Dirt Road Barn - Take 2

I spent a couple hours re-doing "Dirt Road Barn" tonight in oils.  I changed the painting to make it my own.  The new painting has a barn and a dirt road in it, but, except for that, it's nothing like the painting I first looked at and tried to imitate.   After tonight's experience, I find that I think I might like acrylic painting better than oil painting.

I blocked out the new version of "Dirt Road Barn."  I put the barn on the opposite side of the page and gave the dirt road a new path.  So I guess, really, it is no longer "Dirt Road Barn."  I blocked it out like I did with acrylics, and I'm afraid that might be the wrong way to do it.  I painted a solid gray barn with a solid red roof, solid yellow/brown road, solid green grass, and solid blue sky.  No shading, highlighting, low lighting done yet - just the basic shapes.  I have no idea if I'll be able to add the shading, etc. and make it look right.

I did NOT do it the way the video series did it.  The woman who did the series did a dark sketching on the canvas, and her paintings ended up being more impressionistic.  I'm more of a realistic artist.  I simply don't have the "eye" to do impressionistic or abstract art.

I guess tomorrow after church I will see if I can add shading, highlighting and low lighting and give it depth, shape and distance with oil paints.  I should've taken a photo before I came downstairs.  I will take one tomorrow before I do anything else to it - and then I'll remember to take regular photos as I work on it.  I like to see the progression of my painting.

I drew the barn on a sheet of graph paper, then cut it out, held it up to the canvas and traced around it with a neutral shade of paint.  Once I had the basic shape, I was able to fill in the lines for the roof, etc.

I'm feeling a little discouraged right now.  I will be sad if tomorrow turns out to be a bust as far as making the painting look the way I want it to.

I have one main concern about using oil paints - and that's the toxicity of the materials.  I have to wear latex gloves since the chemicals in the paints and solvents can be damaging.  One of the materials even had a "possibly associated with cancer" warning on it.  One good thing about acrylic paints is that it's all water soluble and no cancer-associated substances in it.  With oil paints, you have to be concerned with ventilation.  In one of the videos yesterday, there was even a warning about spontaneous combustion - and how some artists have burned down their homes and/or studios with the chemicals catching on fire. Sigh.  Don't have those issues with acrylic paints.