Speckled wood

[naturelover]

Originally Posted by tots1968

Hiya, thank you for the kind comments. Smudging the painting is something I am really scared of doing. I looked at some varnish and it said on it to leave for 6 months before applying it, but one of my friends had a painting done for me which arrived varnished but was a lot less than 6 months old. The spray varnish seems a good idea because it would be rotten if it ended up with big thick brush strokes on from painting it on but I would be scared of getting big runny bits of the spray varnish (previous experience of spraying a wardrobe has left me scarred as there are still big discoloured streaks all down it!!!!!!!) I like the idea of the matt varnish, I guess it depends what they have got in hobby craft, also I think the only spray cans there were for acrylic paints, does that matter? If I did have to use paint on varnish , how do you avoid brush strokes? Its all a scary new world to me and I am learning as I go along. Thank you to everyone for saying such nice things, it was because of encouragement from people on this site that I had a bash at doing the painting in oils as originally I was going to use acrylics, I must admit although I found the oils harder to use the finish is nicer and it has given me the confidence to try more oil paintings.

hi if you lay the painting flat you will not get run marks,and spray back and forth sideways across the painting going over the edges, just dont stop in one place or you will get a buildup of varnish and it will show,this is how i have always done it,also i did it in my shed so that i didnt spray every thing else as well.

[stirling]

Originally Posted by tots1968

Hi Mike,
was just looking at the lovely robin picture and realised you did it!!!! It is brilliant. When you are using oils do use use artist quality or student quality and does it make that much difference?

Hi Amanda,thanks for taking a look at the painting.I used the student oils,think the only difference was in the price!
Best from mike.

[tots1968]

Originally Posted by stirling

Hi Amanda,thanks for taking a look at the painting.I used the student oils,think the only difference was in the price!
Best from mike.

Thanks Mike, I 'll stick with student oils then. Your picture of the swan is so amazing, I would love to put that on the wall. Have you considered doing prints of your work? Also, I am guessing you used water colours for it, can you imagine how that would look in oils? On your birds - the robin on the tyre is brilliant too, how do you get the feathering effect and also on the swan painting how do you get the white splashing water and also the white on the swan to be different shades of white? I never seem to be able to get the difference between gleaming white and normal white/ not quite white, even when using titanium white or trying to mix it with tiny bits of other colours. I have only just taken up painting as a hobby really and am trying to learn as I am going along.

[stirling]

Originally Posted by tots1968

Thanks Mike, I 'll stick with student oils then. Your picture of the swan is so amazing, I would love to put that on the wall. Have you considered doing prints of your work? Also, I am guessing you used water colours for it, can you imagine how that would look in oils? On your birds - the robin on the tyre is brilliant too, how do you get the feathering effect and also on the swan painting how do you get the white splashing water and also the white on the swan to be different shades of white? I never seem to be able to get the difference between gleaming white and normal white/ not quite white, even when using titanium white or trying to mix it with tiny bits of other colours. I have only just taken up painting as a hobby really and am trying to learn as I am going along.

Really hard to explain techniques without actually showing you Amanda.
One tip is to keep the painting not to light,then the pure white highlights really stand out.
The feathers take patience and a very small brush!
Hope this helps you a bit Amanda,takes a lot of trial and error,very frustrating i know but please keep at it.
Best from mike.

[tots1968]

Thanks Mike, I will try the light tip on the next painting I do. It makes sense as to why I had difficulty doing the whitest bits of the flowers as I had already put about twenty tonnes of white on which had blended with the pink and also darkening up the background helped make the flowers stand up more. It is hard to tell from the photograph as it really hasn't come out very well due to the resizing thing, it looks kind of pixellated (is that a real word?!). Re feathers I have got 0000 brush which I love I used it on the 'veins' and ridges on the butterflies wings. It is the patience I have difficulty with but I really enjoy painting, I wish I had discovered it years ago, it puts you in a whole different world while you are doing it and so nice to 'capture' the things you see. It helps you see things in so much more detail. I look forward to seeing more of your work

[juliejam]

Very nice painting..the speckled wood has been my most common butterfly this summer..

Julie

[morpheus]

tots1968 (Mrs Morpheus) has asked me to post a better picture of the speckled wood painting, so here it is, I think it's much clearer and more vivid now.

regards

morpheus

[stirling]

Much better photo morpheus,painting looks 100% better.
Best from mike.

[tots1968]

Originally Posted by stirling

Much better photo morpheus,painting looks 100% better.
Best from mike.

Thanks Mike, I have also touched up the dark pink flowers as they had cracked a little but I am pleased, all things happen for a reason and now they look more vibrant. I also took your tip and added a little more dark green to the background to make the foreground stand out
Kindest regards
Amanda
ps love the tiger, you are the bees knees of painters

[stirling]

Thought it looked a bit different Amanda,it as really improved the painting.
Look forward to your next project.
Best from mike.