Analysing the painting process of Alex Kanevsky

September 10, 2025 in Researches

While studying the step-by-step creation of a painting by Alex Kanevsky, I took some notes to better understand the process behind his work. I thought sharing them could be interesting for anyone curious about the mechanics of his approach. Kanevsky’s work is fascinating, and I highly recommend visiting his Instagram page to see his reflections in the comments on the different stages, as well as his other paintings.

I took the liberty to condense the number of steps, there is more steps available on Alex instagram.

THE PROCESS

Step 1 – Laying the Groundwork

The overall composition is established using primarily one color family, with light to mid-range values, while a darker accent is reserved for the trunk. The painting combines medium-sized gestural marks with shorter brushstrokes, they seem quite wet, while they establish the blocking clearly they are not details oriented.

*https://www.instagram.com/p/DN-vMI3Dc1z/*

Step 2 – Adjusting Values and Markmaking

The markmaking is refined, and dark values are introduced. There’s a shift toward cooler colors, likely influenced by photo settings rather than the painting itself.

*https://www.instagram.com/p/DOEjFweEeeU/*

Step 3 – Adding Detail and Depth

Many small brushstrokes are added, especially in the background. Values alternate across different planes:

Foreground: light + mid + dark
Middle ground: mid + dark
Background: mid/light

Brushstrokes appear more loaded with paint, with new colors introduced—blues, ochres, and magentas. Some dark accents, possibly ultramarine, are added.

Step 4 – Defining the Foliage + new tool ?

The foliage is reworked with numerous small touches in the middle and background. A tool seems to be used to repeat marks systematically in the leafy areas.

*https://www.instagram.com/p/DOJD2YaDZHj/*

Step 5 & 6 – Refining the Foreground

Elements are added to the foreground, maintaining the three main value groups, keeping the forms abstract and gestural.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOLxHVsDZVw/ & https://www.instagram.com/p/DOYbaXpDduU/

FULL PROCESS EXEMPLES

Sources and thanks:

Alex Kanevsky instagram page : https://www.instagram.com/somepaintings/
Alex Kanevsky website : https://www.somepaintings.net/

Looking for John William Waterhouse process/painting technique

April 12, 2023 in Researches

I have always been quite a lover of J.W. Waterhouse work, those soft eerie figures in heavily textured environments affected me a lot when I was growing as an artist; and of course the mysteries of the mythical subjects were inflaming my imagination.

While you can find some books with a catalog of his work and his life, I couldn’t find much on his technique and process of painting. So I thought, here we go, let’s get on an adventure and try to solve some of those questions. I will try whenever I can to differentiate my own theories from the factual proofs that can be found in historical letters and research.

Waterhouse studied at the Royal Academy in London after having paint under his father, also a painter. From there we can deduce that even if he entered the school as a sculptor (which must have helped a lot when he painted), must have learn how to paint from the « academic » method dispensed then, a method similar to the “French Academic” method of this century. He probably used a more and more personal method as he became more experienced, has most painter do.

THE PROCESS

COMPOSITION

As we can learn from the few books on his work, Waterhouse had the tendency to “use the pose of the figure idea as a basis for his paintings”, he usually started with simple sketches to illustrate the composition:

There are some mentions of lot sketchbooks filled with studies and sketches, I couldn’t find them but some drawings were available online.

DRAWING STUDIES

Once the composition was defined, he worked with models to pose for him and did some more complete drawing studies from life.

OIL SKETCHES

Then he started working on small oil comp as color studies and sometimes with watercolor, trying new ideas:

FINAL PAINTING PROCESS

I’m not exactly sure if he used some kind of drawing reporting process from studies or if he did some advanced drawing directly on the canvas with chalk or charcoal. But we can definitely see that he used broad dark painting strokes to establish some parts of the drawing and then laid midtones/local colors of the elements before starting to sculpt them.

*Waterhouse, JW - The Rose Bower (1910)*

“They seem to have no idea of setting a palette and are too much addicted to the use of small brushes.”

— J.W. Waterhouse

FULL PROCESS EXEMPLES

Final notes:
John William Waterhouse process and techniques seems not to be so different from the usual process of this time, as we can easily find similarity with other painters’process such as Lawrence Alma-Tadema, another favorite of mine:

*Lawrence Alma-Tadema - unfinished painting*

Sources and thanks:

The art and life of J.W. Waterhouse, R A, 1849-1917 by Hobson, Anthony, 1920
J.W. Waterhouse by Anthony Hobson, 1989
https://johnwilliamwaterhouse.home.blog/
https://www.muddycolors.com/2018/09/studies-and-unfinished-works/
Ramon Hurtado advices

Velazquez studies by Sargent and Sorolla

April 11, 2023 in Researches

Both Sargent and Sorolla were fascinated by the work of Velazquez, they each did a study of his Legend of Arachne / The spinners. It’s fascinating to see how they both handled the copy differently, I sadly couldn’t find any decent picture of the Sargent study, so please excuse the pixels!