Here is the last painting in this little mini series of owl paintings. I was given these little owl planters for my birthday this year and immediately knew I would paint them. Since I hadn’t been painting regularly, you can (or at least I can) clearly see a progression in the work. This orange painting looks the best in my opinion even though I struggled with muddy paint and obnoxiously shaky hands. The green one isn’t bad, and the blue one looks more like an Ewok than an owl if I’m being perfectly honest.

 

So far, I’ve only done three quick alla prima paintings on these aluminum panels. My goal was to remove some of the paint to achieve a metallic highlight and the paint needs to be wet to easily wipe off the paint with a rubber nib. Removing the paint at the end is probably my favorite part. It’s so quick and the results look really good.

Before starting to paint on bare metal, it’s important to clean the surface with isopropyl alcohol to remove any fingerprints. I didn’t do this with my first painting and haven’t noticed any issues with it yet, but I think it will be fine. This step is more vital for acrylic paint users.

I did the sketch with a hog hair brush and unless you’re going for a very streaky look, I wouldn’t recommend this type of brush for this. It almost removed just as much paint as it put down. Once I switched to synthetic brushes the going was a bit easier, provided I still loaded up my brush.

 

 

As a whole I like painting on aluminum but there are a few drawbacks. The surface is slightly difficult to work on. Unless you have a fair amount of paint on your brush, you’re just as likely to remove paint as apply it. An added difficulty for me is working on a mid tone surface. I’m used to working on a white canvas so I’m struggling a little with getting my first block in tones accurate.

Also, the reflective surface can be moderately distracting in and of itself until it’s covered. It’s more than just a mid tone. It reflects all the colors in the immediate vicinity as well as the lighting. So one part is flesh tone from my hand’s reflection, another part green from my apron, and another part is super white from the window light. I keep finding myself moving around to get a better angle to see my painting. Especially in the rougher sketch and block-ins, paint can be thin and difficult to see.

The goes is easier once the panel has a layer of paint. The paint you put on top of the first layer sticks better and is a little less likely to be wiped off with later brush strokes.

 

 

The video above shows a time-lapse of most of this most recent painting. It isn’t the best recording for several reasons. I knocked over my phone at one point, the angle is funky, the camera keeps moving, and the video ends early because I got a phone call and decided to call it quits on recording because I didn’t think it was turning out. Recording while painting is way harder than it looks. I will work on upping my videography game. I promise. The video does give good insight into how much of an ugly duckling this painting was right up until the end. It also illustrates how the paint can be somewhat thin looking if you don’t have enough paint on your brush and how it can easily wipe off as well with too many brush strokes.