Oil Painting: Master painting animal skin and tonal understanding

1. Part 0 Introduction: Hello, and thank you so much for joining me today. I'll get straight into it. We'll be working on doing the skin of an animal, specifically a rhino. That's not to say that your work has to be a rhino. I've just chosen a subject to help you develop your own skills in doing skin on an animal. And elephants, a great example as well. And in particular, we're working with gray scale today. Although you might say, yes, rhinos, elephants, they are gray scale. What's the difference there, gray animals. But actually there's a lot you can choose from using these techniques. Also, it's very key to note that these animals aren't actually just gray scale. There's many tones and different depths in their skin that can really be brought out with the use of a full range of color by focusing on gray scale, there's real advantages to understanding the light and shade of a skin. The contrast that building depth and building all those lovely details that makes this animal feel really tactile. Your paintings are really going to spring to life. And I promised by the end of this class, you'll feel like you've improved and learn a lot. 2. Part 1 Sketching out your subject and key areas to shade: What I'm working on here is sketching out the animal. As you can see, I've sketched out the main outline. The specific areas such as the is the whole real characteristics that without these, it wouldn't be a rhino. You're gonna do the same for your subject. Then we're gonna go to the next level using your pencil lightly defining specific areas of light and shade. In particular, these are really helpful when you're putting down your lightest shades, your whites. You can pinpoint these areas. And then when you're doing other colors, you can make sure that you don't bleed into these areas. Go over the light areas again later on in the process. But it's helpful if your base is also as pure as it can be and then your highlights really are highlights. The saying goes for the darkest areas. You want to make sure that these outlined in pencil. And then it will really help your eye to note how these colors at a very basic form, if you added did colors by numbers when you're younger, which is taking that to the next level. 3. Part 2 Paint Selection: So we're keeping it really easy and simple today, you'll be using two colors. The first being a titanium white, which speaks for itself, and the second is a Payne's gray. This is a lovely black. It's not too harsh. It's a little bit more realistic to what you're getting in real life. And it has some beautiful blue undertones in it, which is reminiscent of how you'd have the blue in nature. 4. Part 3 Start with white highlights: First we're going to focus on all the highlights. These are really key. I like to start with them just to make sure when the page is fresh and clean, you can really get there in these clean highlights without being affected by the paint around it, which could dilute the strength of these highlights. 5. Part 4 Next add the darkest points: The next step is to add all the darkest points. So this is using your Payne's gray in its pure form, undiluted and blended with any titanium white. Just filling in the darkest areas or your deepest areas of shadow. Here it's underneath the horn on the skin. It's going to be those deep folds within the skin. Any areas which you want to think about where the light's not getting too. You'll notice that I'm paying some attention to where I place these dark points, but not too much. I'm going to leave room to blend later to blend out these dark spaces using a slightly lighter value. And also knowing that the wetter paint will blend and I want to have room to move the darkest points later. The key about your darkest value is that it's very powerful. When you move it. It's going to overtake any other color that's around it because it's a really strong pigment. On the other hand, your lightest colors, your titanium white, your lightest values. They aren't that strong and they will be overtaken by everything around it. That's why we like to paint them first. It just means that they're gonna be unaffected by anything else on the page around. Because it going onto clean paper. Always make sure that when you're doing this, your brush has been nicely cleaned. I like to use a white spirit. I find it's very effective way of cleaning my brushes. 6. Part 5 Adding shade and adjusting your stoke for effect: Now we can start to look at adding some of those different values in-between your darkest and lightest. We can achieve this by blending the values together on the palate. So the value that I'm using now is about 80 per cent of the Payne's gray and then about 20 per cent of the white. You can change these to make it lighter or darker. It's all dependent on your ratios and depending how much you think you're going to use of that value, you can blend a little or a lot onto your paper. That way. E.g. if you think you're going to do a lot of the 50 per cent of both the white and the titanium, then you can make a large amount of that and you can go back to it later on. You can pick from at anytime. But note that actually is quite organic if you just blend as you go. I remember you might have days between when you're painting and it's always best to paint with fresh paint even if it doesn't dry out fully. It's just a lot smoother to work with. So I only like to put as much as I think I'm going to need in a session onto the paper. 