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For this piece, I’m sharing four steps from my oil painting process on clayboard. While the subjects happen to be a mom and child, my focus was really on capturing the warmth of late-summer light and the baby’s quiet curiosity.

I began with a very light, loose graphite gesture sketch on a dry toned Ampersand clayboard. I laid in thin, but not diluted darks to anchor the composition. From there, I introduced mid warm tones and skin tones, gradually building form. I finished by moving back and forth between lights and darks, adding thicker passages in the illuminated areas and scratching in texture for variation. Clayboard has a way of creating a luminous effect in person, and it’s truly lovely to work with.