The thirty-fourth skull!
Skull 34
I really enjoyed painting this one, though I think I spent a little more time on it than I really had wanted… which means I’m worried about getting behind again!!!
I’ve noticed that I really have been enjoying using relatively “large” flat, soft brushes. I can use the thin flat edge to make pretty fine lines, I can brush back and forth with varying pressure to make thicker or thinner areas, and the softness allows me to blend if I choose (but the flat edge also allows me to not blend if I don’t want to!). I’m also surprised what I can get away with even though I’m using a large brush. I think I might have been able to do the entire painting with the one larger brush that I use for most of it (you can see in the video) if I had been very careful with certain areas and using the brush very carefully.
I’ve also been having fun with a *little* bit of color-mixing that I wouldn’t normally do, just to see what shows up. I worry a little less about mixing color on canvas because one of the nice things about using oils alla-prima (wet-on-wet, all at once, rather than waiting until each layer is dry) is that you can immediately cover colors or mix colors. Sure, too much mixing causes muddy colors and a gross canvas, but there’s a surprising amount of leeway that oils gives you that I’m not sure is available with other mediums (well, some certainly allow even more!). In any case, I’m enjoying the freedom and it’s becoming even more relaxing to paint since I can worry less about mistakes. (“Happy mistakes” maybe? Oh Bob Ross, you’re right about that one haha 🙂 )
Video
Music: “daemones” by Kai Engel is licensed under a Attribution License.
Spooky Film: Today’s spooky film of the day is “The Birds” 😉