Posted on Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Painting A Cat In ArtRage Featuring Rémy The Gargoyle

Here I am once again painting a cat study in ArtRage. AND – once again – it’s a bare naked Sphynx cat. But this is no ordinary hairless kitty. Nope. This is Rémy the Gargoyle who is gaining fame due to his gorgeous eyes, adorable little elf ears and curious view of life on Instagram.

How Painting A Cat In All His Naked Glory Can Make You A Better Artist

My parents hate it when I paint naked cats as they find them to be “ugly”. That’s their opinion. A lot of artists like Jennifer Gennari love painting Sphynx cats because they are so challenging. If you’re an artist and want to improve your skills, these

Posted on Sunday, July 22, 2018

Tips For Painting Silver Objects – Tutorial

In today’s article, I’ll be going over 9+ tips and tricks for painting silver objects. When I took up painting again a little over a year ago, I found myself wanting to paint reflective surfaces for some unknown reason.

Painting silver objects or shiny things can seem very daunting at first, but when you break the reflections down into

Posted on Sunday, July 1, 2018

3 Things I Have Learned Copying Master Paintings

Artists have been copying master paintings for centuries and for good reason – there is so much that can be learned! More than 25 years ago, I participated in a “Copycat” show at The Burkholder Project in Lincoln, NE where I shared a studio for awhile with several artists. As a successful working artist, Anne Burkholder has always been an inspiration for me and I loved being a part of her world.

The painting I chose to copy was “Breakfast In Bed” by Mary Stevenson Cassatt, 25″x 29″ oil on canvas painted in 1897. The title card above shows photos I took of the original painting which resides at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA. I loved this painting

Posted on Saturday, June 9, 2018

Painting A Cat In Oil Featuring Prescott, A Gorgeous Maine Coon

Painting a cat in oil can be a lot of fun. Today I will show you my 9-step process for painting this beautiful cat. You may have seen him featured in a previous post on painting cats, but I thought he deserved his own post since I found some of his progress shots.

I do both traditional and digital painting tutorials featuring pets, people and still life so feel free to

Posted on Sunday, May 27, 2018

7 Portrait Painting Tips From The #30faces30days Challenge

I thought I’d share some portrait painting tips since finishing the #30faces30days challenge. The challenge was fast and furious and I didn’t get as many progress pics as I wanted, but I did get a few. Most of what I’ll be reviewing are paintings I did on the iPad, but regardless of whether you paint traditionally or digitally, you will still find these tips helpful.

For the first day of the challenge, I have many more progress shots. As you’ll see, the challenge got very challenging right off the bat. How I thought things would go in my head became vastly different from the reality

Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2018

How I Paint On The iPad – A Step-By-Step Portrait in ArtRage

Today I will show you how I paint on the iPad, creating a step-by-step portrait in ArtRage. This program is an inexpensive drawing and painting app for the iPad that allows you to create realistic oil paintings that feels intuitive and natural. Plus, it’s a blast to play with.

The final painting was inspired by a photo I found on the Sktchy app. Sktchy is a great resource for artists looking for

Posted on Saturday, May 12, 2018

The Final Portrait Challenge Paintings

The portrait challenge paintings are finished! Some of the paintings I love and a couple I don’t like at all. One was a huge experiment with a new medium that became a bit of a nightmare. Overall, I think the challenge was a success and I learned a lot, which was the whole point for me.

Sktchy #30faces30days challenge – Final 10

If you missed my first two posts about the #30faces30days challenge, you can find the first one here and the second one here.

The days will be out-of-order as I split the last twenty paintings into

Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2018

The #30Faces30Days Challenge – Drawings & Oil Pastels

Welcome to the second installment of the Sktchy App #30faces30days challenge – the drawing & oil pastels edition! I wanted to try a variety of techniques during the challenge, which I realized later made the challenge more challenging. Live and learn. If you missed the last post featuring some of the first paintings, you can find that here. The days will be out of sequence because I wanted to keep all of the drawings in this post.

Day 2 – AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

The inspiration image for day two was very appropriate as I began to realize how time intensive this challenge was going to be. I felt like I was already behind with the first day image since I had intended it to be a drawing but

Posted on Saturday, March 31, 2018

30 Faces 30 Days Portrait Painting Challenge

I have no idea why I signed up for the Sktchy #30faces30days portrait painting challenge. Well, I sort of know. I had been working on a formal portrait and felt like I was painting too “tight”. The best way for me to loosen up is to paint fast – really fast. The only problem is that I’m a super slowpoke painter.

9 of the paintings from the 30 faces 30 days portrait painting challenge.

I’ve completed fourteen of the thirty faces in the painting challenge so far. For this article I’ll only be reviewing nine of the paintings. I’ll review other works in future posts. You can find the original photos at the bottom of this post.

Day 1 Of The Portrait Painting Challenge

The first day was definitely a challenge for me. I’ve never painted a partially shaved head before or a Mohawk. After I signed up for the Sktchy painting challenge, the deal was that they’d send a photo every morning to paint. When I opened the email for this one I

Posted on Sunday, March 18, 2018

How To Paint A Sphynx Cat In Oil Step-By-Step

I don’t know what it is about a hairless Sphynx cat that I find so fascinating, but I’ve always wanted to paint one. At first I thought they were so ugly they were cute, but now I only see how beautiful and interesting they are.

Below is my portrait of “Harry” the hairless Sphynx cat which technically is still unfinished, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever finish it. If I do, there will be an update to this post in the future!

How To Paint A Sphynx cat in oil – "Harry" by Shelley Hanna

Sphynx cat “Harry” near completion

My Approach To Painting Harry, The Hairless Sphynx Cat

I took photos and a few videos while painting this portrait thinking I would put together a “how to” guide like I did for my painting of Chewy, but it was a lot of work and not many

Shelley Hanna Fine Art

Oil & digital painting tutorials with a traditional approach

Painting A Cat In ArtRage Featuring Rémy The Gargoyle

How Painting A Cat In All His Naked Glory Can Make You A Better Artist

Tips For Painting Silver Objects – Tutorial

3 Things I Have Learned Copying Master Paintings

Painting A Cat In Oil Featuring Prescott, A Gorgeous Maine Coon

7 Portrait Painting Tips From The #30faces30days Challenge

How I Paint On The iPad – A Step-By-Step Portrait in ArtRage

The Final Portrait Challenge Paintings

The #30Faces30Days Challenge – Drawings & Oil Pastels

Day 2 – AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

30 Faces 30 Days Portrait Painting Challenge

Day 1 Of The Portrait Painting Challenge

How To Paint A Sphynx Cat In Oil Step-By-Step

My Approach To Painting Harry, The Hairless Sphynx Cat