Thanks so much! I hope they like the video too, even though it took a lot longer than I expected to put together haha

Hi Madison, great question! I didn't for this portrait, but it's a great practice to get into. I find that a chromatic black brings more life and artistry to a portrait, but can make true-to-life portraits from photos more challenging because there's more to think about as you're working on values. One workaround I've learned to use recently is to mix my blacks for the blocking-in process, which means all the resulting greys have more depth, and then go in to the deepest shadows with a lamp black afterwards so I get the greatest range of lights and darks.

Omg I LOVE his name haha The biggest challenge with getting that shadow right is going to be more about value than colour. The deepest part of Simon's shadow here is a bit darker than 50% grey. You could use a chromatic grey (mix your own from blue, red, and yellow), but I'd start off with grey from a tube. It's way easier to learn to paint values with a consistent colour to come back to. If you want to get really good at painting Mr. Davy Crockcat, here's a great exercise you can do: paint him from a photo and only use yellow ochre and white. Having yellow be your darkest pigment will compress your value scale and make you much better at seeing what you need to paint. Then your next painting in normal colours will be really good ;)

Wonderful! Pastel shares a lot of qualities with oil, I wish you every success!

Thanks Anne :) Glad you think so!

Aww thanks Breanna ^_^

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks Astrid! I was using a mix of mineral spirits and linseed oil, but mostly mineral spirits. I find mineral spirits make the sketch easier to go over in subsequent layers :)

What brand of oil paint are you using? Thanks

Thanks! Glad to hear ^_^

For sure! My favourite brushes for whiskers are short filberts or brights. Brights work better for thick, long whiskers because they hold more paint in the tip. With brights you can make a longer line all in one go, but they're not as precise as the rounded tip of the filbert. As for the make, I usually use pretty cheap brushes for my fine lines haha. If you're looking for the right effect, look for something that is stiff enough to offer some resistance when you bend the bristles in your hand, but still soft and consistent (rather than wiry). I hope that helps!

Awesome! Have you started your painting? I'd love to see if you've posted it somewhere.

No problem! Whiskers can be a beast, especially on cats. They're so long. Glad it helped :)

Thanks Deb! I hope your painting of Gus goes beautifully. He sounds like a treasure <3

Hey! I finally did a video that has a lot of wrinkles in it. If you're still interested in learning to paint them, skip to the part around 21:50 in this one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rLLmF0IFeXo.htmlsi=B2_Ql6PRrH35XLKl

Awesome! I'd love to hear how it goes :)

I have, and to be honest I never got the hang of it either! I imagine the idea with a wisp brush is that the 3 (or 5 or however many) chunks of bristle somehow make it faster to paint a bunch of little hairs. But it just hasn't worked that way for me. Making a bunch of little hairs in the last step of a painting is already pretty fast, and having a special brush for it just made me look at the details too early. IMO it's better to use a big brush for as long as possible, and then just add a few hairs here and there with whatever little brush you have on hand :)

Congratulations!! I hope it does :)

It is oil! To get that washy look, I use a lot of medium. The thinnest and best for a washy effect is mineral spirits, but I like to mix in some heavier oil like linseed or poppyseed to keep the fumes down and make give it some gloss.

Thanks Marc!

I'm so glad to hear! It's a really hard shape to wrap your head around haha

Totally. I mix in that really thick medium to act like a resin, and an oil-mixable resin would do the same thing. The goal is to really embed the ashes in something that will both preserve and protect, and the more the better. Acrylic painters have more options but there are still lots of good solid goops for us oil painters!

Thanks Astrid ^_^

Thank you! I do have a couple videos where I go through the colours and paints I'm using in portraits, or talking in depth about how to achieve different effects. Here's a few videos that might help! Painting a white dog: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mXgascfwDPE.html Fur Tutorial: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CTmTE1XjRPA.html How to paint a cat (full tutorial, long fur): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dgaHSjOaMsw.html

I've got a couple tutorials up now on similar pieces! Anything you're looking for in particular? You could try this one for a 20 minute walkthrough: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PE8kPsAykOY.html

Hey Christine, if you mix the ash into the acrylic so it's coated on all sides, the paint itself should form a solid encasement. Acrylics dry to a kind of plastic sheet, so you're basically embedding the ash within that layer. To help with adhesion, you can sift the ash first to take out big chunks so its finer, and easier for the paint to absorb. Lastly, if you do find that when the painting is finished you have exposed ash (maybe you added some on top, for example), you can absolutely add a sealer, gloss, or varnish!

Thank you! I'm glad to hear ^_^

Thanks Astrid! So glad you like them ^_^ For the medium, yes that's about it! I go from about half and half to up to 3/4 mineral spirits. In the beginning I find using more mineral spirits is better, and toward the end I might mix in more oil to give it a better finish, but when I'm doing a painting start-to-finish like this I usually use the same ratio the whole time.

Thanks Elaine! It's just practise, really :p I've painted a LOT of portraits but when I'm trying something outside my comfort zone the confidence can be a little hard to find haha

Thanks Ann Marie!