Demonstration during the Workshop, Wicker Chairs on the Front Porch, from Sketch to Final

Initial sketch, simplifying the view.

Painting with water and black gesso onto canvas. Dries FAST.

Transparent pigment & galkyd medium as a glaze over gesso.

Start in with regular oil paints, having let glaze set up for 10-20 minutes.

Final, with small bits of black gesso and glaze showing.

I have found an interesting sight, the chairs on the porch. First I do a loose sketch to familarize myself with what some of the main elements are. Some compositional decisions are forming already, what to eliminate, what to emphasize.

I like to demonstrate an unusual painting technique of laying in with black gesso, glazing with colored transparent paint, then painting with regular opaque paint. This give a quick build up of layered information, which is rather great for plein air painting. After the sketch, I loosely paint in my composition on the canvas. 98% of this will be covered up, but it's a nice "road map" for my painting.
Next I mix up a glaze with a transparent pigment and medium,only a tiny amount of pigment necessary. Cover the entire canvas, gesso and all.
While the glaze is getting a little tacky, I set up my regular palette with oil paint. This takes me a few minutes, and so it works out nicely to let the glaze set up a little. I can even get started mixing colors ahead.
So, the painting is started, and I haven't even put on any paint.
I often paint from back to front in plein air painting, I can get a good sense of overlap, without fussing with my paint. By laying in all the supporting cast a head of time, I know how far I can push the focus of the painting with color and contrast,in this case, at the chairs. At the end, there is very little black gesso showing, but it adds a nice layered look, for a painting that was done fairly quickly on location.
Demonstration from Pearl Island, a small island near Roche Harbor.
This sequence show, 1. the thumbnail sketch 2. Laying in with black gesso 3. Transparent glaze 4. Using opaques 5.Final painting