| Painting wildlife and animals in oils can seem like a very | | | | beginners 1st painting should not be done using oil / |
| daunting prospect for beginners and novice painters, | | | | Alkyd paints. |
| but it needn’t be. When you follow a few simple | | | | |
| rules and procedures. | | | | Wildlife Art Secrets (what I learnt in 10 years) |
| | | | | Wildlife / Animal painting is very popular – lots of |
| Oils the most forgiving medium | | | | people would love to be able to paint their pet, or |
| Beginners often perceive oil painting as a difficult | | | | perhaps they had a special holiday in Africa and would |
| medium, but actually it is one of the most forgiving. | | | | love to paint their memories, but beginners can be |
| Over the years I have used just about everything, but | | | | disappointed with their 1st attempts at capturing |
| always come back to oils. I find Acrylics just dry too | | | | animals. I know I was when I started to paint wildlife |
| fast, and you need many layers to get the coverage | | | | about 10 years ago – I read just about every book |
| of oils. Watercolor is all about timing, put a wet color in | | | | on the subject and watched lots of video footage as |
| to another wet color at the wrong time and you can | | | | well, but they all seemed to have one thing in common |
| have all manner of terrible things happen such as | | | | – they left out the detailed instruction and jumped |
| runbacks, bleeds etc. I have found watercolor to be by | | | | too many steps, it was quite frustrating. So I made a |
| far the most difficult medium to master – particularly | | | | decision, I started my own website so that I could |
| for beginners. Oils on the other hand give me enough | | | | share my experiences with other artists as I learnt |
| time to relax as I think out the next stage and plenty of | | | | new techniques myself – my site was born. |
| time if I want to blend one color in to another, when | | | | |
| creating a nice smooth sky colour for instance. | | | | Over the years I have learnt a many key secrets that |
| | | | | helped to rocket my wildlife paintings from mediocre to |
| The New Oil Paints | | | | professional standard. Such as - always having the |
| Also new developments with oil paint manufacture | | | | under layers of fur and feathers darker so that you |
| means that they can now dry over night – these | | | | have something to lay the detailed fur on top of. How |
| are called Alkyd Oil paints and odorless thinners means | | | | to make a chiseled edge on a round brush, essential |
| that you don’t have to stink the whole house out | | | | for making realistic for marks and many more. |
| with the smell of turps, so there is no reason why a | | | | |