A few months ago I treated myself to a new camera and took it to Dudley Zoo to try it out and get some interesting animal shots. The male tiger Joao likes to pose and I got some really good shots of him ready to be made into some artwork.
While on lockdown I thought I would try a different painting medium - oil paints. I haven't done an oil painting for ages as I loose my patience with it as it takes a long time to dry so I tend to use acrylic paint more but I thought as I have plenty of time I would give it a go again!
I took a few photos while I was painting. Here's the very first layer, I just like to cover the whole canvas with thinned down paint and just establish as much of the image as I can very loosely.
A few layers in and I'm just trying to establish a bit more detail but also I like to get a palette knife out and scrape the paint off again so you can see some of the other layers. I can't help it with oil paint I love scraping at it and the interesting marks the palette knife makes.
The finished painting. I've darkened down the background and added a bit more detail but still tried to keep the expressiveness of the marks of the paint.
In the end I could only really manage painting this tiger in small 10 minute chunks so I'm very pleased with how it came out. Will have to try another oil painting soon too!
Clare xx
