting has broken something in me, but not for the worst. I’ve found a new threshold of patience and endurance, since some sessions took at times 6 hours of work and standing on my feet. As opposed to drawing in graphite on small paper, I can be comfortable and sitting down, listening to music or to my internal monologue. With a small painting, it is easier to allow yourself to fail. But with larger ones, you sort of have to complete it and overwork it to some degree.

This one was also painted on canvas and I realized that I miss the sturdiness of painting on wood. Although I did enjoy some of the texturing effects and opportunities the rugged canvas provided.

Well, this is all I have to say about this painting.

Thanks for reading and stopping by.

using the trees and view from my window as reference.

(more images below)

"Bereza" - oil painting process. /June 19, 2020 by Zaki Saati