Cat Ghoul by Meg Lyman

1.25″x2.5″ oil on board

SOLD

October has to be my favorite month. Cloudy, blustery, beautiful colors everywhere… and Halloween. Skulls! Graveyards! Haunting! I’ve been doing some skull still life paintings for practice, so I’ll share them with you this month. This one is trying out three new oil colors I ordered and it’s on a teeny tiny piece of Stampbord. I really like the sturdy surface in those small sizes – they come as small as 1″ squared! It’s not necessarily made for oils, but it works quite well. The only thing I noticed is that it was pretty absorbent… but that could also be the new oils I was using.

On the recommendation of a WetCanvas forum, I decided to sample Williamsburg Nickel Yellow, Blockx Green Earth, and Maimeri Bitumen. All three brands were recommended as high quality oil paints. I honestly don’t feel experienced enough to say that I can tell a huge difference in the quality, but I do like that none of them were all stiff like some of the cheap ones are. The Bitumen also has a very weird quality to it… when you squeeze it out, it’s got sort of a thick, sticky core surrounded by thinner, more oily paint. It is reminiscent of tar and delightful to play with.