Sienna Shadows

This is an oil painting.

It is actually a monochrome piece, done on a black canvas.

I covered the canvas with linseed oil and a thin layer of Burnt Sienna, which is a transparent enough colour. Then, using white I shaped the guy.

Then I cheated. 🤣

Because the darkest parts of the body and the background were exactly the same, it looked odd. So, I covered the background with Burnt Umber, which is a much darker but still transparent brown.

If you notice, you’ll see some more orange-y tones. This is still Burnt Sienna. I don’t know why, but when I needed to make corrections in places I had added too much white, the very same Burnt Sienna I used, instead of becoming more like the parts that didn’t have as much white, it appeared more orange.

As I had never before used Burnt Sienna alone, but only mixed with other paints, I kept the corrections to a minimum because the difference was too eye-peaking when the oils were still wet. When they dried, though, that annoying difference became much softer and quite lovely, actually.