The surface of oils.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Elizabeth, I think that the build up can really work for a painting, if it is well handled.

For me it is successful:

-when it is confined to the lighter areas of the painting
-when the direction of a rich brush stroke says something about the subject's form
- when the brushstroke is a definite statement possibly of a pure colour
- when it is the top layer showing: it is not covered by a thinner layer of colour
In my paintings I am AFTER build up, as I try, with thicker paint, to make them more of an object and less of an image.

Ilaria

[Chris Saper]

Beth et al,

I think that the problem may be in combining "build-up" and "reworking the form" . Do you remember that Bill W would patiently and delicately scrape off any ridges before proceeding with the next session? Daniel Greene uses much the same approach with the fan brush, which not only gets rid of the ridges but controls future glare.

Of course none of this matters if you are painting alla prima. The older I get, the more I find that needs to be corrected, and I am always trying to use more paint, but for me it needs to be on the very last layer.

[Elizabeth Schott]

Thank you all for your varied answers, I think i might need to clarify what I am talking about. I do understand the correctness of brush work, thus my problem. I know if have seen this work before that I am speaking about when I refer to the texture above, but maybe upon completion with final brush strokes added and varnish the texture changes .

I do know it is one that occurs when I struggle with an area, I do scrape Chris and even sand, but it is still there but not due to paint thickness. I think the more I rework an area, the thinner my application is with more medium.

I am just trying to understand if there are more works like this in the "just before finish" stage with this type of surface texture and is it a do over if it's like this?

Now that I have said this I found one lovely painting that seems to have this texture but it could be the way it is lit for the photo, because this lady is certainly a pro and knows what she is doing.

This is "Fancy Lady" by Peggy B.

[Linda Brandon]

Beth, it seems to me that you have to be careful about keeping dark areas flat and ridge-free because they have a tendency to pick up shine and glare (especially when photographed). I personally have started to fanbrush (and scrape) darks and keep them as medium-free as I can until the final layer (which sometimes is the first layer in the case of darks). Mediums often seem to cause ridges; I guess it depends on the medium. Opaque, ridgey whites help achieve three-dimensionality because they physically move toward the viewer as well as optically move forward.

These are maybe issues of painting styles. People who are working toward photo-realism try hard to keep it all flat, it seems to me; but the neo-classicists are also trying to keep a very smooth surface. I'm neither of these but I admire a lot of their work.