The Painting Process of Edgar Payne

"Canyon de Chelly" by Edgar Payne

In Evelyn Payne's addenda to "Compositions in Outdoor Painting," she lays out her father's painting process:

1. The first step in Edgar Payne's method was to select and arrange the elements of the scene he wished to use. When he had decided what the main subject was to be, he then tried out differing compositions. He did not draw many of these when working outdoors sketching, but went through the process mentally. In planning studio paintings he made many pencil sketches, often in the evening, trying out different compositions and planning the next day's painting.
   
   
2. In the field he sometimes used a little cardboard frame to view a part of the scene and to help select and visualize the composition. Either in the field or in the studio, the second step was to draw the scene on canvas with charcoal, sometimes very sketchily, sometimes in some detail, depending on the subject, with indications of darker areas.
   
   
3. The third step was to establish the pattern of darks and lights (values) by painting a wash or stain (often thin red ochre) over the dark or shadowed areas.
   
   
4. Fourth, working all over the canvas, he used thin paint to establish the color scheme.
   
   
5. Fifth, thicker pigment was applied to the dark areas in hues that would be appropriate for the shadowed places. Then applying heavier paint, he gave attention to the solidity of forms, 'modeling.' He worked to some extent from dark to light, as is traditional in oil painting, but also tended to work all over the canvas to maintain the relationships between dark and light, warm and cool, in accordance with the color scheme he had in mind, leaving only the highlights for the last.