I love the look of paintings over bare wood and found the cutest little 3x3" panel. At the same time, I needed an excuse to do a painting focused on some Schmincke Liquid Earth paints my family bought me: liquid chalk, liquid umber, and liquid sanguine. I picked a cute squirrel pic and began to play. This little guy is the result:
The panel is about 1/2" high cradleboard. I primed it with Golden GAC 100 as a base, did a loose pencil sketch, and then began painting. I supplemented the liquid earth paints with some Prima watercolors and added some colored pencil to finish before sealing the painting with Krylon Satin acrylic sealer.
The liquid earth paints have the feel of gouache, reactivate easily, and lift easily from the wood base. I’m not sure if that lift is a feature of the paint or of using cradleboard as a base.
A note on the painting title: in summer squirrels splay themselves out on the ground to cool down and it’s called splooting. This little guy is a splooting champion!
so much detail in such a little piece! I love watching it come to life.
And as far as splooting goes, I had a dog that used to do that too, never knew the technical term we always said she was cooling her undercarriage
I agree with @AIMR I thought the Disney eyes looked realistic and good, but when I see adjustments I’m simply floored! The new eyes do look more realistic! Great execution! I love seeing you grow with your art.
@TheMistressT - thank you! “Nemesis species” made me laugh. I’m picturing squirrels plotting to storm your home from their evil lair below the nearest tree.
@photojenn - thank you! Your suggestions were a huge help. I extended the right cheek area and brought that shoulder up a bit.
@MamaRhi - thank you! Your suggestion to blur the body a little was super helpful!
He’s adorable! All the layers of color give him such depth.
@TheMistressT - I love them, but little red squirrels are tiny backyard terrors around here, too. They harass all the other animals so much, we started calling them all ‘Damone,’ like from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Because they’re ‘little pr*cks.’
@tendstowardschaos - thank you! And thank you for the suggestion on his eyes being too forward facing. That made a world of difference! Also, Damone is hysterical. The brown squirrels in our neighborhood are largely fat and lazy. They just steal all the bird seed in the bird feeders.
@Bunny1kenobi - thank you! Scandalous is the perfect word for how splooting sounds. Makes me want to clutch my metaphorical pearls and say “oh, my!”
They have invaded our detached garage/woodshop attic! And our woodshed. They also stole 136 of 150 LED bulbs off of our string lights. If that building wasn’t just several feet from a million acres of National Forest, I might be more accepting of sharing the space. But so much natural habitat is right_there!
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