Oil, Synthetic Exercises, and Click Bait

Picture taken from Roman's post on Massive Voodoo regarding the use of oil paints for miniatures.
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2011/07/tutorial-miniature-painting-with-oil.html

This is only kind of a click bait. If you want to guarantee that I try oil paints, then this is how they should be presented: in a nice, lovely row with lots of pretty colors. ;)

This post is really a ramble about my plan to use oil in the future, both on canvas and on miniatures. Following the talk on oil paints is a nice little WIP segment about a little exercise I am giving myself.

So, let's talk oil paints. I realize how cliché it must sound to speak about how much Bob Ross influenced my creativity as a child. Growing up in the 90s, I had access to three channels. PBS, soap operas, and fuzzy soft-core pornography. Contrary to what some may think, I spent all of my time watching.............fuzzy....PBS. It wasn't really fuzzy. Totally clear. Anywho. I recently started watching his videos again on YouTube (there are several for free on the Bob Ross channel) and I was reminded of just how much he influenced me into the artist I am today. I really appreciate his approach to painting and how he handles "mistakes." If you gals and guys get some time, definitely check him out.

Art from gckatz on DeviantArt.
http://gckatz.deviantart.com/art/Model-Painting-with-Bob-Ross-402862480
 

Now, on to my WIP. I recently picked up some Raphael Kaerell synthetic brushes (sizes 2 and 3) to play around with in hopes of finding a basecoat and metallic brush. I really, really don't like using my Games and Gears brushes for a lot of the heavy stuff.

Long story short, they are working out very well. If they manage to keep their tip for a decent length of time, I think I may end up using them regularly. I decided to give myself an exercise that proved interesting, to say the least. It was definitely a struggle.

 I am currently working on the Avatar of Sokar (sculpted by Tim Prow, if I recall correctly. I'll have to go look at the blister pack later.) using only a Raphael Kaerell size 3 synthetic brush and a really, really junked up size 4 (used to apply Vallejo Liquid Gold paints). I'm really impressed with how the brush is holding up. It's been interesting trying to figure out how to manipulate the paint with a synthetic brush in hopes of achieving what I can do with a sable-hair brush. I totally failed. The synthetic is doing awesome work, but I just cannot get the same transitions and blends that I can with my sable. It's coming along though.

The following pictures are a WIP, taken over the course of a few hours of work. These aren't in any special order. Just chronological. Just click to enlarge.

Happy Painting!

-Matte