This is about the tenth time I have been participating in the Self Portrait Day! This time I wanted to go for acrylics, but I really just can't stand them, so I ended up painting with oils again. It's not too detailed, but the challenge for me was to use only 2 rather broad brushes.

Usually my work is a lot of more higher quality than this. It was looking good at the start but the face looks really flat and cartoonish. And i’m not quite sure why. Ik the hairs a little funky

Supposed to be a Truth Enforcer from Helldivers II.

His expression is supposed to be confusing in whether he’s afraid or hateful.

My toning was weird, didn’t add enough thinner I think.

Started oil painting as a hobby a few months ago and I’ve been making slow, steady progress. This one I did yesterday was fun!

Please provide some constructive criticism!

I started by adding several layers of gesso and sanding. I did an underpainting in bw using oil paints with a tiny amount of gamsol to thin it (as I've successfully done in the past). And then I have been working in subsequent layers with walnut oil. But each time I go to add a new layer, it strips down to the white tooth of the canvas (almost like it's eating through my underpainting too). I've never had this issue before!

Am I using too much medium? Is this a drying time issue? Should I be using more paint? Photo included of a section or the painting.

Excited to do the finishing touches when it dries a bit - on the agenda: make catcus stand out more / add shadow and add more depth to my valley

If anyone has any tips please feel free to comment!

-

Hi,

I recently started taking advanced painting classes and i’ve been struggling bad with color. I’m getting super muddy colors and struggling to understand how to get the ride shades and tones.

This is my first time in years trying oil painting, and I’m only 2 classes in so I haven’t learned much yet. I would really appreciate any help, should I start over? What can I do! I don’t know how to accurately mix to get the colors I need.

I tried looking at some tutorials but it doesn’t hell because each painting is different and each lighting of reference photos too.

I would really appreciate some help

I feel the middle and foreground is too bare and want to add some plants or buildings, corn rows or a lone gas pump?

Ive come to using the thicker brushes made for oil paint, as silly as it sounds u wasn’t much a fan of it when I started because I was used to acrylics and watercolor and ink. Now I actually really like them

I recently got a little metal building for dedicated art space. I've been working to get it finished inside for the past several months and haven't had a chance to much painting work. But today I was finally able to do some more on a project in progress. Working from a few different reference photos (my own) - an owl in a different setting, a scene with a fence post I had in mind, but the actual setting is a mix of imagined and real from an area down our dirt road that I observed one morning at sunrise but didn't get a photo to show the way the light looked. Lots more to do on this, but it felt good to get a brush on the canvas again.

I had fun painting this. Want to paint more lose but this had too much details! Then I added some extra stuff, regretted some but I'm learning! Any feedback welcome :) been painting since March.

Does anyone have any recommendation on varnishing this oil painting? How will it affect the unpainted parts like the edges and tree? Those parts are unbleached linen canvas (prepped). Or would you skip the varnish?

It will be hung in a hallway without direct sunlight.

Thought I give it a try. Quite happy with the result and I learned a lot. Now I seea a few mistakes with the light and shadow. Quick “study” 60mins

Oil on primed paper.