Mochi Oil Paint Painting Portrait Her First Year With Us

Hello, how are you? Years ago, I told my uncle, who is an artist and who paints for a living, how freaking cool it is that I wanted to try another medium other than watercolor, and he asked me what medium that was. I told him oil paints, and to my surprise, he gave me some of his oil paints for me to practice with.

After receiving the gift, I instantly used it, and mind you, I don’t have any idea that painting using it in a closed window makes you dizzy LOL, as I remember I painted Starry Night as my first oil paint and the moment I finished the painting, I felt like my whole world was spinning around me LOL. Just kidding, but just so harsh on the nose that it threw me off for years.

I was supposed to use acrylic paint, but for some reason, the shades I needed got completely dried out from me not using, so I decided to just use oil paints because my uncle gave me all the cool and warm tones I needed to paint for everything.

So yeah, this month our dog Mochi’s first year of existence, I think on the 11th of this month, and I saw the one I displayed of a portrait of her when she was still small, and as I was painting this one, she really did get bigger and got more cuter LOL.

I drew the basic shapes of her facial features, and then after that, I added details to it.

After that, I place it on the mini Easel that I made earlier for this specific canvas panel, and then I prepare all the shades of oil paints I am going to use.

Before I started to paint the portrait, I toned up the canvas as I remember I use burn sienna with a lot of turpentine to thin it off and brush those mixture into the canvas

After that, I wipe off the excess paint from the canvas, and now I have tone up canvas.

In oil painting, it should start with the darkest shades first until the final highlights, and I find it weird at first, but as you get used to it, it's okay, hehe.

After that, I proceed to the mid-tones shades, and I just keep layering the paint.

For this part, I added faint lighter shades just to layer that part.

Adding the background color in the middle of the painting process helps me a lot to see what needs to be fixed or to layer more. I decided to use cool shades like crimson for the background because Mochi does fit with pink colors.

And I layer that crimson with a little bit of titanium white just to make it look pastel and opaque.

After that, I just do the same process I did earlier simultaneously until all of it comes together. And I finish it with my signature, which is so hard to do because of how soft the brush is. LOL

I hope this dries fast before Mochi’s birthday, so I can give it to my mom as a gift because she saw the portrait I painted that is displayed on my desk.

Thank you for visiting, see you on my next blog. :D
Please take care of your mental health as well.
I hope you are okay today :))