How to sketch the figure in oils

By Artists & Illustrators | Thu 1st Feb 2018

Link copied to clipboard

Drawing tutor Jake Spicer offers his guide to sketching a nude in a single pose, progressing from pencil to oils

Not everybody has the luxury of a dedicated painting studio and life model on call. Life drawing classes that offer a single, long pose can be the best opportunity many of us have to make a sustained figure painting.

In order to make the most of the time that you have in front of the model, you’ll need a clear process to work through; good time management and clarity of intention paves the way for a rewarding painting session.

The exercises below split the process of making an effective figure sketch in oils into three 45-minute sections with two breaks for the model – one third spent sketching in pencil and two thirds making a separate oil sketch.

Art materials

For the drawing:

• PAPER Cartridge paper
• SOFT PENCILS 3B and 6B
• EASEL AND DRAWING BOARD

For the oil sketch:

• COLOURS Zinc White, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Naples Yellow and Scarlet Lake oil paints
• PAPER Oil painting paper secured to a board
• BRUSHES A variety of flat and filbert brushes
• PALETTE KNIFE
• ODOURLESS SOLVENT
• LIQUIN

First 45 minutes

I find that when a life painting goes wrong, it often goes wrong in the first 15 minutes, but you just might not realise that until the end of the pose. It is easy to panic and start painting before you have made clear decisions about your process.

Firstly, think about where you will place yourself in relation to the model before you are set up; give yourself time to look at the subject and explore different crops of the subject before deciding on the composition that you will use for the oil sketch.

Compositional sketches

Start off by dividing a piece of paper into four sections and make four, five-minute compositional studies from the model, each exploring different aspects of the pose. Concentrate on simple shapes and the relationship between the figure and the picture plane.

Developed drawing

Using your favourite composition as a starting point; set up a new piece of paper on your easel and make a 20-minute drawn study at the scale that you intend to paint. This is a chance to look intently at the model and to think about the pose and environment in more detail than before without committing to paint right away.

This will not be a drawing that you will paint over, it will be a drawing to prepare you for the painting and could include jotted notes to help you make decisions about how you will approach the piece. At the end of this drawing, it should be time for a tea break.

Second 45 minutes

During the break, spend some time preparing your palette; squeeze out your colours and premix a few strings of colour.

The simplest combination of colours that you could use would be the white, Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue. With these three colours, you can achieve a range of warm and cool flesh tones, and using a black mixed from the sienna and blue, you can achieve a neutral grey, which can be biased towards either colour as you prefer.

Greens and yellows are nearly impossible with this mix, so I suggest adding some Naples Yellow and Scarlet Lake to your palette to extend the potential range of mixes.

Establish proportion

Put your canvas or oil painting paper on the easel and spend no more than five minutes making a swift under-drawing to establish the shape and scale of the pose. The drawing could be made in pencil or thin paint, either way it will be quickly obscured.

Mix your paints further

Mix up a palette that reflects the colours of the model in front of you under the particular lighting set up. Squeeze your paints along the top edge of the palette and create more organised strings of colour – light to dark – to stop your colours getting muddy. The initial colours that I have chosen naturally incline themselves towards flesh tones, minimising the mixing required.

Big shapes, big brushes

Take a wide, flat brush and mix a dark grey or brown with plenty of solvent. Block in the shape of your subject, adding more concentrated paint to the image where needed.

Paint quickly and loosely, looking for large shadow shapes; paint any large areas of shadow in transparent darks now, so that they recede from the view when you add opaque highlights later.

Midtones

Using a large brush and less dilute paint, block in large areas of midtone highlights, leaving the previous layer showing through for the dark flesh tone shadows.

Stand back as you paint and compare the painting to the model as you work. Avoid getting caught up in areas of detail. If the model shifts pose slightly when you’ve returned from a break, your painting will be suitably loose to deal with a little movement.

Third 45 minutes

During the second break, mix more paint if you need it and tidy up your palette, scraping off any contaminated colours. When you return to the pose take a good look at your painting and decide what you’ll be doing over the final 45 minutes.

Key darks

The painting on your easel will feel loose and unfinished, this is the stage where all of the problems you might have encountered remain unresolved. The next steps you take will allow you to deal with them and it is important that, as you work, you make brushstrokes with clarity rather than hurrying.

Let each mark be the result of a clear observation. Add small shapes of dark shadow to the painting to sculpt the figure. Look at the model, see what you intend to paint and make that mark. Leave it there and move on to the next.

Small planes

Think about what you want the focus of the sketch to be and work out from that area of detail. Use a small (but not too small) flat brush to sculpt planes of more varied colour onto the figure; the shadows on the knees perhaps, highlights on the planes of the cheek, or collarbone. Trust your earlier structure, and make controlled, confident marks to add greater subtlety to the sketch.

Bright highlights

Finally, clean your brush, mix some fresh highlights and apply them minimally, ideally without returning to them again. Adding highlights at the end will help you to avoid making the painting too light too early or contaminating your highlights with other colours at an earlier stage.

Pencil marks

To keep the painting feeling like a sketch, draw in a few energetic lines with a pencil in the last few minutes of the pose. If you haven’t tried this before, practise on scrap paper before you begin. Avoid outlining the whole figure, but use the line to bring clarity and focus to the painting; hold the pencil like a paintbrush and stand back as you add the lines, be playful with your marks.

Project by Jake Spicer – www.jakespicerart.co.uk. For more tips, pick up the April Artists & Illustrators magazine to join Jake’s figure drawing series.

This article featured in Artists & Illustrators magazine. Subscribe today.  

To discover more How to Guides get the latest magazine or find it in all good newsagents. Plus, browse our online collection.

In association with Cass Art.

Read more: practise your figure drawing with our How to Guides and find a range of oil painting technique tips. Plus, learn how to paint quickly and loosely.

ncG1vNJzZmiZoqm2tMDSmqWdoZyhwrTA0ZqrqKqjY8GmuMSgqZqomGOwsHrUpGahp6diwbB7zqKjZqiRnru1tc2gZqGnp2LBsHnSpJytm5hiwamxjJ%2BgoK2imnqquoyooKWrXw%3D%3D