7. Part 6 A few tips, tricks and reassurance to make the most of this class: I've speeded up many of the recordings so that this video hasn't ended up as hours and hours of painting. This is going to help you see transform, but they'll feel free just to pause the video, rewind, go back. If there's a function to start down on a computer, you can always do this as well to take the speed down. These paintings have done over many days as wonderful to come back to. And even if you just do half an hour a day, It's lovely to see the improvement. I recommend taking your photo each day and you'll see how it comes to life, especially as we get to layering later on. Just enjoy the process. And also remember, it's great if you can actually step away for three days or more or just even one, There's a allows the paint to dry. And this is really, really key in building up your layers. If you try and apply over wet paint, will blend it. At worst, the paper crinkle and become oversaturated. You want to allow the paint to dry. And that way you can bring on the next layers. You can really build up, punch those highlights, those deep contrasts that we talked about, and also start to build up that texture in the skin. We'll get to all of this later. Be, It's actually really good to step away for a few days so that when you come back, you've got fresh eyes, a fresh perspective. You might see a little thing that you don't think it's working. The great thing is that you can just go over that, play with it, have fun, and just don't feel like things have to be perfect straight off, you'll have your own unique, amazing style. And that's the brilliant thing about a being an individual and b being an artist. So take this class, enjoy. And you know what? If yours doesn't look like mine at the end? That's actually brilliant. You're learning all the principles and you're practicing and developing and finding your own way of doing things and your own style. 8. Part 7 Adapt your brush use to the surface you’re painting: As well as adjusting the amount of paint that you blend together and finding the value that you need at this moment. The other thing to do when you're painting is to really adapt your style. I cannot emphasize this enough. So when I'm doing the horn is quite rough. It's quite rustic, it's very organic, It's quite hard. The surface has been dragged through, my God, it's used in battle against other rhinos or to fend off predators. So this horn pins are a lot and you kinda wanna get that rugged into your painting. So I like to paint quite hardly when I'm doing the horn. I'd like to be not too smoothing out of my pain. It just mashes together, but I never blend it completely into a smooth form because it's got that roughness to it. In the places where I do blend a bit more. That's because I'm actually blending the lighter parts. Which parts of the horn that orange shade. This is why you'll get that smooth shadow that's smooth blend of the pain. Take a look, just have a look where your hand is resting now. You've all your paint or nearby. Underneath your hand you'll have a shadow. You'll notice how that smoothly goes from dark to light. And that's what you're trying to recreate on the page. Then, on the other hand, when you're doing those points where it's got depth in the horn, it's caused by another sort of change in the surface or change in the elevation of the horn and the texture of that bone. That is when you're going to be a bit rougher, you're not really going to worry about smoothing the pain and in what body in a different technique. So much can be achieved by just adapting your style, adapting the way you paint. You can try holding the paintbrush at different heights, using different paint brushes, using the different amount of paint that you apply it onto your paint brush at once. If you have a smaller amount and you'll notice that it tends to pick up the paint around it as well. This is when you are blending. If I really want to blend, I sometimes just take the paintbrush, I take a bit of paper towel, kitchen towel, and wipe the excess paint off the brush or almost all of it. And that can help me blend. The paint brush will naturally pick up the colors that are next to each other and you're trying to blend in the middle. If you use a lot of paint, you'll notice you start to get a bit more rougher textures. You'll leave a bit of excess on the page. And that's when you start to get those unblinded forms, that more rugged effect. So I got so enthusiastic about it because there's just endless possibilities of what you can create by just adapting your style, adapting the speed, amount of paint, colors, how much you blend. It. Possibilities are endless, so please just have fun with it. Now is a great chance to get another piece of paper and just try different ways of doing things. Even the angle you hold your brush can achieve such a different effect. In these up-close shots, you'll notice where I've applied more pain. It's bit rougher, it's been roar. And then when I'm applying different values, I'm not blending. I'm actually focusing on not blending on creating that kind of rugged effect between the paint's, whether it gives an emphasis of raw feeling. A little bit more rugged, which is a great word for it. Then underneath the home where we had that shadow as we discussed, thus, the smooth part of the pain. 9. Part 8 Allow some of the paint to dry : Then go over the blackest parts to increase the contrast a: The paint is dried over a few days. So I can now go over and apply light tones, dark tones, the different allowing some of the paint to dry is actually a really key part of the process. This allows you to go over the darkest parts, to go over the lightest parts, those highlights. And really add into the depth and the texture of what you're painting, in this case the horn. So you'll also notice that I'm using the different techniques here. I'm using quite quick strokes. There's also a sort of patching stroke as well. I'm just going over those dry parts and I'm not focusing on blending the paint because I'm focusing on adding that texture, that ruggedness that we're looking for in this particular part of the subject. You'll notice underneath where there's the shadow and the light. That's why they're smoother textures that we talked about earlier in the video. That's why I've blended the paint more, but where I'm trying to add those key components whose key different highlights of different values, whether it'd be dark, midtone light, or anywhere in between. I'm using different techniques of patching a quick stroke, not blending the paint. 