Golden Retriever Oil Painting

I have been working on creating a few different paintings of different dog breeds. I can then use the paintings for marketing or selling prints or whatever! This one is of a Golden Retriever!

Pepper Oil Painting

This oil painting is of Pepper, the very silly and energetic cat. I was hoping to catch that bit that energy he has in the painting.

Sam Oil Painting

This painting was a quick one that I just wanted to do!

Scout Oil Painting

This is a painting I did as a gift for my great aunt who recently lost her dog Scout. When one of my dogs was younger and I was in college she really helped me out by watching my dog for my senior year so I could focus on school. So I owed her for sure. Scout was a pleasure to paint and really will be missed.

This video shows pretty well my process of painting in oil. Start big work to small!

Mila & Zula Oil Painting

I couldn’t wait to post this painting as it was one of my favorites to paint this past holiday season! Mila and Zula are two quite rambunctious labs oozing with personality! This oil painting was really fun due to the size, there was so much space to work with.

One thing I love to do is ask about the pet I am painting and learning about the quriks special to them. I love it when long descriptions like this are sent!

“These two are ball hogs....it doesn't matter where we are, even if its the most remote area, Zula will find a ball.  She's a freak.  And she just keeps dropping it in front of you to throw or kick for her.  Even if you kick it 2 inches, she will grab it and run for a bit like it was the greatest 2 inches of her life, and then drop it again for another throw or kick.  Mila is naughty...she jumps the fence into the neighbors yard any chance she can get.  She poops in their yard and then jumps back into our yard.  What a little turkey.  They both sleep with us on our bed.  Sometime my husband will go downstairs and sleep on the couch instead of kicking them off.  Mila loves to pull on Zula's collar.  She pulls on them while we are hiking and ultimately she will pull it off and we lose it.  The collar seen above on Zula is MIA now...somewhere in the Run A Muck.   ”

Originally I was planning a snowy background scene, but after speaking to the customer we decided to go with a more earthy/dirty background! You can see this change in the painting.

Oil Vs. Acrylic Paint

Oils or Acrylics? The ever looming question for painters, I have gotten the question many times about which I prefer. And for me there really isn’t a straight forward answer, as there are benefits to both.

Some of these are painted in Oils, some are painted in Acrylics. Can you tell which are which?

Acrylics

Acrylic paint was first introduced in the 1950s and are made from pigment in an acrylic polymer emulsion (plastic). They can be thinned with water and the paint dries fast. Acrylic paint can be mixed with various “mediums” such as gels, to create different effects.

Oil

Oil paint is what the old master’s used. The paint is pigment suspended in an oil, which makes it non-water soluble. A solvent is required to dilute or clean up paint. Paint is often thick and buttery (due to the oil) and dries very slowly. Depending on the thickness, it can take days for a painting in oil to dry.

So which do I prefer?

There are lots of things to consider, such as ease of use, clean up, speed of drying, color of dried paint and price. Acrylics dry fast, which is nice when something needs a quick turn-around, as I can work quicker with it. They are also easier to clean up as it just takes water to clean brushes. Oils dry slow, which can be a benefit or a hindrance, they also require solvents to clean brushes. These need special and careful handling. Acrylic paint dries a bit darker than it goes on the canvas, this is known as color shift. Oil paint dries pretty much how you apply it to the canvas. Acrylic paint is usually a bit cheaper than oil paint, which can also be a factor.

When painting one of the most important aspects to me is how the paint feels when coming off the brush. I like thick, buttery, smooth. These are the qualities of oil paint. However, I use heavy body acrylic paint, which does a really good job of getting that same quality in acrylic paint. I can usually make them look quite similar in my painting style. If I absolutely had to choose one I would choose oil, only based on the fact that I like how genuinely buttery it feels when going on the canvas! 

Acrylic

Oil

Did you guess correctly? 

Adapted American Gothic Painting

I was asked to do a painting of some friends for a commissioned birthday gift. He had asked for him and his wife's heads in the place of the classic American Gothic painting by Grant Wood. This was a really fun one to paint as it had been awhile since I had painted people. Getting the likeness correct is always the hardest part! 

American Gothic by Grant Wood

My version, Please forgive the photo was a bit skewed and not that great!