The Pussy Willow Pin!

Finally! An oil portrait of my cat! But not just any portrait. It's a wearable one!

The tiny canvas is a pin and damn, is it hard to paint details with! Aren't I smart for choosing a subject matter than requires detail?

Here's the model herself! It's amazing how difficult cats are to paint. They have such subtle shapes that give them each character. God knows painting the mouth almost killed me.

I don't think I gave Pussy Willow justice with this pin. It's mostly looks like her, but only mostly. The main point of this pin is so that I don't feel totally separated from her. That's one of the hardest parts about leaving.

Carmel Dove Chocolate®

Viola! A portrait of my favorite camping chocolate!

Whenever I stay with Kelsey, we bring Dove® chocolates and Arbor Mist® wine. It's a tradition her family started and has become the preferred delicacies whilst watching outdoor concerts.

As of late, caramel has become my favorite and I wanted something to use my new metallic gold oil paints on. I even "borrowed" gold leaf from Megan (I definitely disregarded the instructions).

Originally, I was aiming for a realistic representation. I soon realized that the metallic paint doesn't allow that. If it does, I have no idea how. So at the end, I scrapped that original plan and went a little trigger happy with gold and red.

I've come to like the outcome, even if there were many moments where I wanted to take a knife to it.

Getting down and dirty

I made a new tag!

Today is a good day. Something that I was dreading for a long long time is taken care of! The weather is also nice. So I thought, "Bitch, git yo ass to work on that canvas."

Tadaaa! It has improved, methinks.

I'm working on adding in all the small creases in the foil. The best approach seems to be to just make a bunch of messy little strokes all over the place. We'll see how this technique turns out.

I'm undecided about the background. I was toying with the idea of a light pattern, but that might be too distracting. I want the chocolate to be the center of attention! I did add some burgundy on the bottom right. It's decadent and dramatic. Though I keep thinking it's from the hell fires below. That's kinda scary.

Here's a picture of my little kitty. She is a good painting companion.

Chocolately Goodness!!

A still-life of a caramel Dove Chocolate™.

I had been wanting to do something like this ever since I saw an oil painting of a Reese Peanut Butter Cup™ that had used a lot of gold. Therefore, I bought 3 tubes of expensive metallic oil paint. No regrets!

But as Megan pointed out, the artist probably used gold leaf -- which she then lent to me!

Metallic oil paint is quite challenging. You need to lay it on thick, but then it easily clumps to the sides if you stroke the canvas too much. It also looks pretty bad when mixed with non metallic paints.

While working on this, I had thought I was finally mastering the paint and creating a some-what 3D effect for the wrapper. But as I look at it now...oh god. I need to (try) to fix everything!

The little fella working as my model

Considering, I think I have made a little progress in my pursuit for oil paint mastery (it's a long and painful road). This was all painted in about an hour. Quite an improvement compared to my portrait. Also, I am using brushes made out of REAL hair! The difference in quality is amazing. Something the old frugal me wouldn't understand.