Today I will be working on this small painting of a chocolate Easter rabbit. I have the green background completed and dried so this week I will focus on painting the chocolate.
Before I do anything I like to remove dust and bits of fuzz on both the painting and the palette using a tack cloth. I also cover the painting surface where I will rest my hand with a paper towel to prevent any transfer of oils from my hand to the painting.
Next I'll mix up a tonal bar of values. I start by finding the local color of the chocolate, then the shadow and highlight values. Once I have the correct values and colors, I add a very tiny bit of clove oil to the paint to help slow the rate at which it dries. Since I'm going to be working on this chocolate part for the entire week, I want the these fast drying earth tone pigments to stay wet on the surface for more than day. A little drop of clove oil goes a long way so I'm careful not to add too much. I put the extra paint in small syringes incase I need it in the future.
I start painting the detail in the bit marks, then I'll work my way down over the next few days.
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