Over the summer I slowly chipped away at this oil painting of my friend’s late cat Monday – slowly chipped away looked like 3 painting sessions with long gaps in-between. After this and the other cat portrait I completed earlier this summer, I’m finding the process looks something like:
Session 1: drawing, transfer to panel, get down first layer of paint (Very Important: do not judge how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ it is at this point. It’s gonna look messy. Faith in the process and all that. At times I do actually feel that faith in the process and at such times can enjoy the messy weird-ness more. But it’s hard to stay in that mind set! Practice, practice, practice.)
Session 2: Refinement, add detail. This takes a similar length of time to the first round of painting.
Session 3: the last details, like whiskers, the glint in the eyes, and little additions or touch-ups. With this and the last painting, this session didn’t take long.
That’s only the process for two oil paintings, but that’s more oil paintings in the last 6 months than the last 5+ years! I plan to keep practicing oils, and I’m curious how the process with continue to evolve as I do.
