Metal Monkey Wrench Painting

Who knew such a simple object could hold the interest of an oil painter, but it did. This seemingly simple monkey wrench came my way and was placed in my queue of “tools to paint”. It didn’t have my usual requisites in an object of artistic merit. Those being an old tool that combined an elegant combination of warn wood and tarnished metal. Well, it contained the first and last requirements at least.

With no wood to render in my painting, I was almost nervous that the painting would turn out boring. Could it be boring to look at and boring to paint? That could have been terrible. As soon as I did my initial drawing I started to realize that this wrench did indeed make for an interesting composition. The many subtle recesses inside the handle and near the wrench’s clamps gave off some interesting value changes. Not to mention the rather intricate arrangement of teeth that lined the inside of the tool and helped with its ability to open and close.

I tried many arrangements when setting up the wrench on the nail so that it hung from the wall in all its glory. Sometimes I opened the clamp wider, sometimes narrower along with different orientations altogether. I’m quite happy with the final wrench painting. I think I captured the old metal well and have presented the tool with great accuracy. The accuracy was only possible through my careful and painstaking process of creating a pencil drawing first and then basing the painting off of that original drawing.