10. Part 9 Go over the white areas to add highlights: When going over the lighter areas, make sure you fully clean the brush. Use that widespread and really clean the brush after cleaning, wipe it on some paper towel, dry it off, make sure that there's no leftover residue of any colors coming off. And then you can pick up that white paint a little bit generous with how much you put on a paintbrush so that you are really adding in some pure highlights, you really getting that to pop off the page. That's why that light is hitting those surfaces at its highest point. 11. Part 10 Moving onto the skin! Start with the lightest whitest areas: Next, moving on to the skin. So again, we're starting with those lightest and whitest areas. That's those highlights that we use the pencil to mark out with. And then also just observing where the light's hitting most as well. Use a combination. It depends on how much you want to use the pencil to define these areas at the beginning and how much you just want to use your eyesight. Look at the photo, pick up those points where you can't actually overdo it. Because if you do go too far outside, you can just breach those mid tones back into the space. And once the paint is dry, you can always go over these areas again as well. So you're just wanting to use those highlights while the page is clean, while they're not going to be interrupted by any other pigments. Something just to note at this point is that you'll notice that my palette is actually a piece of paper. So this is just your standard A4 paper. And you'll notice that some of the oil in the oil paint is bleaching out into the paper. This isn't a bad thing and actually it's really helpful for when you are then painting on artists paper. Painting on artists paper is great. It's very accessible. When I do all my professional paintings, I use Canvas, but when you're just starting out, then it actually brilliant to use paper because it's a lot less expensive and it really encourages to, to experiment, to get another piece, to not worry about this sort of costs that might be associated with using Canvas. But honestly, I really encourage you to get onto Canvas as well. Once you're feeling a little bit more confident, you'll notice the OR techniques changes while and you'll achieve even more. 12. Part 11 Paint the darkest areas next: The next natural step is where you move on to those darkest and deepest areas. That's those areas where light is not reaching weather because it's underneath it's under the chin, It's where light isn't reaching or it's not reaching because it's those deep folds in the skin. You're really observing the texture of the skin and how it folds, how it creates those creases. And the way you're going to achieve those folds is by using your darkest tones, is by using your lightest tones, those values that you're making, highest points pop off the page and you're making the deepest points fall away. And that plays with your eye, that builds up that feeling of falls, a feeling of waves and depth. When you're using the titanium white and the Payne's gray, kinda blocking out the areas as we said before. And then it's the same with the mid tone. You're blocking out those big pieces of areas. We can focus on blending them later, on layering them later, adding more detail as it all comes together. And as the layers build up, the first layer, you really want to almost paint as if you're painting in blocks. You're just defining those broad areas where you're getting different values. 13. Part 12 Once the highlights and deepest shadows are marked : next add in mid tones: When you're using the titanium white and the Payne's gray, kinda blocking out the areas as we said before. And then it's the same with the mid tone. You're blocking out those big pieces of areas. We can focus on blending them later, on layering them later, adding more detail as it all comes together. And as the layers buildup, the first layer you really want to almost paint as if you're painting in blocks. You're just defining those broad areas where you're getting different values. Recommend allowing the paint to dry. Having a day or so between when you're doing sessions and you want to paint over something, as this allows you to build up the paint better. There's a technique called wet on wet and don't like the result sets achieve from this and it can actually cause the paper to weep, absorbing too much oil, perhaps even crinkle. And you might get to a point where the paint saturate and then you can't put any more on anyway. So I recommend giving it time to dry between sessions when you're painting over the same part of the painting. 