– Bob Bahr reporting, Editor PleinAir Today –
Marc Poole was delivering a commission to the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum when he saw a line of tanks and couldn’t resist knocking out a quick two-hour painting. It also gave him a chance to further explore a relatively new art material.
Lead Image: “Tanks…A Lot!” by Marc Poole, 2016, oil on Arches oil paper, 9 x 12 in.
“I am experimenting with Arches oil paper, something pretty new, and I love it,” says Poole. “Smoother than linen, with just enough tooth and absorbency to grab the paint and still leave some on the surface, without warping the paper. It’s really cool. I forgot to bring my medium (either Liquin or Galkyd), so it dried really quickly, almost like a watercolor wash at first, or acrylic if going down a bit thicker. With a decent medium, it blends really nicely on the paper.
“But what I really like is that I can do a grisaille underdrawing when doing something complex. I use Prismacolor gray markers to lay down the basic sketch and block out major values for a grisaille, then give it a quick color wash or blocking in with the oils, then detail. I’m still experimenting, but it’s pretty neat. Good stuff!”
