My “Guardian” has a leather bag, probably to keep some coins, so I took the opportunity to try my brand new “Leather and Wood” oils. I started with an acrylic base coat and I just sketched the main lights and shadows, then I picked some oil colours and tried to blend them directly onto the acrylic base coat. I though the process would have been more difficult, but I discovered it’s actually rather easy and also a lot of fun. It’s really easy now to get smooth transitions! On the pictures you can see the final result: overall I think it’s ok. Of course this is just the beginning and I have to refine my technique, but I think this is a good start.

I discovered that the key element is to use very small amounts of colour and put it on the figure with a tiny brush, then you use a soft and bigger (typically flat) brush to smooth the colour. If you want to paint thin details, you have to dilute a bit the brush as the colour must flow easily. Using the latter technique I have bee able to paint some detail and the scratches.

As I got a bit more confidence with this media and I enjoyed a lot creating easily the shades, I decided to retouch the face and arms of my Guardian. Typically, after completing the face, I am really afraid to change anything as a small mistake can frustate hours of work, but oils, with their long drying times, do let you change anything if you make mistakes.

The “Flesh Colour Set” from Abteilung 502 provides a nice set of colours for different flesh shades (six overall), so I picked the darkest shadow, the pinky tone and the highest light just to retouch the shadows and lights on the Guardian’s face. For example, for the shadows, I applied a small quantity of dark colour in the darkest region, then I transitioned the color to the lightest shade.

Overall, I like a lot the final result. I think that even very small quantities of oil colours have the capability to make much more uniform the acrylic painted surface, actually blending the acrylic layers.