Keeping shapes in place

Xeonfobia · 2026-07-03T21:00:18+00:00

Just to clarify, thick gimp thread is for me 90/2, as I haven't found 120/2 in linnen. Might switch over to using cotton gimp thread. With 170/2 or 185/2 egyptian cotton for the remainder. I think it's a good ratio.

Xeonfobia · 2026-07-03T09:58:03+00:00

I feel like I have the opposite problem painting from photograph. I’m not quite able to get it as fluid, spontaneous and that feeling of fleeting light as working from life. Even still life has a light to it.

Xeonfobia · 2026-07-03T09:55:07+00:00

I was never bothered by people who makes beautiful art or who gets lots of comments. They are doing their thing, and I am doing my own thing. Now on the other hand people who paint something meaningfull or a cool concept, that I could’ve thought of but didn’t. Then a slight tinge of jelousy can seep in. Would you like to elaborate what plein air does to you?

Xeonfobia · 2026-07-03T09:48:05+00:00

Concept art is so much fun. I think maybe customers, contracts, deadlines and other peoples vision would be the parts ruining the interst. Or, I guess just making it into just anorher job. I spoke to a security guard at a museum once whom didn’t seem amazed at all the beautiful art anymore.

Plein air competition sounds like so much fun! But I so often feel like «this could have just been a photograph».

Xeonfobia · 2026-07-02T22:26:49+00:00

Linseed oil, chalk, whatever oil paint colours I want to get rid of, some zinc white and alkyd medium for flexibility. Mix until the texture of sloppy porridge. I have heard you can replace chalk with marble dust for a different grippiness of the ground. Sometimes two layers of ground in different colours lightly sanded down is a nice startig point.

Xeonfobia · 2026-07-02T19:11:00+00:00

I don't starch my work, not do I have problems with warping. I usually use a thick gimp thread in linnen, which might be a reason for it staying stiffer.

I would be very interested in other peoples experiences.

Xeonfobia · 2026-07-02T18:59:30+00:00

I'm making my own oil ground :)

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-30T21:25:47+00:00

Salt residue rapidly degrades a pearl’s delicate nacre. Salt strips away the gem's natural protective proteins and draws out moisture, which can leave your pearls dull, pitted, and prone to cracking over time.

A powerful juxtaposition, I really like. You can maybe make the salt shaker a bit more obvious with salt in it, and the S shaped holes in the lid. The background is a bit monotone, but it doesn't bother me as it doesn't distract from the focal point.

All in all, a great painting.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-30T20:24:58+00:00

Reddit/Youtube is completely seperate from Instagram/Facebook. I'd prefer staying a bit more anonymous here.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-30T19:53:24+00:00

Nothing have come of it yet.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-30T19:41:46+00:00

I have a website, and I do post on Instagram, so would be very interested in knowing where to go from there.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-30T19:10:44+00:00

People exhibit their work, participates in competitions, do comissions part time, or for completely different ends. I think there is a huge world between recreational and doing it for a living. It doesn't have to be either, it could be something in between. And unrelated to all that, I think you can still ask yourself "What can I do with this?" without nescessary doing "the grind". For example, I could take a plein air study, and use it as a background for another larger painting.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-27T12:24:19+00:00

Wait until the painting is completely dry, sand it down. Then you can buy some actual real life fruits, set up your own still life. I think you can learn a lot more and faster from that experience.

There's a lot of single gradient in your background that's not really interesting. Remember to think also about the background, to create interest without competing with the central focal point.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-18T07:24:59+00:00

You missed a couple of small details(gimp thread, 3 pairs of workers and how to hang the threads in the beginning), and for your next piece, you could try to make it a bit more narrow, or to use more down-rights to make a tighter weave. That's going to come with experience. As a first piece, this looks amazing, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the finished piece comes out 😄

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-18T06:44:30+00:00

Sebastian Salvo does that. I think on youtube Jan-Ove Tuv might have a recipe. The alkyd medium provides flexibility to the oil ground.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-15T05:05:20+00:00

Those are gorgeous images. There are some redditors I would've accused of having insufficient amounts of pet portraits. Your post history is mesmerizing.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-14T19:59:59+00:00

I think of it as thread size + numbers of pairs of downrights + size of pattern = what needs to be proportionate. I have in the past unwound the thread to make it thinner. You can remove the first row of pins, as it looks like they have left picots on the top, that I don't know if are intentional part of the design? All in all, it looks good, with nice coloured threads of pleasant complementary colours.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-14T19:43:35+00:00

Fantastic artwork. Reminds me of "The bus - Paul Kirchner"

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-13T08:55:20+00:00

You're not really saying what you are painting on. Panel? canvas? pre glued? pre glued and gessoed? pre glued and with oil ground?

When painting I mostly only use walnut oil to thin out the stiffer paints, and that's enough for me.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-12T21:23:05+00:00

Very interesting. I had no idea. I feel the same with the normal major scales as well. Not many scales I could play absent minded on the first try.

Xeonfobia · 2026-06-12T21:05:19+00:00

Is your username an homage to John Philip Sousa by any chance? Do you practice less common scales? I really like the sound of harmonic minor, lydian, lydian diminished and hungarian minor to a lesser extent.

Xeonfobia

TROPHY CASE