while i have enjoyed digital painting for over a decade now, i have only recently begun my journey with oil paints! i decided that i needed more fundamental skills, and i have generally preferred traditional art over digital since experiencing burnout a few years ago. the supplies have been quite an investment on my limited disability budget, but i'm enjoying myself very much! it feels like i should've been doing this all along. this is a page for me to log my learning process and works in progress.

My First Painting

i guess that's a bit disingenuous of a title considering my digital background, but it's still a first! i set up a still life with a rainbow high doll and a little porcelain cat my grandma gave me when we cleaned out their house on a backdrop of one of my shirts with my multicolor lightbulb set to blue for more dramatic light and jumped right in.

in the middle of the first layer! i think i was about to quit here and then realized i should get everything covered on the first pass

first pass all done! and extra shiny lol. this stage is always really charming to me i love her blobby little face and i felt like i did well with the colors

well now this one is a little scary isnt she. she really came alive in this one and not in a good way! i was focusing on adding contrast and details in this layer

i have skipped a layer of updates bc i was playing with my cat during the time the last shown layer was drying and she knocked over the still life :/ so i had to reconstruct it and it was a frustrating paint session of redoing her hair and trying to make sure my shadows mostly matched and i forgot the photo. onto this one, i do like the new hair on the left side a lot better! this is when i got the gamblin 1980 paints and added brighter blues and better purples

more refining away... i think this is when i decided her nose was not good and redid it because i was thinking of it too much as a nose and not the shapes of color that it needs to be. or maybe that was the next one.

i got a little carried away blending and highlighting in some spots here lol and my paint was a little too lean for this stage but its ok. i decided to call it with the next layer (maybe 2) so next its time to go back and add contrast again. but im much happier with the background now, i feel like its really come together!

oooh shes so close to done now. i have a few little tweaks and some details i need to put over fixes i did this time but then i think thatll be all! yayyy <:) i like her!!