Oil Painting Medic

A painting featuring silverware may lack the lustre of actual silver. Silver heirlooms look like costume jewellery; a silver shield resembles a plastic toy. How can the artist capture the true essence of silver in oil paint? Mistakes in Painting Silver, Platinum and Aluminum Objects How to Paint Silver Objects Before making improvements to still life featuring silverware, practices at fault must be identified which also applies to painting other pale metals, such as aluminum or platinum: Using a tube of premixed grey for all the silverware, such as Paynes Grey or Davy’s grey, resulting in a lead effect rather than the brilliance of silver. Mixing black and white for the greys featured in the silver objects. Darkening colours within the silverware with black. Illustrating the silver objects as having flat areas without subtle tonal shifts. Insensitivity to colour temperatures within neutrals, resulting in a painting that lacks depth. Perceiving highlights in sil...

The artist trying to convey metallic effects with oil paint may be disappointed if brass ornaments or gold jewellery resembles dollops of mustard in the still life painting. How can the artist get gold effects in painting? Problems with Painting Gold Jewellery How to Paint Gold A still life setting featuring gold objects such as jewellery may appear tarnished or plastic-like due to misconceptions about the colour gold, causing the artist to use a lot of yellow, orange or ochres. Such idealistic concepts about the colour gold may be indicative by the following notions and practices. Having the subconscious idea that all gold is basically yellow, yellow-orange or ochre. Reaching for any yellow pigment at hand for mixing gold colours. Darkening yellow with black or dark brown to achieve dark tones in gold. Mixing white with yellow to represent highlights in gold. Giving sharp outlines to gold objects with the aim of making them stand out, resulting in a cutout appearan...