Since January I've been pottering away at a commission for two very large oil paintings which I have been wanting to do for some time but needed the time to do them justice. I love working in oils, after all they were the first medium I really working in back when I was just 10. They do have certain drawbacks as they take a long time to dry and, unlike acryllics, can't be prodded at too much on consecutive days unless you want to lift off or smudge what you have already done. (I have a habit of wiping my arm over it). Even now these two paintings will have to have a couple of weeks to dry off before I can give them a light protective varnish ( the proper varnishing should be done in about a year's time) and then, once that's dry they can go to my framers. So there is a lot of waiting if you want one done you need to be patient!
The colours on oils are lovely and rich (I know, these are in black & white!) and you can layer them over the top on each other. I was really excited to get this commission as it was so different from most of the artwork I do these days. I have painted cars before of course and love Jags in particular as my father owned one for many years. But the idea of recreating an old sepia photo scaled up and in oils challenged me. These two were done on canvas board rather than stretched canvas mostly because I find the boards stay in shape better on larger sizes and I would have had to get a bespoke stretched canvas made up to the larger size which would have needed extra support and so would have been heavy - and provbably still would buckle a bit. I like baord, it stays the right shape and doesn't sag.
I've now got the bug again and feel like doing another oil painting! I shall give it some thought!