Comparison of Oil and Acrylic

A little while ago you might remember I painted a Chipmunk on Ivorine, I decided to list him on eBay although I'm not worried if he doesn't sell as I'm very fond of him.

I've almost got another Tiger ACEO to list, hopefully later tonight.

However I've been working on two small paintings, one in acrylic, one in oil. I want to see which process I enjoy more, and which turns out the best.

Both are 5 x 7 inches, the oil is on canvas board, the acrylic on heavyweight Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper.

With both of them I am trying to paint a mid toned under painting. This was more successful on the acrylic as I put my small brushes away and made a real effort not to paint any detail. The hardest thing I'm finding with painting rather than drawing is 'unlearning' how I work. With a drawing I work with tiny strokes and detail from the first mark, that is not how I want to paint. I want to establish form and build up from there.

This is the acrylic, a Snow Leopard from my own reference photograph.

Remember this is at the ugly stage and I need to do something with the sky it is totally wrong in tone.

The oil is a Cheetah, also from my own reference photograph.

It has a strange glare because the paint was still wet, again this is at the ugly stage.

Hopefully when I post again they will be looking very much better.