14. Part 13 Whilst adding in the mid tones: remember to try different brushstroke, speed and thickness: Focused on adding in the mid tones between where you've got the light and the dark. So on the palate to the side of you, you can mix together some different levels of light and dark. So the mid gray, you might have a slightly lighter gray, a darker gray, and anything in-between. And this just allows you to quickly pick up the end of the spectrum that you would want or just mixed between those altogether. I like to just keep going to make a mess as it were. Now, remember what we talked about earlier. So try different brush strokes, different speeds, different types of brush, you'll achieve very different effects from using a flat head brush to a more pointed brush. Brushes come in different sizes as well. You don't need money. I tend to use three, up to five brushes per painting, but you can use more. I just wouldn't really recommend using less than three, as it really does help you to get a different effect. You can either blend the tones as you go or you can place all of your grades. You can see that here I've placed a lot of that mid gray. And now I'm going to work on creating the best tone that I want to meet in the middle of between the darkest and those mid tones that I've placed down. So you can see I've created a darker gray and that's going to help me blend together the dark points and the lighter grays, these mid grays that I've got there. As I keep going, I'm going to pick up some more black to blend that and maybe pick up that mid tone gray to blend into the dark parts and just create that spectrum, that smooth flow between its different to the horn where the whole moving a bit more aggressive, a bit more rugged with our brush strokes and not blending as much to achieve that ragged effect with the skin. There are some areas that are a bit smoother and we'll come on to the wrinkles later. But you're really walking on a slightly smoother texture in order to have that range. That way you can emphasize the dips and the rises, those folds you have in the skin. 15. Part 14 Continue to blend across the whole tonal spectrum: You can also move on to other parts of the painting. So blending across the whole tonal spectrum, we were just focusing on the darker side of the spectrum. We can also focus on the lighter side, e.g. the top of the nostrils is gonna be having the light hit it where that flap comes over the top of the nostrils. So we'll work with some whites, some lighter grays to start blending that area and just noticing as well, actually. So the bottom part of the nostril, we blend it. We started taking that dark as part within the nostrils, blending it out into the mid grays, those darker grays as well. Whereas the top of the Nostoi, you've got more of a shadow form and there's more of a line now rather than the skin actually connecting. So you want to highlight above the nostril and not necessarily blend those mid and light to graze with that dark gray within the nostril because that skin is not connecting. So just pay attention to where your lines are. The simple way to think of it as the skin connecting. Do you want it to be smooth? Is it blending into each other? Or is there more of a harsh line? Is the flap of the skin coming over? Is it behind or in front of e.g. where there might be an ear or leg that's on a different level to the rest of what you're painting. And now here I can walk on blending those highlights. There's lightest parts with some lighter grays, the higher, lighter end of the spectrum. But I might want to blend the highlights too much. I might want to pop a bit, but don't worry if they blend, It's actually a good thing to do at this stage. But bear in mind that you'll want to go back when the paint is dried to really make those places pop just to put that highlight back in. And that really helps your painting to lift itself off the page. 16. Part 15 The area around the eye: Now I'm moving on to the area around the eye. This again like the nose is going to have a lot of wrinkles and creases and lots of lines to help myself. I'm now drawing over any pencil lines I may have done at the beginning of the sketch. Or I'm using my perception to pick out where those dark areas are, those shadows whose creases and folds. And this isn't going to help me later to define wiring. Going to have the lightest parts and the darkest parts, because I'm going to take the lightest part, then put in the darkest parts, and then reach all the tones and values and blend them in the middle. This is a really useful way of just defining where everything is in your painting. And I find it's a lot easier to do all those lightest parts than all those darkest parts at once and then blend between just because it helps you see overall how your pictures looking. If you did things fold by fold or line-by-line, however you want to define those areas of light and dark. You might end up that sometimes the dark parts would feel too far away. It's not looking realistic to your reference image. So here you can see nice and close up that I'm blending in between those darkest points and the lighter points. You'll see that I'm actually painting over some of those light areas that I put in with a titanium white. But that always good because I've just given myself that base coat with a titanium white and I can always add in those highlights later. But e.g. there's an area above the eye that I haven't paid it over in this med light gray that I have on my brush at the moment. And that's just particularly an area that I want to leave brightest. I've identified that as a brightest spot in the painting. Maybe not the brightest overall, but it's certainly one that I want to keep on the lightest end of the spectrum. So really I'm just filling in all those areas where the tone that I'm happy with, it's quite a light gray. And then I'll move on to the next stages and add in some slightly darker grays. Blend a little too those dark points in the folds. But maybe I'll also leave some smooth parts and some harsh part. If you've left a painting for a few days, even a week or more. And the paint is really dry and areas you're thinking, Oh no, I've just left it. There's going to be quite a harsh line. Don't worry, because you can see here that I'm painting a little bit over areas that have dried before. And then the paints are naturally going to pick up on what's underneath it and you're going to start to get a smooth blend. 