I use Gesso like has been recommended. One coat, dry a day, light sanding, second coat opposite direction, dry a day, light sanding. I still end up with the white showing through, even after two coats in some places. I try to paint in the same direction and not just slop it on. It's not a particular company or paint, it's every time. I know it's user error, but what am I doing wrong? Any advice?
I'm not happy with the skin tone blending, her face definitely needs more work, but I think I'm getting better at it. This one has been very fiddliy because of the perfume bottles, they took so long to do.
So I ordered a custom that has a girl in a gingham dress. The way I gasped when I realized what I'd done was probably heard by my neighbors 😂
How I finished the weekend vs. how I started it.
Not the best lighting, I took the picture at night. It's more vibrant in natural light. My progress and what the finished should look like.
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Tarot Card Reading - Cheerfulpainting.com 24 colors
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This is the first I've done from this company. The paints are good, easy to work with and the numbers are clear. The lines aren't dark, they're tan and the numbers are red, much easier on my eyes and to paint over. Good shipping time, good selection of pictures. They don't really have number of colors or size choices. Comes with a flow aid type I haven't seen before. It's tinted white, so it makes the paints both creamier and more opaque at the same time. I really like it and bought a couple of back up bottles already. I'm glad I like the kit, I took a chance and bought 5 because I couldn't make up my mind and they were on sale.
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It came together better than I expected it to. Not perfect by any means, but I enjoyed every minute. It's definitely a stand back several feet piece. At least the subject is recognizable lol. I'm just not good at blending. But I have another one in progress that I'm using as blending practice and it seems to be going okay.
Has anyone else had issues with them?
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I'm currently waiting on some eyeliner brushes to be delivered, so I paused the small parts of my current painting. I started going through my stash and doing small testing areas on the canvases.
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I bought a custom from DIY Art Club a few months ago. When I first got it I pulled it out and made sure it was the correct picture, but no more than that. I just did a spot test and I'm really disappointed. The canvas feels like plastic, it's frayed at the edges and the colors are WAY, WAY off. It's supposed to be a woman blowing a dandelion. The reference postcard they sent looks exactly like I intended. The actual painting is horrible. Instead of the shown flesh color of her arms and face, everything is blue and green. It's so off color I can't believe it. It's way outside the return window, so I'm stuck with a completely unusable picture.
I'm not the smoothest painter, any texture flaws are mine, at this point I just consider it my "style", 😂.These are the nicest paints I've worked with, I don't think I've used any flow aid. I keep it sectioned off, I just pulled back the paper to show the progress. This has been really fun.
Candlelit Wonderland Path 48 color by Paintly.
I had to put this one aside for about a month. I should have realized how it was going to be when I ordered a 36 color and 4 of the pots are the dark green. It also has other greens that are just a shade or two different. I still have to go back over it, too. 🫠
I pulled it back out last night and did the red. I'm going to finish the middle, then tackle the touch ups. I will never buy one with a solid background again. It just sucked the joy out of it. It's for my niece, so there's no just not finishing it and calling it lesson learned.
I usually pick big, complicated projects because apparently I have to go big or go home. It's the same with any kind of project I do, jump in the deep end feet first.
This one is just a small 20x20 24 color from Paintly. I am throughly enjoying it. I'm going number by number, not section by section, I haven't done that in a while.The paints have been great, I haven't had to use flow aid yet. This is 3 hours of work, numbers 1-7. It looks a lot more vibrant in person, I took this at night under artificial light. I'm going to look at more of their 20x20s. This makes for a nice palette cleanser between big projects.
I also usually paint people, I just don't find flowers challenging, but I fell in love with the kittens, one is a Tuxedo just like my little gremlin.
I just went through two difficult surgeries and I'm so emotionally down right now. So even though I have a backlog of PBNs that's getting out of hand, I splurged and bought a 120 color from paintly. I enjoyed the smaller ones I did from them, actually have two more arriving tomorrow. It was 55% off and I adore the subject (Alice in Wonderland). I can't wait for it to get here! I know it's going to be hard, but I feel like really challenging myself right now.
Thank you to everyone that encouraged me to keep going with this one. Even with my blurry, impressionistic style, I think it's looking okay. Definitely less overwhelming now.
My last 3 PBN were done as gifts, so I was very picky with them as far as blending, keeping the lines really straight, things like that. I also see so many on here that even when you zoom in on the picture you can barely see brush strokes, they look so well done.
When I'm painting just for myself, streaks, going outside the lines, and other things that make it look nearly perfect just don't matter. I want it to look nice, not really sloppy, but I go more for the 'close enough' kind of impressionistic style. As long as it looks close to the reference photo, I'm happy with it. Trying for perfection just stresses me out and I do this to relax and shut off my brain for a bit.
Is that weird? Even on my more expensive canvases I go for close enough. Is there anyone else on here that does it that way, too?
I know I've seen PBN either on here or on a site that uses red/maroon numbers and lines, but I just can't find it. Does anyone know which company it is? Thanks
I know it's streaky, but I plan to go back over it if I decide to finish it. Right now I'm having trouble envisioning the finished product. It does look close to the reference photo, especially from a distance. Maybe it's because I didn't section it off and I'm jumping around the canvas. I may have to just section it off from this point so I can concentrate on a little at a time.
My stepdad is a very religious man. He's helped me out a lot lately and I saw this and just had to paint it for him as a surprise thank you. I'm giving it to him tomorrow.
It came out better than I expected, I've never painted a person and there is so much yellow, I was apprehensive about it. It's also my first 40 color canvas, I usually stay with 24.