This video was created especially for us by my daughter, Jessie Rasche. She’s an award-winning oil painter, and it was so kind of her to make this video for us. Even though her painting of the snow monkey is on canvas, the fur-painting technique she shows us could also be used on our paper mache sculptures.
Watch how she uses warm and cool colors under the fur to give a feeling of shadows and to make the painting more lively.
Jessie calls this painting “Daydream.” You can find Jessie’s oil paintings at http://jessiesfineart.com/
You can get a good view of how her technique looks on the finished painting with the still images on this page.
Jessie is using oil paints, which don’t dry immediately like acrylics do. That gives her a chance to do more blending and softening of edges. There’s no reason why we couldn’t paint paper mache with oils, too, but I’ve never tried it. If you have, I’d love to see how your sculptures turned out.
We saw this snow monkey at the Sioux Falls zoo a few weeks ago. Mamma monkey was watching over two youngsters who were playing rather complicated games with sticks in the pond. Then one of them came up to the window separating us from the monkey’s area, and he sat just on the other side of the glass from my grandson. They played a game, matching each other’s movements as they slid their hands against the window. (Inter-speicies communication, at its finest. 🙂
My grandson, who goes by the name CreeperHost online, helped to edit Jessie’s video. And nicely done, I’d say. Thanks, Jessie – and thanks to your technical assistant, too!
Jessie, Thank you so much. Maybe if I painted using my left hand I might have better success! You made a good number of points. Because I am used to watercoloring, it was interesting to see you go from dark to light. I need to practice some of that. Also, your suggestions not to put fur everywhere — as one can see from your stunning painting — works well. Wonderful.
Thank you, Jessie! You are so talented. I was mesmerized watching you paint.
Thank you Maria!
Thanks Jessie for taking the time to do this tutorial for us. Your snow monkey painting is just beautiful and I love your style of painting. The fur painting was educational and you make it look so easy! We all know better though.
I struggle with painting fur on a sculpture though and am curious to how you would respond to my questions. Do you paint the shadows on a sculpture like you see on the photo or whatever reference you are using? Or do you paint the fur on the sculpture with the various layers and then let the natural light make the shadows?
Thanks again and thanks to your sidekick as well.
Thank you Eileen! That’s a great question… I might try an experiment!
Thank you, Jessie! Your demonstration of fur painting is very helpful. I have always struggled with how to create a furry look. I have seen demonstrations with every hair detailed but that’s way too time consuming for me. I found it very helpful how you demonstrated the dark undercolors and light on top. I also loved your choice of brushes! Using the 1 inch on its narrow side as well as the larger brush to give a fur look. I have never had any painting lessons so watching your technique was perfect. Very helpful video. Thank you.
Thank you so much for the nice comment, Kathleen! I’m so glad you found the video helpful! Are there any other painting topics that you’d like to see covered?
Happy Painting!
I was really looking forward to watching your video Jessie before I start to paint my horse sculpture….particularly the mane. Shadows first, highlights last … I think I’m ready now…thank you for sharing your technique. You have done a beautiful job on this painting. I’ll be using acrylic on my paper mache piece since it’s so absorbent and they dry faster than oil. But that can be a detriment too. I love the blending power of oils and just might do a trial run … not on this piece … by combining acrylic (first) with an overlay of oil to get that soft blend.
Since you asked about painting topics … painting various flesh tones would be sooo helpful. Again, thank you Jessie
Thanks so much, Sharon! I hope the technique is helpful for your project. It sounds lovely. I’ll give the flesh tones idea some thought, thank you!
Absolutely beautiful !
Thank you so much, Daisy!!
Thank you Daisy!