17. Part 16 A note about undersides: You can see here yet again and you'll probably get bored of me saying it, but I'm just using those tablets, those values all the way through the spectrum and picking out what I want. So in this case, it's a mid gray, slightly on the lighter end to help blend that lighter gray that I've got down smoothly towards the more shadowy part that you're gonna get at the underside of the neck here. 18. Part 17 Larger surface areas: So you can see here yet again, and you'll probably get a border we saying it, but I'm just using those tablets, those values all the way through the spectrum and picking out what I want. So in this case, it's a mid gray, slightly on the lighter end to help blend that lighter gray that I've got down smoothly towards the more shadowy part that you're going to get at the underside of the neck here. 19. Part 18 Ears: Now I know you're all interested. I'm going to show you some techniques on the ears. So this is a lot more feathering. You've got that kind of fine hair and the ears, which I know ours don't have any well, not any that are really visible. But if you think about an animal's, is think about a cat or a dog. It is, you've all seen these animals and they have that fluffiness to their ears. And rhinos are the same as are a lot of animals. They have these fine hairs and that's to stop dust getting in their ears, particularly for animals that dwell in the Sahara. And there'll be other reasons as well. So actually have a look into what animal you are painting. Just make sure that you know, and I find it quite fascinating to find out these little facts then go, why does the animal have that adaption? Rhinos, e.g. why do they have a more gray scale skin? Why did ever had these hairs? Why do they even have eyelashes? And just so you know, that's actually also to keep the sand out of their eyes and to help stop fly is going in them as well. So I'm just being a lot lighter, a lot brisker, a little bit more. Hold my brush little bit more delicately. Move it a bit more quickly, almost flicking across a paid quick fix flips across the page to get that sort of hairy texture going around the back of the ear. You can be a bit more smooth going in doing those lights and darks. I've actually started with the mid tones and then picking up the dark later on, which is fine to do that way too. Although it's not what I recommend and it's not what I've taught you so far. It's just in this particular incidents, I didn't actually know exactly where my darks we're going to be and knew that there weren't going to be so much blending with them, they're gonna be more pronounced. So actually, being able to do the grays earth was really helpful. And then I could just mark the blacks, the darkest areas where I wanted without fear of that blending and interrupting when I was doing my grace. 20. Part 19 Allow the paint to dry : Then exaggerate the highlights: Okay, so now I know you're super excited because this is what I've talked about the whole time I've been teaching you this lovely course and I hope your paintings humming along really well. So this is the going back over once your paint is dried, really picking out those highlights. So you're aiming not really to blend, you're just making that page pop. Picking out these lightest points as if they come towards you that really exaggerated of the page. And then the same for your darks. 21. Part 20 Go over the darkest parts : thus exaggerating the contrasts: Now, I hope you already know that it's going to be the same field dark is part C. You're going over again with that Payne's gray, a pure Payne's gray. And you're highlighting those darkest areas. Maybe put up a few flicks of wrinkles. Maybe put in just a few lines here and there that kind of giving you that feeling of the skin. 22. Part 21 The eye: Now they often say that the eye is the window into the soul. And you'll see that I've not actually done that much in it so far. That's because I really liked to go back at it at the end. So I give it a nice paint on my paintbrush. And although it's only a small area, I can use that clump to create a kind of raised part in the eye. And I find that really helpful to make it pop, to make it a little bit more different. And again, as we've talked about, different techniques, different temperatures for different areas, this has helped giving an eye at different feeling to the rest of the painting at different identifiable technique allowed it to dry for a few days and then go over with your lightest areas again, your highlights. And I like to put a little glint in the eye so I'll make sure I keep some light areas there. Now, sadly, it's time to end. I really hope you've enjoyed this course. If you have any questions, please do drop me a message. I'd also absolutely love to see what you've come up with, what you have done as a product of all you're amazing, hard work. I hope you've learned a lot. And if you can share what you've been working on, absolutely love to see it. It would just bring me so much joy and keep going. Take a picture of what you've done because I hope that you continue to practice and you'll be amazed at what you achieve over time, purely through practicing. Keep enjoying painting. Don't be judgmental on your work because I know it's really easy to be judgmental in your work, but please don't just enjoy the process and be super, super proud of what you've achieved because painting is hard and it does take time to learn. So just keep going, enjoy and frame your picture with pride. I'll see you next time, or maybe in the comments.