Oil painter and educator 🖼️ Barcelona Academy of Art ✨ Alla Prima Academy
Teaching painting online 🎨 https://allaprimaacademy.com/
Website: https://www.arthurgain.com/
Arthur Gain
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The Frankenstein family portrait, oil on linen, 120x150cm
The mediums I used to control flow and thickness were Venetian Medium and Italian Varnish (both made by Natural Pigments). For the ebauche (first layer), I used a modern medium, Galkyd Lite
After researching the materials Sir Thomas Lawrence used, I assembled a palette that was very close to his set of colors.
Luckily, I was able to solve this problem by solving another one - making it look as authentic as I can by using pigments from that period
After some time spent on preparations and studies, it took 17 days to complete the painting: from toning the canvas to applying the final stroke, including all changes and corrections.
The most intimidating aspect of this project was time - I had just about 1 month to deliver the finished piece so I was very careful around drying - some pigments and mediums can take weeks to dry.
My task was to create a family portrait resembling late 18th-century paintings, and I received many references from Guillermo and Tamara Deverell, including works by Sir Thomas Lawrence, Thomas Gainsborough, and Francisco Goya.
Video
Pigments such as Lead-Tin Yellow, Genuine Naples Yellow, and Genuine Vermilion dry very quickly, but my best discovery was using Prussian Blue instead of Ultramarine (which was invented much later) - it dries much faster.
My deepest thanks go to @realgdt.bsky.social and @tamaradev.bsky.social for this incredible honor.
I had the honor of making this painting for Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein.
